Shattered Utopias: Private Property vs Common Ownership in Hippy Communities
The promise of an Age of Aquarius. A new society where the concept of private property was to be scrapped, and where the common ownership of goods represented the guiding idea for creating a more equitable and unified society. This was one of the cornerstone principles underpinning hippy communities, groups of individuals who, between the 1960s and 1970s, sought to reinvent society and liberate it from the constraints of a capitalism perceived as oppressive.The abolition of private property—so went the idea—would eliminate greed, injustice, and inequality. Everything owned by an individual would be shared with the group, creating a community…