Hypothetical utopias and actually-existing utopianintentional communities focus on, among other things, equality in categories such aseconomics,government andjustice, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying according to ideology.[2]Lyman Tower Sargent argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are nothomogeneous. Their members have desires that conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. To quote:
There are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic, anarchist, ecological, feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, hierarchical, racist, left-wing, right-wing, reformist, free love, nuclear family, extended family, gay, lesbian and many more utopias [Naturism,Nude Christians, ...] Utopianism, some argue, is essential for the improvement of the human condition. But if used wrongly, it becomes dangerous. Utopia has an inherent contradictory nature here.
— Lyman Tower Sargent,Utopianism: A very short introduction (2010)[3]
The wordutopia was coined in 1516 fromAncient Greek by the EnglishmanSir Thomas More for his Latin textUtopia. It literally translates as "no place", coming from theGreek:οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place"), and meant any non-existent society, when 'described in considerable detail'.[4] However, in standard usage, the word's meaning hasshifted and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewedas considerably better than contemporary society.[5]
In his original work, More carefully pointed out the similarity of the word toeutopia, meaning "good place", fromGreek:εὖ ("good" or "well") and τόπος ("place"), which ostensibly would be the more appropriate term for the concept in modern English. The pronunciations ofeutopia andutopia inEnglish areidentical, which may have given rise to the change in meaning.[5][6]Dystopia, a term meaning "bad place" coined in 1868, draws on this latter meaning. The opposite of a utopia,dystopia is a concept which surpassedutopia in popularity in thefictional literature from the 1950s onwards, chiefly because of the impact of George Orwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four.
Famous quotes from writers and characters about utopia:
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia to-day, flesh and blood tomorrow." —Victor Hugo
"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias." —Oscar Wilde
"None of theabstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace." —Theodor W. Adorno
"I think that there is always a part of utopia in any romantic relationship." —Pedro Almodovar
"In ourselves alone the absolute light keeps shining, a sigillum falsi et sui, mortis et vitae aeternae [false signal and signal of eternal life and death itself], and the fantastic move to it begins: to the external interpretation of the daydream, the cosmic manipulation of a concept that is utopian in principle." —Ernst Bloch
"When I die, I want to die in a Utopia that I have helped to build." —Henry Kuttner
"A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations who can seriously doubt that if these [United] States should either be wholly disunited, or only united in partial confederacies, the subdivisions into which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests with each other." —Alexander Hamilton,Federalist No. 6.
"We are all utopians, so soon as we wish for something different." –Henri Lefebvre[11]
"Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian." –Emma Goldman[12]
Utopias and other models of government, based on the public good, may be inconceivable because of the disordered human passions which, under the wrong governments, seek to highlight the poorly conceived or selfish interest of the community. But even though we find it impossible, they are ridiculous to sinful people whose sense of self-destruction prevents them from believing.
Marx andEngels used the word "utopia" to denote unscientific social theories.[13]
Which means that we should reinvent utopia but in what sense. There are two false meanings of utopia one is this old notion of imagining this ideal society we know will never be realized, the other is the capitalist utopia in the sense of new perverse desire that you are not only allowed but even solicited to realize. The true utopia is when the situation is so without issue, without the way to resolve it within the coordinates of the possible that out of the pure urge of survival you have to invent a new space. Utopia is not kind of a freeimagination utopia is a matter of inner most urgency, you are forced to imagine it, it is the only way out, and this is what we need today.[14]
...utopism was a common type of thinking at the dawn of humancivilization. We find utopian beliefs in the oldest religious imaginations, appear regularly in the neighborhood of ancient, yet pre-philosophical views on the causes and meaning of natural events, the purpose of creation, the path of good and evil, happiness and misfortune, fairy tales and legends later inspired by poetry and philosophy ... the underlying motives on which utopian literature is built are as old as the entire historical epoch of human history.[15]
...everysocial organization relies on something that is not realized or feasible, but has the ideal that is somewhere beyond the horizon, alighthouse to which it may seek to approach if it considers that ideal socially valid and generally accepted.[16]
Chronologically, the first recorded Utopian proposal isPlato'sRepublic.[17] Part conversation, part fictional depiction and part policy proposal, theRepublic sets out a system that would categorize citizens into a rigid class structure of "golden", "silver", "bronze" and "iron" socioeconomic classes. The golden citizens are trained in a rigorous 50-year-long educational program to be benign oligarchs, the "philosopher-kings". Plato stressed this structure many times in statements, and in theRepublic and other published works. The wisdom of these rulers will supposedly eliminate poverty and deprivation through fairly distributed resources, though the details on how to do this are unclear. The educational program for the rulers is the central notion of the proposal. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war but hiresmercenaries from among its war-prone neighbors. These mercenaries were deliberately sent into dangerous situations in the hope that the more warlike populations of all surrounding countries will be weeded out, leaving peaceful peoples to remain.
