Page 12 RAIN September/October 1985 Family, Community, and Economy: A Conversation with Griscom Morgan Interview by Steven Ames The Morgan famil]/ of Yellow Springs, Ohio, must surely represent a unique kind ofAmerican dynasty—not one of corporate wealth or political power, but of intellectual gift and social purpose. Their collective work represents a lineage of thought that is indigenously American, one with roots in the most fundamental J^ersonian ideals. IfArthur Morgan, father, is the American who has best given expression to the idea ofcommunity, then perhaps Griscom Morgan, son, is the American who has best embodied that ideal in his lifelong work. Along with his wife Jane and the staffof Community Service Inc., the younger Morgan has spent the last four decades inspiring and assisting the cause of community. Implicit in Griscom Morgan's analysis ofour society is an understanding ofboth the deep strength of basic American principles and the sheerfolly ofour societal excesses. Undoubtedly, since World War II he has observed successive waves of change in American society—the rapid disintegration ofsmall towns and communities, the rise ofsuburbia, the revival of interest in intentional community, the gentrification of large cities, and the continued restructuring of the American family. While no one may quite be able to predict the ultimate resolution ofsuch disparate trends, Morgan's fundamental cause endures. Witness thefact of this interview. It was the result ofa short visit to Community Service by myselfand geographer Tom ■Detwyler in October of 1977. While much has changed since that time, including a social and political climate that often seems hostile to the concept of community, Griscom Morgan's ideas remain fresh, vivid, and visionary. As the three of us sat in the old house that is the Community Services office—tape recorder running—Griscom drew lightly from a well of information filled over many years. Thefollowing excerpts ofour talk could only be considered a sampler of ideas from a man whose contributions are wholly underappreciated. There is something profoundly sane in his vision. Whether it will prevail is another story. -Steven Ames Intentional Communities Morgan: The orthodox concept of commune has always been that if you want to live commmunally, you must say goodbye to solitude. You are bound. You can no longer think independently. That, to me, is a violation of the fundamentals of human life. It's a violation of community to try to make community a dominating world unto itself. You've got to be part of the universe. We bought the land for Celo Community in North Carolina in 1938. After World War II it was settled by people who had been in Civilian Public Service camps and prisons objecting to the war. But we had been working on the land trust and with the people in the valley in regard to this concept before we bought any land. We planned it through, talking with local people so they would be involved. Eventually, a sociologist came to study the community' Celo, he said, is an anachronism." He apparently had assumed from past studies that a community must have a common ideology or religious belief in order to succeed. Whereas Celo's success, it seems, was precisely because there was no lockstep—because people did think independently. It was intentionally headed in a
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