Anarchy, William Morris and St Kilda.

 

St Kilda

The five islands called (St Kilda), were eventually abandoned in August 1930 when the last 36 inhabitants were evacuated to Morvern on the Scottish mainland at their own request. Four years earlier (1926), four men had died from influenza and in January 1930, a young woman called Mary Gillies, died of appendicitis. There had also been a series of crop failures in the 1920s. The islanders cultivated barley and potatoes.

The islands problems stem from depopulation through emigration, natural disasters and contact with tourists and visiting ships, who brought disease. The tourists tended to see the islanders as curiosities. The inhabitants lived mainly on sea birds and their eggs but also had sheep. Although the inhabitants of St Kilda had boats, the seas around St Kilda were said to be far too treacherous for fishing. It must have been hard a life on St Kilda but it's said the islands were inhabited for 2000 years. The inhabitants must have all been related genetically.

Their way of life and the society that they lived in, would have fascinated a social anthropologist like Margaret Mead. There's no such thing as government, lawyers, crime, money, employers, a police force, or social classes. But the islanders did have rules and codes of behaviour. Although fines could be issued for misdemeanours, there is no recorded case of a serious crime occurring on St Kilda in four centuries. The islanders had a daily 'parliament' that was held after prayers, in the street every morning and which was attended by all adult males. By all accounts these meetings could be boisterous but they never led to discord and social division. No one led the meeting and all men had the right to speak. This meeting decided the day's activities.

Although the islands were historically owned by the MacLeod's of Harris, who's steward collected rents in kind, once a year, there's really no private property as such, but there was personal property - possessions. It's not a competitive society but a society based on mutual aid, reciprocity, and co-operation. This is a kind of anarchist society that we're told is impossible to construct because it doesn't accord with human nature.

In 1667, a man called Martin Martin, described a vibrant community and noted that:

"The inhabitants of St Kilda, are much happier than the generality of mankind, as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty, simplicity and mutual love and cordial friendship, free from solicitous cares, and anxious covetousness, and the consequences that attend them."

William Morris, wrote about an idealised non-governmental socialistic society in his novel called 'News from Nowhere’, published in serial form in the journal 'Commonweal' in 1890. In the novel, a character called Old Hammond, tells the narrator of the story William Guest, that they've turned the House of Commons into place for storing dung. I couldn't think of a more appropriate use for that building.