[goldstategop]

Its the same principle that works for monasteries and convents. The ideal life appeals only to a few and when its restricted to a few it works beautifully. But not every one has the capacity or the talent to live such a life and trying to force every one to follow it generally leads to disaster. Communism and celibacy work on a small scale but writ large, they generally burden individuals more than they can bear. Perhaps there is a lesson here somewhere for our big government socialists?

[Dan Evans]

Another way of looking at it is that the Anabaptists are born into their lifestyle. Nobody gets converted to be a Hutterite or Amishman. Mennonites are a different story, but that isn't such an austere existence.

But only a small percentage of Amish children leave now that they are branching into manufacturing. So it is remarkable how flexible humans really are.

I think communism fails because it is an inherently unstable monoculture. All it takes is for one evil person to take advantage of the system.