Utopia dreams are of a perfect world, where everything is ‘just so’ or as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines: ‘a place of ideal perfection especially in law, government and social conditions’.
The word was first used, in fact coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book, ‘Utopia’ which describes an idyllic fictional island society in the new world in which money is abolished and people share meals, houses and other goods in common.
Other ‘Utopias’ include Camelot, where a law was made a distant moon ago here:
”July and August cannot be too hot. And there’s a legal limit to the snow here in Camelot. The winter is forbidden till December and exits March the second on the dot. By order summer lingers through September in Camelot’, the setting for the legendary, or is it mythological King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.”
Heaven as described in the Biblical book of Revelations:
“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of the street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelations 22:1-2).
Apart from being perfect in every way, Camelot and Heaven have one thing in common: the people inhabiting these mythological places were subjects, not citizens, and they were ruled over, not governed. In the case of Heaven a criteria is that the subject must be clean, cleansed of ‘sin’ by the blood of the Lamb. In Camelot, we don’t get to see the ordinary people, just the King and Queen and the knights of the round table and of course Merlin the magician.
What does Utopia look like to you?
I posed this question to several people today, some oldish... well, about my age, so old, and young, early 20s. Surprisingly the answers were remarkably similar, essentially the consensus is that people like living here, they find that life is good, they have freedoms many would crave. It is almost a Utopia.
The older people commented that life was good. They enjoy the freedoms they have, not interested much in material possessions, mainly because they have what they need, they enjoy reasonable health and have a world class health system should things go wrong. The appreciation of living in a tolerant society where it is ok to be a bit different. But not too different.
Things got a bit trickier when the question turned to other people and expectations for some sort of conformity. Long held views, particularly on racism and religion were evident. Included were some Jehovah’s Witnesses I see on my morning walks, who were uncomfortable with gender and morality issues, but generally expressed a level of contentment that they could talk about their faith openly.
So Utopia it seems is good for more senior people so long as it reflects ‘who I am, where I am, what I am,’ but difference is sort of accepted, sometimes reluctantly accepted by degree.
Among younger people was a sense of freedom, and an expression of joy that they were free from the constraints of previous generations. The freedom to be who they are. The sense that they are not judged, but appreciated for who they are. Comments included the changes seen from the different generations within a family, how in one case, grandparents were encouraging a person to attend church, expressing sadness that young people are not all that visible at worship services and living lives which were morally a bit too free and easy. There was some expression of fear that freedoms may be threatened, and that housing was an issue, but generally a sense of optimism.
The freedoms and issues which were addressed in the conversations included abortion, diversity in sexual and gender identification, end of life issues with voluntary assisted dying, women’s rights, racism, violence both in family and domestic violence and gang violence.
It seems that Utopia for most of us is an almost achievable dream but a sort of dystopia for others.
Here and elsewhere the political and religious right are trying to remove those freedoms so hard fought for over the past almost one hundred and fifty and particularly over the past sixty years.
Some in the Republican party in the US have presented a plan to dismantle the freedoms, to undermine democracy giving greater power to the office of the President. The groundwork has been laid by the Supreme Court with the removal of abortion rights and granting immunity to the President for acts taken while in office, effectively granting the same authority as that of kings. Project 2025 outlines policies to secure the borders, attacking immigration, a drill baby drill mantra to reduce the price of energy, cut government spending and make public servants accountable to the President and Congress among a raft of other reforms.
There is even the suggestion that a man – a husband – votes for his family, denying women an independent voice, and bonus votes for children in the family, also for the husband/father’s discretion.
In a recently published book, Up From Conservatism, a collection of Right-Wing essays which the Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance has written a foreword to promotes repealing the civil rights act, investigate the gay lifestyle, defund college education and childcare, promote male dominated industries, to rule not govern, ban non Christian immigrants, in other words, wind back the clock to a white male autocratic Christian nation. Most concerning is the drive to reduce the independence of women.
Except for in the UK, European elections in the last year have also seen a shift to the right. Racism and and refugee sentiment as well as Islamophobia are driving the political right.
Here in Australia, the NT election campaign has included an anti-abortion promotion urging voters to ‘PUT LABOR LAST’.
Candidates for the up coming Federal election are going through the preselection process with a strong push from some evangelical groups have sought to control the Liberal and National parties, actively promoting candidates who are anti-abortion, anti-Voluntary Assisted Dying and not too keen on the diverse sexual and gender identity issues.
(An interesting lesson from history is that the Democratic Labor Party, effectively the Catholic Party of Australia split from the Labor Party and helped keep Labor out of office for twenty three years from 1949 till 1972, shutting down social change which led to a draft of changes by the Whitlam Labor Government including support for single mothers, no fault divorce, universal health care and many other reforms which changed Australia’s economic, legal and cultural landscape.)
At State and Local Government level too candidates are being selected who will fight to reverse the egalitarian notion of equality, and the right to be who we choose to be.
Add to those moves the dog whistle issue raising of the Opposition Leader in the Federal Parliament, the blatant racism and misogyny demonstrated in the last week or so and we see the threats to the freedoms so hard fought for blatantly obvious.
In the conclusion to his book Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea Darrin M McMahon lists many of the areas and regions throughout the world where great gains have been made in the quest for a semblance of equality, listing civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, religious freedom, overcoming the effects of colonialism, racism in South Africa and Zimbabwe, racism in America and worker’s rights among others.
The fight against poverty has seen a world-wide reduction in extreme poverty with China being a stand out example. The industrial growth since the regime of Mao Zedong has seen a vast reduction in poverty and for the first time most Chinese live economically secure lives.
He mentions that at the turn of this century, the world is a far more egalitarian place than ever before despite the news of conflicts and the consequent poverty, social and health issues. And while he may be right in his conclusions, there are threats to that egalitarianism. Since the 1980s in Europe, the USA, and here we have seen the wages of workers reduced in real terms while the captains of industry, the investors and the billionaires have seen their incomes grow. Again evident throughout the west is the escalating price of housing and the inability for first home buyers to build or buy a home of their own while rents have risen dramatically.
While Utopia is a dream, for the dream to even look like becoming a reality is threatened by those who decry the freedoms achieved, the drive toward a semblance of equality is seen as a danger to those who have the most, or seek the most for themselves.
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