Ernst Bloch saw utopia as the human propensity for… hope. The “trauma” (my word) of fascism and Stalinism created an anti-utopianism where hope is something… delusional.
Should we send hope to the “dustbin of history”?
(Very interesting essay. Thank you. I’m not disagreeing with you, just adding some layer to what you wrote. Maybe you can address it in your next essay?)
Of course not. Remember that the end of the essay promises a discussion of the "utopian impulse" (Fredric Jameson's idea) or "critical utopia" (Moylan) in the next instalment. This essay is long enough already. But I want to make a distinction between hope for a better future and dogmatic insistence that we know what this future should be. The key difference is between improvement and perfection. Society can be improved if we agree on what improvement means. But it can never be made perfect, and any attempt to do so will backfire.
Improvement, as a goal, is unfortunately not agreed upon by many in societies. Justice and equality is increasing very Orwellian in the sense with some people being “more equal than others”.
American history is full of failed utopian societies and communities that collapsed or died out, like the Shakers or various theosophical communes including Jim Jones “Peoples Temple” cult. Utopia goes nowhere in the real world, our impulse for society of perfection and the practicality of it is so far always a dangerous situation and at odds with objective reality. It is also dangerously isolated and closed off.
Steve Grossi warns about utopian isolationism in , "by building a physical wall to keep the bad in, we construct a mental wall keeping ourselves, our thoughts, and our empathy out, to the collective detriment of all.”
My Utopian fantasies may very well be another's dystopian nightmare, as in “Riders of the Purple Wage” from “Dangerous Visions” which is my whimsical “Arts and Letters as popular entertainment and respectability” utopia turned on its head and inverted/subverted into a horrible absurdist black comedy.
Great essay. I haven’t seen the term anti-utopia used. It’s a useful distinction.
Ernst Bloch saw utopia as the human propensity for… hope. The “trauma” (my word) of fascism and Stalinism created an anti-utopianism where hope is something… delusional.
Should we send hope to the “dustbin of history”?
(Very interesting essay. Thank you. I’m not disagreeing with you, just adding some layer to what you wrote. Maybe you can address it in your next essay?)
Of course not. Remember that the end of the essay promises a discussion of the "utopian impulse" (Fredric Jameson's idea) or "critical utopia" (Moylan) in the next instalment. This essay is long enough already. But I want to make a distinction between hope for a better future and dogmatic insistence that we know what this future should be. The key difference is between improvement and perfection. Society can be improved if we agree on what improvement means. But it can never be made perfect, and any attempt to do so will backfire.
“Perfection” is an illusion, an abstract ideal.
Improvement, as a goal, is unfortunately not agreed upon by many in societies. Justice and equality is increasing very Orwellian in the sense with some people being “more equal than others”.
American history is full of failed utopian societies and communities that collapsed or died out, like the Shakers or various theosophical communes including Jim Jones “Peoples Temple” cult. Utopia goes nowhere in the real world, our impulse for society of perfection and the practicality of it is so far always a dangerous situation and at odds with objective reality. It is also dangerously isolated and closed off.
Steve Grossi warns about utopian isolationism in , "by building a physical wall to keep the bad in, we construct a mental wall keeping ourselves, our thoughts, and our empathy out, to the collective detriment of all.”
https://www.stevegrossi.com/on/the-dispossessed
My Utopian fantasies may very well be another's dystopian nightmare, as in “Riders of the Purple Wage” from “Dangerous Visions” which is my whimsical “Arts and Letters as popular entertainment and respectability” utopia turned on its head and inverted/subverted into a horrible absurdist black comedy.
Utopias, no thanks.
I hadn't heard of the term anti-utopia, although I am familiar with some of the books (and am writing a satirical, humorous anti-utopia myself).