Communes can definitely be an important part of building and shaping community. They’re an appealing form for an intentional effort to base community around reciprocity and the commons. As long as the commune is reasonably open to the wider community and connected to other efforts (of course, with boundaries in place to preserve the basis of the commune), it can be an important place for education and mutual aid. But they lose their transformative potential if they’re closed off from the rest of the world. At that point, it’s just an exclusive club, and a breeding ground for a cult. And communes also are a common way to institutionalize settler populations, for example the Plymouth pilgrim colony and the Israeli kibbutzim.
Communes can definitely be an important part of building and shaping community. They’re an appealing form for an intentional effort to base community around reciprocity and the commons. As long as the commune is reasonably open to the wider community and connected to other efforts (of course, with boundaries in place to preserve the basis of the commune), it can be an important place for education and mutual aid. But they lose their transformative potential if they’re closed off from the rest of the world. At that point, it’s just an exclusive club, and a breeding ground for a cult. And communes also are a common way to institutionalize settler populations, for example the Plymouth pilgrim colony and the Israeli kibbutzim.