I have never actually been to a meeting, but in AA they say you have to hit bottom to want to get clean. The Utopias I can think of in science fiction literature often seem to reside in resource starved waste lands, or places where people learn to coexist after eons of conflict and destruction of their once beautiful far off planets. It is troubling that to some degree my imagination, either stuck on these tales or genuinely caught up in the destitution of present day, has a hard time conjuring up a utopia that isn't similar to an Ursula K LeGuin novel, or at least a utopia that isn't in actuality really bland.
All I can hope for is a world where as Plato said our "elected" leaders 'must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark' and not command the republic only to enrich themselves. A world where oh maybe after 200 years the country in which I was born could simply have the decency to look honestly at from where it came to be. A world where the physical sciences were distinguished apart from the political mire. Where all pupils were allowed to explore the humanities so as to ponder the human condition and find their ethical bearing (note: you can't do this in abject poverty). A world where our consistently upward trending productivity actually raised the standard of living for everybody instead of lining the pockets of a few. A world where sexuality was looked at in a whole different and magnanimous light. Where power was not held over anyone, a no gods, no monsters kind of thing. A real democracy would be a start, at least to try it out. Suppose I said that already.
I would like my grandchildren, if I am blessed with them, to see a glacier when they look at Mt Hood, to fish an abundant healthy toxin free salmon fishery. To enjoy the north coast air without coal pollution form across the Pacific. I'd like to take a high speed train to said coast rather than drive my old car. (Sounds like I'll be on the coast in my utopia, check.) Transportation won't be rolled in with our identity. Its fucking transportation. People got sick of horse manure on the road back when. I'm sick of fretting over the future of the planet. Oh yeah guns, they are useful, hunting blah blah I've done it, fun and tasty, but if your hobby has laid to rest over 31,000 people in 2012, consider model trains. 34,000 traffic deaths by the way too, fast and furious! Or maybe after we as a whole figure out how to make em fit in a healthy society we can have some racetrack, gun ranges where you check you're AK and your GT at the door.
The thing is utopia is really very close. We just need to slough off our propensity for fucking up and fearfully hoarding all our eggs until they are rotten. Just the basics are really all you need. Those folks in Poland in 1980 in Talking Heads had most of it down! A baseline of decency and respect. Then we can all go off and live our in own little utopias as long as they're not paved with gold and they respect the life, dare say celebrate the lives of everybody else we share this far off planet with. I'll still fight with my wife and friends. But we all might be a little less burdened with the stress of selling our soul. I'll work a little less than I used to and a little more than I do now, and it won't work that is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, with excellent childcare! That'd be nice.
Anyway I hope we won't have to hit bottom before we clean up. But it seems we aren't puling out of this dive to quickly. I hope it doesn't sound like I have a grim outlook, maybe just lowish expectations? Oh yeah, and world peace too.
All I can hope for is a world where as Plato said our "elected" leaders 'must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark' and not command the republic only to enrich themselves. A world where oh maybe after 200 years the country in which I was born could simply have the decency to look honestly at from where it came to be. A world where the physical sciences were distinguished apart from the political mire. Where all pupils were allowed to explore the humanities so as to ponder the human condition and find their ethical bearing (note: you can't do this in abject poverty). A world where our consistently upward trending productivity actually raised the standard of living for everybody instead of lining the pockets of a few. A world where sexuality was looked at in a whole different and magnanimous light. Where power was not held over anyone, a no gods, no monsters kind of thing. A real democracy would be a start, at least to try it out. Suppose I said that already.
I would like my grandchildren, if I am blessed with them, to see a glacier when they look at Mt Hood, to fish an abundant healthy toxin free salmon fishery. To enjoy the north coast air without coal pollution form across the Pacific. I'd like to take a high speed train to said coast rather than drive my old car. (Sounds like I'll be on the coast in my utopia, check.) Transportation won't be rolled in with our identity. Its fucking transportation. People got sick of horse manure on the road back when. I'm sick of fretting over the future of the planet. Oh yeah guns, they are useful, hunting blah blah I've done it, fun and tasty, but if your hobby has laid to rest over 31,000 people in 2012, consider model trains. 34,000 traffic deaths by the way too, fast and furious! Or maybe after we as a whole figure out how to make em fit in a healthy society we can have some racetrack, gun ranges where you check you're AK and your GT at the door.
The thing is utopia is really very close. We just need to slough off our propensity for fucking up and fearfully hoarding all our eggs until they are rotten. Just the basics are really all you need. Those folks in Poland in 1980 in Talking Heads had most of it down! A baseline of decency and respect. Then we can all go off and live our in own little utopias as long as they're not paved with gold and they respect the life, dare say celebrate the lives of everybody else we share this far off planet with. I'll still fight with my wife and friends. But we all might be a little less burdened with the stress of selling our soul. I'll work a little less than I used to and a little more than I do now, and it won't work that is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, with excellent childcare! That'd be nice.
Anyway I hope we won't have to hit bottom before we clean up. But it seems we aren't puling out of this dive to quickly. I hope it doesn't sound like I have a grim outlook, maybe just lowish expectations? Oh yeah, and world peace too.