A diferença entre ser consensualmente mitificado, nos anos 70, e de ser olhado com desconfiança num declínio evidente, não está em questões de muros, nem de fronteiras, nem de refugiados. A explicação para a dispersão dos fãs está no sucumbir daquela identificação ilusória dos românticos americanos, europeus...com as suas personagens pioneiras que se fixavam na terra prometida, partindo do zero, guiados naturalmente por uma pureza única nessa nebulosa aventura socialista com adornos bíblicos. Assim que os próprios judeus atingem a normalidade, assim que a vida lhes exige a autonomia e ambição que ultrapassam o aperto inicial, assim que se apercebem das fragilidades das práticas socialistas sionistas e que se dispõem a rejeitá-las, é nesse ponto que deixam de contar com o reconhecimento das claques distantes que esperavam uma práxis que não os deixasse ficar mal.
Unlike other socialist experiments, there is surprisingly little dogma or theory behind the Israeli kibbutz. According to some experts, this is a key reason for the communities’ relative openness to change.
Unlike other socialist experiments, there is surprisingly little dogma or theory behind the Israeli kibbutz. According to some experts, this is a key reason for the communities’ relative openness to change.
Before the wave of privatizations started in the 1990s, the kibbutzim had already sacrificed other principles – including the ban on hired labour from outside the community and the idea that kibbutz children should sleep in a separate house away from their parents. “There was never a programme for the kibbutz, it was created by people living. Every time they encountered a problem, they simply tried to find a solution,” says Shlomo Getz, an expert on kibbutzim.
Exactly 100 years after the foundation of the first kibbutz on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, these solutions are taking on an increasingly capitalist tinge. (...)
But the transformation of the kibbutz from socialist bastion to capitalist co-operative is, above all, a reflection of a much broader shift in Israeli society. As the country began to prosper during the 1980s, Israelis increasingly turned away from the frugal socialist ethos that had dominated the state’s early years.
It was a development that did not leave the kibbutz untouched. “The kibbutz was never isolated from society,” says Shlomo Getz, the director of the Institute for Research of the Kibbutz at Haifa University. “There was a change in values in Israel, and a change in the standard of living. Many kibbutzniks now wanted to have the same things as their friends outside the kibbutz.”
Ms Ozeri says: “People wanted more control over their own lives and economics. They wanted to make their own decisions, and have their own car and their own telephone. It is very difficult to live this strong communal life. It is very tiring.”
Just as these social trends were gathering pace, the kibbutz movement was dealt a knock-out blow from a different direction. Keen to diversify away from farming, more and more kibbutzim had started dabbling in industry, setting up businesses that – often burdened by a lack of management expertise and capital – made hefty losses.
The result was a debt-crisis, a government bail-out in 1985 – and a wholesale re-examination of the kibbutz economic philosophy.
“Israeli society had always looked to the kibbutzniks as an elite group. But now they were regarded as a mere interest group that depended on money from the state,” says Mr Getz.
The answer to this dilemma – and to the communities’ financial woes – came in the form of privatisation – a process that started slowly in the 1990s and has gathered pace ever since. (...)
Omer Moav, a former kibbutznik who now teaches economics at London’s Royal Holloway University and advises the Israeli finance minister, argues that the kibbutz movement was always destined to fail. It worked, he says, only as long as kibbutzniks enjoyed a standard of living broadly comparable to, if not better than, the Israeli average. “People respond to incentives. We are happy to work hard for our own quality of life, we like our independence,” he says. “It is all about human nature – and a socialist system like the kibbutz does not fit human nature.”
Financial Times (“The rise of the capitalist kibbutz”)
Exactly 100 years after the foundation of the first kibbutz on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, these solutions are taking on an increasingly capitalist tinge. (...)
But the transformation of the kibbutz from socialist bastion to capitalist co-operative is, above all, a reflection of a much broader shift in Israeli society. As the country began to prosper during the 1980s, Israelis increasingly turned away from the frugal socialist ethos that had dominated the state’s early years.
It was a development that did not leave the kibbutz untouched. “The kibbutz was never isolated from society,” says Shlomo Getz, the director of the Institute for Research of the Kibbutz at Haifa University. “There was a change in values in Israel, and a change in the standard of living. Many kibbutzniks now wanted to have the same things as their friends outside the kibbutz.”
Ms Ozeri says: “People wanted more control over their own lives and economics. They wanted to make their own decisions, and have their own car and their own telephone. It is very difficult to live this strong communal life. It is very tiring.”
Just as these social trends were gathering pace, the kibbutz movement was dealt a knock-out blow from a different direction. Keen to diversify away from farming, more and more kibbutzim had started dabbling in industry, setting up businesses that – often burdened by a lack of management expertise and capital – made hefty losses.
The result was a debt-crisis, a government bail-out in 1985 – and a wholesale re-examination of the kibbutz economic philosophy.
“Israeli society had always looked to the kibbutzniks as an elite group. But now they were regarded as a mere interest group that depended on money from the state,” says Mr Getz.
The answer to this dilemma – and to the communities’ financial woes – came in the form of privatisation – a process that started slowly in the 1990s and has gathered pace ever since. (...)
Omer Moav, a former kibbutznik who now teaches economics at London’s Royal Holloway University and advises the Israeli finance minister, argues that the kibbutz movement was always destined to fail. It worked, he says, only as long as kibbutzniks enjoyed a standard of living broadly comparable to, if not better than, the Israeli average. “People respond to incentives. We are happy to work hard for our own quality of life, we like our independence,” he says. “It is all about human nature – and a socialist system like the kibbutz does not fit human nature.”
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