Envisioning (unreal) utopias
Dec. 7th, 2010 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danohuCharles Stross on the utopia shortage:
Or in the words of Zizek (who is a reliable source of one-liners, if nothing else): "it is much easier for us to imagine the end of the world than a small change in the political system".
Not that utopias need to be anticapitalist, mind. My own daydreams mostly involve capitalism withering slightly, as some areas currently market-driven are replaced by more satisfying forms of interaction. Same with the other utopia I find most appealing: the amorphous vision implicit in pirate/transparency/open-data circles, slowly coming into focus as those groups become aware of themselves. You can construct non-market versions of those ideals, but they pretty much degrade into communism, anarchism or (rarely, but IMO very plausibly) slavery. Otherwise, you're left with the market/state/kindness for physical goods, sharing for intellectual goods, and probably some kind of permanent fudge in the middle.
Anyway, utopias: let's have more of them, regardless of plausibility. What's yours?
ETA: Although maybe there are a lot of utopian ideas floating around -- just not ones I find remotely appealing. Religious fundamentalism is going strong. Pure no-holds-barred capitalism is a utopian ideal for some, and still a long way from being put into practice.
we badly need more utopian speculation. The consensus future we read about in the media and that we're driving towards is a roiling, turbulent fogbank beset by half-glimpsed demons: climate change, resource depletion, peak oil, mass extinction, collapse of the oceanic food chain, overpopulation, terrorism, foreigners who want to come here and steal our women jobs. It's not a nice place to be; if the past is another country, the consensus view of the future currently looks like a favela with raw sewage running in the streets. Conservativism — standing on the brake pedal — is a natural reaction to this vision; but it's a maladaptive one, because it makes it harder to respond effectively to new and unprecedented problems.
Or in the words of Zizek (who is a reliable source of one-liners, if nothing else): "it is much easier for us to imagine the end of the world than a small change in the political system".
Not that utopias need to be anticapitalist, mind. My own daydreams mostly involve capitalism withering slightly, as some areas currently market-driven are replaced by more satisfying forms of interaction. Same with the other utopia I find most appealing: the amorphous vision implicit in pirate/transparency/open-data circles, slowly coming into focus as those groups become aware of themselves. You can construct non-market versions of those ideals, but they pretty much degrade into communism, anarchism or (rarely, but IMO very plausibly) slavery. Otherwise, you're left with the market/state/kindness for physical goods, sharing for intellectual goods, and probably some kind of permanent fudge in the middle.
Anyway, utopias: let's have more of them, regardless of plausibility. What's yours?
ETA: Although maybe there are a lot of utopian ideas floating around -- just not ones I find remotely appealing. Religious fundamentalism is going strong. Pure no-holds-barred capitalism is a utopian ideal for some, and still a long way from being put into practice.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 03:33 pm (UTC)I really must read some Stross. I also have an idea for a fantasy detective novel that I want to start working on soon, and which will include a city state with, not a utopia, but a structure that is at least fairly left-wing and democratic, and (possibly because I'm currently feeling bitter) where politicians get into actual legal trouble if they fail to provide adequately for their citizens. I want to show a fantasy-style society with a really firm safety net, etc., muddling along. Muddling along is an important feature for any good society to have, I think. Perfection we can't achieve. But a more equal, happier, freer, more compassionate society which muddles along gives something to a aim for. :-)