Retreat: A philosophical inquir

The purpose of this project was to examine the ideology of retreat as a means of creating social change and environmental reform. The foundation of retreat ideology was examined as a response to a perceived crisis of culture and its accompanying environmental impact. A model of Western perception was explored and key elements which fuel a retreat ideology were identified. The prescriptive nature of retreat was examined via the Utopian tradition. The retreatist desire to design and prescribe values and behaviors in order to create an ecologically based social system were questioned, and the noninnocence of the creation of social change was explored.;The notion of the creation of an ideal future and the nature of social change were examined in three ways. First, the ideal future was examined as a form of social change which advocated moving "back-to-the land." Second, the assimilation of retreat ideals by mainstream culture was explored. Finally, the subversion of dominant culture was examined as a form of creating social change. The subversion or dominant culture recognized the complicit nature of those involved a movement of social reform, such as retreat. Subversive reform was offered as a tentative means of influencing change through its ability to recognize and react to cultural complicity; and parody was examined as an example of subversive reform (creating social change from within the confines of dominant culture).