CDXXX – Utopia

Over at substack, there’s a writer I am following who writes, researches, and generally exudes enthusiasm for concepts of Utopia. I follow more for the “writing” angle than the “Utopia” angle, but nevertheless I have to deal with the one to get the other.

The writer recently shared a picture of a book cover, the book is called “Utopia for Realists” and has splash-highlights calling out “Open borders!” and “15 hours work week!” and “universal basic income!”

I don’t know how much of those splash-highlights are satirical or how much of those are treated as ideals to be sought after by utopian idealists. None of those things sound “realist” to me, but I am a curmudgeonly reactionary and these are the high-falutin’ dreams of strangers.

Nevertheless, if people actually want to make a better world, and actually think some of these things are ideals that would make the world better, then they are quite clearly missing a few things.

First–the whole idea of Utopia as a goal to be attained (“Utopia” is a stand-in for “heaven” for atheistic post-modern liberals) begs the question in favor of cultural homogeneity. Look at Europe and the European Union–their common currency is wildly unstable and politically polarizing. It requires a monstrous bureaucracy to maintain it and the bureaucrats have done a terrible job because their goal has been to grow it and not keep it strong.

Second–uneven distribution of resources, wealth, culture, infrastructure, etc needs to be addressed. Utopia begs the question in favor of even distribution of all of these things, because in a Utopia people need to stay where they are. But it stands to reason that people who live in corrugated tin shacks with no running water on dirt roads will seek to migrate to places that have well constructed housing with internal plumbing on paved roads. When people migrate, especially en masse, it unduly burdens the people residing in the recipient location. Even if we suppose the recipient population was philosophically willing to receive a mass migration, the infrastructure must be scaled to support them before they arrive because it will become much more difficult to scale and maintain infrastructure after they arrive.

The bottom line here–I don’t want to do a point by point takedown, the idea is patently ridiculous–is that idolization of Utopia misses the dirty, unpleasant, unwashed side of human nature and presupposes that a sufficiently large population of culturally homogenous people will be able to create a self sustaining paradise.

I know I’ve written about Scootland and that might seem like my own version of Utopia–but at least in my version I am doing my best not to beg too many questions. It is and will always be a thought experiment. Utopians are looking for a stand-in for Heaven, and on this side of the Eschaton they will be woefully disappointed.

AMDG