‘…the future will be just like the past, only more so.’
i suspect the utopian delusion might be born from accumulative disillusionment giving way to a sense of impending doom,
thomas more’s book ‘utopia’ is now 500 years old. this may give us a clue to how possible it might be to achieve … although i’m not saying impossible.
as per joanne paul’s biographical, thomas more is concerned with the potential ‘destruction of what is held “in common”… what is shared, what no one holds to the exclusion of others, and therefore what is “public” or belonging to the corporate community as a whole’.
the concept is of course closely linked to a humanistic hybrid, which if i understand correctly is even older; before we decide it’s not attainable or possible for old concepts to live in modern society, let’s just think of another old model like feudalism.
exactly.
urban architecture models have sought ways of accommodating increasing numbers of people for ages; be it for safety and protection, reflecting their status, hierarchy, social position and still it only seems to succeeded in urban suicide.
neglecting the nuances of basic sentiments underlying socio-behavioural patterns in agglomerated communities is what brought us here.
an approach ‘for the common good’ stares forever into a homogeneous wall of consistent desires; nowadays the pride of equality and individualism has put a further spin on the definition, who is common and what is commonplace.
modern society has been lured into a certain notion of success and progress which keeps the current scales of economies and law from tipping, although not entirely; driven by the value systems implemented by democracy and capitalism there is no other outcome than poverty and pain. the battle between inclusivity and exclusivity continues.
we are too many who want too much.
we’ve been led to believe that we are in control of our own destiny, but between laughing and chocking on my champagne, i still have time to watch the news.
perhaps history will continue to make fools of us all.
