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Looking Backward is a promotional
argument and an attempt to informally educate the American public
through the medium of the romantic novel. From this perspective, it is
like Ayn Rand’s monumental Atlas Shrugged (1957)─both present
blueprints for the future and have been potential sources for social
change. Looking Backward launched a national political movement
based on a system of scientific and systematic socialism as readers of
the day embraced Bellamy’s novel. By the early 1890s, there were 165
Bellamy Clubs. In Looking Backward, Bellamy called his ideology
“nationalism,” and never used the term “socialism.” This ideology viewed
the nation as collectively activated in the pursuit of sustenance and
survival. As a philosophy of collective control of the nation’s economy,
its goal was to rationalize the functions of production and
distribution. To this day, many American intellectuals have been
attracted to such a system of economic paternalism.
Julian West, a thirty-year-old privileged aristocrat in 1887 Boston, is
the main character and narrator of Looking Backward. Having been
born into an upper class family, he thought himself to be superior to
the working masses and believed that he deserved his privileged life.
West is the third generation of his family to have a great deal of
money. He is set to marry Edith Bartlett when a house he is having built
is completed. Strikes had delayed the completion of West’s house and he,
therefore, simply viewed labor conditions as an annoyance due to the
setbacks in its construction. He looked at strikes with anger and
disdain. West was unconcerned about the great divide between the rich
and poor and the gaps between social classes.
On May 30, 1887, Decoration Day, Julian attends ceremonies celebrating
and remembering Civil War veterans with Edith Bartlett and her family.
He suffers from a sleeping disorder, and upon returning home, he retires
to his soundproof and fireproof underground sleeping chamber. In the
secluded vaulted bedroom, Dr. Pillsbury, a trained mesmerist, puts
Julian into a deep trancelike sleep. Only Dr. Pillsbury and Julian’s
servant, Sawyer, knew how to wake him. That night the house burns down
and Julian is assumed to have died in the fire along with Sawyer. Edith
also thought that Julian had perished. Even she did not know about the
sleeping disorder, the hypnosis, and the sleeping chamber. The basement
vault is not discovered and West is left undisturbed to sleep for 113
years with his organs and functions in a state of suspended animation.
In the year 2000, Dr. Leete, a retired physician, discovers the vault
and Julian’s ageless and uncorrupted body (he has not aged a day) when
he is excavating for a new laboratory. The excavation reveals the hidden
cellar and West’s perfectly preserved body. When Julian awakens he meets
Dr. and Mrs. Leete and their daughter, Edith, and he finds himself in
very unfamiliar territory─the 20th century is vastly
different from the 19th. Throughout the rest of the novel
West questions Leete about the changes that had occurred. As a spokesman
for the 20th century and for Bellamy’s ideas on social
reform, Dr. Leete systematically and rationally answers Julian’s
questions and responds to his concerns. In turn, West serves a spokesman
for Bellamy’s 19th century audience. It is through West’s
eyes that the reader views the contrasts between the old order and the
new utopia.
Leete explains that the year 2000’s collaborative utopian society is a
logical outcome of the 19th century’s rapid
industrialization. The new society is a natural evolution of the economy
that resulted from the advances of large-scale production. In the year
2000, there is a system of publicly-owned capital with the government
controlling the nation’s total production and distributing the national
output equally among all citizens. The 19th century’s system
of monopolistic capitalism had somehow evolved and merged into
government. Large companies had formed monopolies that eventually became
nationalized.
Bellamy’s book is glaringly short on details as to how all this took
place. Businesses had merged into huge combinations and these, in turn,
evolved into the placement of all capital in the hands of the
government. Leete explains that, during the early years of the 20th
century, monopolies grew ever larger until the state took over the
monopolies, including the means of production, to become one gargantuan
state trust. He states that the existence of capitalistic monopolies was
a necessary transitional stage that preceded a society of a totally
nationalized economy. Bellamy thus viewed industrialization and giant
conglomerates as potential benefactors, rather than as enemies, of
mankind.
Leete tells Julian that market consolidation of industry was due to
economies of scale and technological and industrial progression.
Together, these produced material abundance that met society’s needs. He
notes that the scarcity problem had been solved by means of the rational
organization of production. Bellamy’s message is that society could be
changed peacefully through evolution, education, and persuasion. It
would thus be by the will of the people that all the means of production
and distribution could gradually be consolidated under government
control.
