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Magic, Inc. is an
intentional community
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...
, "educational
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
," and public service organization in
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was estab ...
, California co-founded by David Schrom to explore and promote the application of scientific principles to questions of value, or
Valuescience. It has received recognition for its conservationist, community service, and educational contributions, and
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
has provided a course in Valuescience through Magic since 1979.
History
Magic grew out of David Schrom's dissatisfaction with his life and its "underpinnings," as he phrases it, as a senior at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1968.
[Holbrook, p.15,19] After attending
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...
, he worked in a variety of jobs but remained "really disgusted" by the "immorality, dishonesty and pointlessness of what he was doing."
[Holbrook, p. 23.] In 1972, he and a group of friends who were "camping out in life - home was a backpack or a van or a gym lockers (''sic'')"
decided to rent a post office box to keep in touch with each other, and when the clerk informed them that unrelated individuals could not rent a box together but that an organization could, Schrom picked the name Magic on the spur of the moment. When Schrom and others incorporated in 1979, they decided to keep the name. Schrom moved to Palo Alto in 1973; the group rented their first house together in 1975; since 1988 Magic has been located on Oxford Avenue, currently in three houses.
Structure
Permanent residents and interns, sometimes called Magicians, live on donations and income from programs such as teaching,
make decisions cooperatively, including whether to have children, and eat dinner together.
The community practices frugal and ecologically sound living, with no cars or televisions, wearing secondhand clothes and eating a primarily vegetarian diet including organic food past its sale cut-off date donated by local businesses. Smoking and drugs are not allowed in the houses, and members avoid "psychoactive substances" including alcohol and caffeine.
[
]
Ideology
Valuescience, the philosophy behind Magic, is defined by the group as "scientific methods and principles applied to questions of value."[
]
The organization's website describes its mission as working "in a radical, integrated, scientific way to increase human satisfaction and reduce human suffering," since they regard dissatisfaction and suffering as rooted "in misinformation about value - about what people want, how to get it, and most importantly, how we can know these things."
Since 1979, Schrom and other Magic members have taught an evolving class on Valuescience at Stanford University.[Holbrook, p. 24.]
Activism
Schrom and Magic have been involved in local and national ecological activism, both independently and in association with other groups. Thirty years ago, partly in gratitude to the university, Schrom started planting trees on Stanford's property in the Palo Alto foothills, and was eventually hired to manage it with volunteer labor.
Reception
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
has given Magic an award for public service; other awards the group has received include one from the International Oaks Society for work on the impact of climate change, one from the ''Journal of Arboriculture'' for urban forest
An urban forest is a forest, or a collection of trees, that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense, it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. As opposed to a forest park, whose eco ...
planning, one for mediation and community development from the American Society of Landscape Architects, and one for swimming instruction from ''New Zealand Triathlete''.
See also
* Value science
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Magic, Inc. official website
"Can We Afford Not to Live in Community"
(pdf), Hilary Hug and Robin Bayer, ''Communities'' 116 (Fall/Winter 2002).
"Global Climate Change and California Oaks"
(pdf), Robin Bayer, David Schrom, and Joan Schwan, in Douglas D. McCreary, ed., ''Proceedings of the Second Conference of the International Oak Society, '' San Marino, California: International Oak Society, 1999, pp. 154–65.
"Public Ownership of US Streambeds and Floodplains: A Basis for Ecological Stewardship"
(pdf), Bruce B. Dykaar and David A. Schrom, ''Bioscience'' 53.4 (April 2003).
{{Authority control
Non-profit organizations based in California