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We Are as Gods is a nonfiction book by We Are as Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America by Kate Daloz. It tells the story of the 1970s “back-to-the-land” movement in the United States—people who left cities to build self-sufficient communities in rural areas.
🌲 What the book is about
At its center, it follows a group of idealistic young people who:
abandoned mainstream society
bought cheap rural land (often in places like Vermont)
tried to build utopian, self-sufficient communities
believed they could “start over” and live closer to nature
The title comes from the idea that humans can reshape the world deliberately—almost like gods—but the book questions whether that ambition actually works in reality.
🧠 Core themes
1. Utopian idealism vs reality
The settlers dreamed of:
freedom from capitalism
harmony with nature
equality and community
But they ran into:
poverty and isolation
harsh winters and physical exhaustion
internal conflict and burnout
👉 Big tension: beautiful ideals vs difficult material reality
2. Escape vs transformation
Many participants thought they were:
escaping “the system”
But the book shows:
you don’t escape human problems
you just meet them in a different environment
So issues like:
power dynamics
gender roles
emotional conflict
still reappeared.
3. The limits of self-sufficiency
A key lesson:
Independence is never total.
Even the most “off-grid” communities depended on:
money systems
outside tools
social infrastructure
4. Freedom is not simple
The book complicates the romantic idea of freedom:
more autonomy can mean more responsibility
fewer structures can mean more chaos
idealism can become a burden
🧩 Overall message
The book isn’t mocking the movement—it’s more reflective.
It suggests:
Trying to build a perfect life outside society still runs into the same human realities inside yourself.
🔗 Why people often pair it with ideas like Buddhism or “awakening”
It connects surprisingly well to what you shared earlier:
Awakening doesn’t remove struggle
Leaving society doesn’t remove inner patterns
Idealism eventually meets reality
In both cases, the shift is from:
“I can escape difficulty”
to
“I can understand and live with difficulty differently”
If you want, I can also:
compare it to This Messy, Gorgeous Love (they surprisingly overlap in theme), or
break down what the “back-to-the-land” movement got right vs wrong in more detail.
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