At first, West defends the 19th century but eventually
becomes persuaded that 20th-century utopia is superior. He
concludes that the changes in society are not due to changes in human
nature but, rather, from the economic equalization of all members of
society. The equal distribution of property leads to what Bellamy sees
as a vastly morally improved society without money and without private
enterprises. In this society, people work for pride rather than for
money. In addition, the patriotic desire to serve the government and the
common good has replaced the profit motive. Whereas the 19th
century emphasized individualism and private business, the 20th
century now emphasizes cooperation and the contribution by all to the
common good and the general improvement of society. Bellamy based his
good society on a system of cooperative equality. Assuming the natural
goodness of man, he contends that, given the right system, rational
people would respond with cooperation.
During the late 19th century, intellectuals began to contend
that society, rather than the individual, is the fundamental fact of
human existence. Bellamy, as one of these intellectuals, created his
“perfect” society by removing social status and making everyone
economically equal. These thinkers unfortunately ignore the fact that
people, by nature, are individuals. Each person exists, perceives,
experiences, thinks, and acts in and through his own body, and therefore
from unique points in time and space. Each person is born an individual
with respect to his mind and body. Each one has inborn differences based
on his brain structure and physical endowments. Each person has peculiar
aptitudes, which can be recognized, developed, and used. Each person has
his own mental faculty, distinctive set of drives, ways of thinking, and
the like. Because each person is distinctive, people differ in their
preferred ways of pursuing their happiness. Although the individual is
metaphysically primary (and communities are secondary and derivative),
communities are important because an individual needs to belong to these
in order to reach his potential for happiness. A person’s moral
maturation requires a life with others, and each individual is
responsible for voluntarily choosing, creating, and entering
relationships that enable him to flourish. A community or a society is
simply the association of persons for cooperative action—it is not some
concrete thing distinct from its members.
Looking Backward condemns 19th-century
industrial society as brutal and primitive compared to the egalitarian
and peaceful society of the year 2000. Bellamy damns a competitive
economic system as unjust, degrading, wasteful, and vicious. His novel
is intended to illustrate that, without private property, there would no
longer be social issues such as shortages, social class divisions,
joblessness, poor working conditions and long hours, child labor,
strikes, poverty, hunger, crime, and war. In his ideal society there is
no competition, no duplication of producers and distributors, no waste
due to overproduction, no idle capital or labor, no political parties,
and no cyclical crises. In his vision of the United States in the year
2000, there exists total equality of income, universal public education,
social welfare and healthcare systems from cradle to grave, and
universal employment in an industrial army. Bellamy envisioned his
society in 2000 as perfect, and thus no additional social engineering
was needed.
Over the 113-year period that Julian slept, the workforce transformed
into an industrial army of patriotic citizens. Every able-bodied person
owed his country a term of service to make certain that there was a
general abundance of life’s necessities. Although considered to be equal
to men, women served in a separate auxiliary force in the industrial
army where they performed tasks best suited for their physical
capabilities. Everyone is paid the same amount and people are persuaded
to serve in whatever capacity their talents and skills are best suited.
Because everyone is expected to work to his fullest potential (even
without monetary incentives) every person receives an equal share of the
wealth. Everyone gets the same compensation because everyone tries their
hardest at their respective jobs.
People are encouraged to stay in school until, at age 21, they became
enlistees in the industrial army. Everyone has the opportunity to
receive a college-level education and is free to choose a career after
serving as a common laborer for three years. At age 24, people are given
tests and asked questions to determine their abilities and job
preferences. Although most people select their occupations after three
years of common service, others attend professional schools to become
physicians, teachers, etc. A final career choice must be made during the
person’s 30th year. In Looking Backward, work is seen
as a disagreeable, painful, and necessary duty to be performed until
retirement at age 45 when one begins to really enjoy life. October 15 is
Muster Day when the 24-year-olds enter the industrial army and the
45-year-olds depart from it.
Leete explains that, because incomes are equal, incentives take the form
of adjustments to hours of labor and working conditions and in the form
of public recognition. These adjustments serve to make a job more or
less attractive. One idea is to make the hours of labor vary in
different trades according to their difficulty. This, of course, results
in differential hourly wage rates.
Dr. Leete tells Julian that workers are motivated by honor, distinction,
national pride, devotion to the common good, and pride in the job
itself. A worker can receive advancement as a reward based on his
efforts to achieve the common good. There is a complex system of
workers’ rankings and rewards in the form of medals of distinction,
ribbons, and badges. Every industry has emblems, badges, and ribbons.
There exist numerous gradations and minor promotions meant to convey
gratitude and esteem to the workers according to the service rendered to
the community. There are also punishments for those who do not want to
work. Those refusing to work find themselves in solitary confinement in
prison with only a bread and water diet. Handicapped individuals are
assigned tasks that they are capable of performing. Those too
handicapped or too ill to work make up an invalid corps and receive the
same amount of credit as everyone else. Because “salaries” are equal,
people vie for honor and status rather than for wealth.
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