"Is really the Kibbutz such an idyllic place?"

This is a question I get a lot. Usually by people from outside, who are wondering if the kibbutz is such an idyllic place as I describe it in my posts. But mostly, as criticism, by some of the kibbutzniks: “You’re here all together for not more than a year. Wait, and soon you’ll see a lot of things that you won’t really like”.

Well, it’s not my first time in a new place. I’ve been living mid and long term in a few different places, in Greece and around the world, in cities and in the countryside. Therefore, I know very well indeed that everything looks just great and flawless in the beginning. A newcomer to any place doesn’t really see or notice the ugly stuff that’s going on around him/her. Even in the most exotic and dreamy places of this planet, even in a tiny fairytale-ish island, if you stay for more than one year, you’ll get to discover that this polite guy who lives across the street is beating up his wife and this friendly old man in the grocery store is a child molester.

Still, this is what we humans are. Full of weaknesses and bad behaviors, ready to act like beasts, to treat unfairly or oppress others, to show that human ugliness has no limits. And there’s no doubt that you’ll get to see this everywhere, where humans are living. There’s no perfect society and no perfect people. Over all, the good and the bad are always here, in an eternal fight. It’s been like that since the first human being appeared on this planet.

The same happens with the kibbutz. There are hard working people, but there are lazy ones as well. There are polite and friendly people, yet there are rude and hostile ones too. There are serious and reliable people, but there are gossipers and cheap people, too. And this is absolutely natural. We’re talking about humans, not imaginary characters of a fairytale. Hence, coming across this kind of behavior should be absolutely expected.

In the kibbutz there is gossip. But it’s a small place and in every small place there’s gossip – from my village, Almyrida, down in Crete, to my newspaper office in Athens, to the building I used to live in Manhattan, to the small society of Hermoupolis, Syros and my downtown neighborhood in Athens. Gossip is a human defect. It does appear everywhere. You won’t avoid it, anyways. So is the laziness, the oppression, the unfairly treatments and all the bad sides of human nature. Moreover, in capitalistic societies things are way worse than in this small desert community.

Does it really make any sense to write about all these? Will they get any better if my blog starts focusing on the bad things going on in the kibbutz? Surely not. I believe that it’s totally pointless. These things are part of the human nature and, sadly, they’re not going to disappear any time soon. So, what’s the point of highlighting them and repeating them again and again?

On the contrary, highlighting the best practices of the kibbutz system is something that could potentially bring some good results to the people that are reading my blog, by giving some inspiration for the possibility of creating a money-free community of equality, direct democracy and non violence. A community that all the basic things that an individual needs to survive (housing, food, work, healthcare, education) are provided for free, as an exchange to 8 hours of work on a daily basis.

Hence, this is the answer to your question: There are not perfect human societies. Still, there are systems of governance, like the anarcho-socialist system of a kibbutz, that are more fair, more humane and more gentle than other systems. And that’s why I chose to be here and try to show you this picture in a positive way.

(Photo by Ronen Gal, photographer kibbutznik of Yotvata)