The Mormon Sense of Community

By "Mormon" I mean Joseph Smith in the 1840s, as shown by the Kingdom of Nauvoo book.

He pulled in many ideas from his time, although one them, Polygamy. is hard to understand. What was going on in his head, to obsess him with this dangerous practice, that caused his death?

He wanted to have limitless progeny, that much is clear. What was behind this?

This brings up another fact: the industrialization of his time. He, and his followers, were products of this huge happening., that made machines part of human culture. It also obsessed people with more - they wanted more of everything, including children. Joseph Smith III, his son, had 15 children, for example.

It is hard for us to understand this now, but the figures were clear. People had more children than they could possibly take care of.

And they thought more of their things (their Railroads) than they did of their people. Things were easy to understand, and control, people were not.

It is also important to note this was before the Civil War in the 19th Century, and WWI and WWII in the 20th Century.

This was destruction on a global scale.