Oct 14, 2026, 4:15 PMThinking about the Shakers again today, the Shaking Quakers, for some reason.
Founded in 1749 and with around 4000 members at their peak, today there's only two or three members of that community left.
Sad, possibly, but: 280 years is a good run for a community whose tenets include _celibacy_.
Oct 14, 2026, 4:21 PMAll the demographics, all the basic math says the Shakers should be a one-generation-and-done sociocultural curiosity, a weird historical footnote.
But: 280 years. Somehow.
If a community is discoverable enough, and welcoming enough and kind enough and has a compelling story to tell then that community has a chance to not just survive but prosper through what should - by any measure or intuition - be _the_ flagship demographic nightmare scenario.
There might be a lesson in that somewhere.
@mhoye Maybe the Shakers were on to something: a religion or belief system should last as long as there are reasonable numbers of independent people who decide it offers something valuable. Once it doesn't attract new adherents who weren't born/raised in it, it probably has outlived its usefulness and should die out. Imagine how much more responsive (and less influential) the major religions would be if they had to survive only on converts.
@mhoye they actually got a new member fairly recently
@kevin their membership increased by 50% last year! The new member brought the total number up from 2 to 3.