There's an interesting essay over at Spiked called
"In search of utopia" which was stimulated by a recent a recent book entitled
Picture Imperfect :
Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age.The Spiked essay is worth reading in conjunction with Engels' account of utopian thinking in
Socialism - Utopian and Scientific. (skip the intros. and jump straight to part 1 if short of time!)
The Spiked essay makes the point that current utopian thinking (if it can be called that) lacks any real vision of how things could be. Ideas about a better world tend to be escapist, mystical and cautious....based on a search for safety and harmony. The essay contrasts this with the idea that
the true utopian impulse is about unleashing
human energies on an enormous scale: bursting off the fetters that have kept
people down and out. Not sitting still, but ceaseless and joyous activity. As
Wells argues: 'a modern utopia must be not static but kinetic, must shape not
as a permanent state but as a hopeful stage, leading to a long assent of
stages.'
The essay argues that current ideas about a desirable future are based on a very different mind-set from that of past utopian visionaries:
Humility is deemed to be the virtuous way. People aim to
show that they are aware of the impacts of their actions and are seeking to
limit them as much as possible. Those who confess their vulnerability are seen
as sensitive and virtuous human beings. Some almost apologise for breathing,
counting the units of carbon dioxide emitted and planting the requisite numbers
of trees to make up for it. We're approaching Wells's vision of global travel
as a way of life, yet there is constant breast-beating about cheap flights.
It goes on to say:
A first step, then, might be to counter today's anti-utopian climate. Unless we
believe that a better world is possible and desirable, the writings of More and
co will read merely as historical curiosities or cute fairytales. Unless we
regain a sense that human beings can and should be master of their destinies,
Jacoby's outlines for the perfect school could just end up in the wastepaper
basket.
So, first: the future could be much better than today. We need to say with the
French utopian thinker Henri de Saint-Simon: 'the golden age of humanity is not
behind us; it is to come, and will be found in the perfection of the social
order.' This isn't as good as it gets, not by a long shot. Even in the most
developed countries, people still sell train tickets and paint walls and clean
the toilets. Whatever happened to automation? People's time and efforts are
cheap, and are being wasted flagrantly. Second: it is human beings who will
build that future. The meek will not inherit the Earth. We should embrace and
develop our powers, not shy away from them.
Unless we see reality shimmering with possibilities, it will hang heavy around
our necks. The things around us will be a dull condition of existence, rather
like the pen and hay provided to a farmyard animal. We need to start to see the
world as something built by human beings, and resolve that we can build it
much, much better for the twenty-first century and beyond.
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