Qu'est ce que c'est Le Phalanstère?
Le Phalanstère was a utopist society imagined by the
eccentric Frenchman Charles Fourier. A main tenant of
his belief was that the greatest motivating forces man
had were his natural “attractions” or desires. Under
laissé-faire capitalism “attractions” were commonly
repressed. The repression of attractions was the main
cause of angst and social unrest. In his ideal society
the natural “attractions” would be harnessed instead
of suppressed.
Fourier was witness to the harsh reality of early
industrialist France and he was dismayed by it. He was
one of the first critics of what he saw as the
beginning of the automatization of Man: man becomes a
laborer doing mundane tasks for long hours in inhumane
conditions. Marx later termed this automatization
alienation, meaning that through the pitfalls of
capitalistic labor structures man strays from his
inherent human nature. In Le Phalanstère man's
attraction for variety in one's work and life was to
be enhanced and supported. He coined the passion or
attraction of variety as the “papillon” trait, or
butterfly in French. He believed the 9-5 existence and
the capitalist specialization of labor was
antithetical to natures (i.e. God's) intention. Under
Fourier's philosophy if god endowed us with a
propensity for variety then it must be utilized and
enhanced, as it must be in the long-term, under the
right circumstances, good for Man. He devised a
system of labor in the Le Phalanstère community where
no person would specialize in any one field or spend
too many hours at a single task but constantly rotate
positions and responsibilities so as to ensure that
one was constantly learning and challenging oneself,
working with the attraction for variety.
Charles Fourier was ahead of his time, and barely
understood by his contemporaries or even historians.
There are several flaws in his logic however and the
reader can only take certain of his assumptions at
face value. He could at times be quiet eccentric, for
example Fourier believed that babies should be sent to
work at dismantling factories because of their natural
inclination to do so. Nevertheless his imaginative
ideas never cease to inspire, and inspire is the key
word here.
We decided upon the name Le Phalanstère because
although we may not adhere to all of his notions of
how life should be organized, we intuitively agree
with his basic precept: that the repression of man's
need for variety or papillonage leads to alienation.
Our modern Le Phalanstère projects are works by people
of varying fields and interests whose talents are not
to be placed in particular categories. Le Phalanstère
is a fluxing group of people from all around the world
that refuse to be categorized, numbed or alienated
from our existence. Le Phalanstère project in sum is
our attempt to escape the artificial boundaries of the
society in which we live.
