Texas Polygamists--sf in real life?

I've been following the Texas polygamy case with interest and commenting 
on it on my blog. The first comparison that occurred to me was with the 
19th century Oneida community, which practiced an much more bizarre 
marriage system--everyone married to everyone. The FLDS is accused of 
matching up young women with older men; Oneida not only did it (and 
young men with older women) but openly described and advocated their 
system. They survived for decades without, save at the very beginning 
when they were small, much problem from the outside, and their final 
breakup seems to have been due more to internal problems than to outside 
pressure, although there was some of the latter.

One possibility is that the 21st century is less tolerant, at least in 
some dimensions, than the 19th. On the other hand, the original LDS were 
also a 19th century odd group and got chased out of town, I think 
repeatedly, until they finally created their own society in Utah. 

Another possible difference is that Oneida was a going concern, 
employing at its peak about 700 of its neighbors--who presumably would 
not have been happy at having it shut down. Or it may be just a matter 
of chance--whether it happens to serve someone's political purposes to 
point out and attack their weird practices.

Or, finally, it may be that the basic mistake made by the FLDS was 
simultaneously offending the left and the right, leaving almost nobody 
to defend them.

It later occurred to me that the whole scenario was also at least mildly 
reminiscent of Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_. It isn't too 
hard to imagine replacing the FLDS with Mike's group, minus Mike's 
special powers and after a decade or two of continued existence. 
Potential conflict between a small group with a very different social 
pattern and the surrounding society that views elements of that pattern 
with abhorrence seems like a natural for sf.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now