The Study

We are in uncharted territory. The system we set up for the participants has collapsed. Now they must devise a system for themselves.

After a while the participants have a meeting. They make powerful and moving speeches.  At the end of the meeting they decide that they want to set up a structure in which everyone will be treated equally. They vote on the new stucture and everyone is in favour of it, although two Guards exercise their right to leave the study.

With new leaders, the remaining participants set about devising new rules and come back to us, the experimenters, with a proposal for a self-governing and self-disciplining Commune. We accept. We don’t have much choice.

The supporters of the Commune – the Communards – are delighted. The new system is something they believe in and that they identify with. They want it to work. They want to show the world it can work.

And at first it does work. The Communards work harder than ever before. They do menial chores with renewed energy. Two participants (one an ex-Prisoner, one an ex-Guard) are cleaning the bathroom. One asks “do you want to give the other cistern a synchronized flush to minimize noise”. “Yeah, you ready” says the other. And they flush simultaneously.

But not everything is quite so harmonious…