During the 16th century, Thomas More's bookUtopia proposed an ideal society of the same name.[18] Readers, including Utopian socialists, have chosen to accept this imaginary society as the realistic blueprint for a working nation, while others have postulated that Thomas More intended nothing of the sort.[19] It is believed that More'sUtopia functions only on the level of a satire, a work intended to reveal more about theEngland of his time than about an idealistic society.[20] This interpretation is bolstered by the title of the book and nation and its apparent confusion between the Greek for "no place" and "good place": "utopia" is a compound of the syllable ou-, meaning "no" and topos, meaning place. But thehomophonic prefix eu-, meaning "good", also resonates in the word, with the implication that the perfectly "good place" is really "no place".
In many cultures, societies, and religions, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. In those days, the variousmyths tell us, there was an instinctive harmony between humanity and nature. People's needs were few and their desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundance provided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever for war or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work. Humans were simple andpious and felt themselves close to their God or gods. According to one anthropological theory, hunter-gatherers were theoriginal affluent society.[citation needed]
These mythical or religious archetypes are inscribed in many cultures and resurge with special vitality when people are in difficult and critical times. However, in utopias, the projection of the myth does not take place towards the remote past but either towards the future or towards distant and fictional places, imagining that at some time in the future, at some point in space, or beyond death, there must exist the possibility of living happily.[citation needed]
In the United States and Europe, during theSecond Great Awakening (ca. 1790–1840) and thereafter, many radical religious groups formed utopian societies in whichfaith could govern all aspects of members' lives. These utopian societies included theShakers, who originated in England in the 18th century and arrived in America in 1774. A number of religious utopian societies from Europe came to the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness (led byJohannes Kelpius (1667–1708), theEphrata Cloister (established in 1732) and theHarmony Society, among others. The Harmony Society was aChristian theosophy andpietist group founded inIptingen,Germany, in 1785. Due to religious persecution by theLutheran Church and the government inWürttemberg,[21] the society moved to the United States on October 7, 1803, settling inPennsylvania. On February 15, 1805, about 400 followers formally organized the Harmony Society, placing all theirgoods in common. The group lasted until 1905, making it one of the longest-running financially successful communes in American history.
TheOneida Community, founded byJohn Humphrey Noyes inOneida, New York, was a utopian religiouscommune that lasted from 1848 to 1881. Although this utopian experiment has become better known today for its manufacture of Oneida silverware, it was one of the longest-running communes in American history. TheAmana Colonies were communal settlements inIowa, started by radical Germanpietists, which lasted from 1855 to 1932. TheAmana Corporation, manufacturer of refrigerators and household appliances, was originally started by the group. Other examples areFountain Grove (founded in 1875), Riker's Holy City and other Californian utopian colonies between 1855 and 1955 (Hine), as well asSointula[22] inBritish Columbia, Canada. TheAmish andHutterites can also be considered an attempt towards religious utopia. A wide variety ofintentional communities with some type of faith-based ideas have also started across the world.
Anthropologist Richard Sosis examined 200 communes in the 19th-century United States, both religious and secular (mostlyutopian socialist). 39 percent of the religious communes were still functioning 20 years after their founding while only 6 percent of the secular communes were.[23] The number of costly sacrifices that a religious commune demanded from its members had a linear effect on its longevity, while in secular communes demands for costly sacrifices did not correlate with longevity and the majority of the secular communes failed within 8 years. Sosis cites anthropologistRoy Rappaport in arguing thatrituals and laws are more effective whensacralized.[24] Social psychologistJonathan Haidt cites Sosis's research in his 2012 bookThe Righteous Mind as the best evidence thatreligion is anadaptive solution to thefree-rider problem by enablingcooperation withoutkinship.[25]Evolutionary medicine researcherRandolph M. Nesse and theoretical biologistMary Jane West-Eberhard have argued instead that because humans withaltruistic tendencies are preferred as social partners they receivefitness advantages bysocial selection,[list 1] with Nesse arguing further that social selection enabled humans as a species to become extraordinarilycooperative and capable of creatingculture.[30]
TheBook of Revelation in the ChristianBible depicts aneschatological time with the defeat ofSatan, ofEvil and ofSin. The main difference compared to theOld Testamentpromises is that such a defeat also has anontological value: "Then I saw 'anew heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea...'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away"[31] and no longer justgnosiological (Isaiah: "See, I will create/new heavens and a new earth./The former things will not be remembered,/nor will they come to mind".[32][33][34] Narrow interpretation of the text depicts Heaven on Earth or a Heaven brought to Earth withoutsin. Daily and mundane details of this new Earth, where God andJesus rule, remain unclear, although it is implied to be similar to the biblical Garden of Eden. Some theological philosophers believe that heaven will not be a physical realm but instead anincorporeal place forsouls.[35]
TheGreek poetHesiod, around the 8th century BC, in his compilation of the mythological tradition (the poemWorks and Days), explained that, prior tothe present era, there were four other progressively less perfect ones, the oldest of which was theGolden Age.
Perhaps the oldest Utopia of which we know, as pointed out many years ago byMoses Finley,[36] isHomer'sScheria, island of thePhaeacians.[37] A mythical place, often equated with classicalCorcyra, (modernCorfu/Kerkyra), whereOdysseus was washed ashore after 10 years of storm-tossed wandering and escorted to the King's palace by his daughterNausicaa. With stout walls, a stone temple and good harbours, it is perhaps the 'ideal'Greek colony, a model for those founded from the middle of the 8th Century onward. A land of plenty, home to expert mariners (with the self-navigating ships), and skilled craftswomen who live in peace under their king's rule and fear no strangers.
Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer of the 1st century, dealt with the blissful and mythic past of humanity.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; thetree of life also in the midst of the garden and thetree of knowledge of good and evil. [...] And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. [...] And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; [...] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
According to the exegesis that the biblical theologianHerbert Haag proposes in the bookIs original sin in Scripture?,[39] published soon after theSecond Vatican Council, Genesis 2:25 would indicate thatAdam and Eve were created from the beginning naked of thedivine grace, an originary grace that, then, they would never have had and even less would have lost due to the subsequent events narrated.[40] On the other hand, while supporting a continuity in the Bible about the absence ofpreternatural gifts (Latin:dona praeternaturalia)[41] with regard to theophitic event, Haag never makes any reference to the discontinuity of the loss of access to the tree of life.
The Land ofCockaigne (also Cockaygne, Cokaygne), was an imaginary land of idleness and luxury, famous in medieval stories and the subject of several poems, one of which, an early translation of a 13th-century French work, is given inGeorge Ellis'Specimens of Early English Poets. In this, "the houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the streets were paved with pastry and the shops supplied goods for nothing." London has been so called (seeCockney) but Boileau applies the same to Paris.[42]Schlaraffenland is an analogous German tradition. All these myths also express some hope that theidyllic state of affairs they describe is not irretrievably and irrevocably lost to mankind, that it can be regained in some way or other.
One way might be a quest for an "earthly paradise" – a place likeShangri-La, hidden in theTibetan mountains and described byJames Hilton in his utopian novelLost Horizon (1933).Christopher Columbus followed directly in this tradition in his belief that he had found the Garden of Eden when, towards the end of the 15th century, he first encountered theNew World and its indigenous inhabitants.[43]
ThePeach Blossom Spring (Chinese:桃花源;pinyin:Táohuāyuán), a prose piece written by the Chinese poetTao Yuanming, describes a utopian place.[44][45] The narrative goes that a fisherman from Wuling sailed upstream a river and came across a beautiful blossoming peach grove and lush green fields covered with blossom petals.[46] Entranced by the beauty, he continued upstream and stumbled onto a small grotto when he reached the end of the river.[46] Though narrow at first, he was able to squeeze through the passage and discovered an ethereal utopia, where the people led an ideal existence in harmony with nature.[47] He saw a vast expanse of fertile lands, clear ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo groves and the like with a community of people of all ages and houses in neat rows.[47] The people explained that their ancestors escaped to this place during the civil unrest of theQin dynasty and they themselves had not left since or had contact with anyone from the outside.[48] They had not even heard of the later dynasties of bygone times or the then-currentJin dynasty.[48] In the story, the community was secluded and unaffected by the troubles of the outside world.[48]
The sense of timelessness was predominant in the story as a perfect utopian community remains unchanged, that is, it had no decline nor the need to improve.[48] Eventually, the Chinese termPeach Blossom Spring came to be synonymous for the concept of utopia.[49]
Datong(Chinese:大同;pinyin:dàtóng) is a traditional Chinese Utopia. The main description of it is found in the ChineseClassic of Rites, in the chapter called "Li Yun"(Chinese:禮運;pinyin:Lǐ yùn). Later, Datong and its ideal of 'The World Belongs to Everyone/The World is Held in Common' Tianxia weigong(Chinese:天下爲公;pinyin:Tiānxià wèi gōng) influenced modern Chinese reformers and revolutionaries, such asKang Youwei.
It is said, onceMaitreya isreborn into the future kingdom ofKetumati, a utopian age will commence.[50] The city is described inBuddhism as a domain filled with palaces made of gems and surrounded byKalpavriksha trees producing goods. During its years, none of the inhabitants ofJambudvipa will need to take part in cultivation and hunger will no longer exist.[51]
Particularly in the early 19th century, several utopian ideas arose, often in response to the belief that social disruption was created and caused by the development ofcommercialism andcapitalism. These ideas are often grouped in a greater "utopian socialist" movement, due to their shared characteristics. A once common characteristic is anegalitarian distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition ofmoney. Citizens only dowork which they enjoy and which is for thecommon good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts and sciences.
One classic example of such a utopia appears inEdward Bellamy's 1888 novelLooking Backward.William Morris depicts another socialist utopia in his 1890 novelNews from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down (bureaucratic) nature of Bellamy's utopia, which Morris criticized. However, as the socialist movement developed, it moved away from utopianism;Marx in particular became a harsh critic of earlier socialism which he negatively characterized as "utopian". (For more information, see theHistory of Socialism article.) In a materialist utopian society, the economy is perfect; there is no inflation and only perfect social and financial equality exists.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield's utopian theorizing on systematiccolonialsettlement policy in the early-19th century also centred on economic considerations, but with a view to preserving class distinctions;[54]Wakefield influenced several colonies founded inNew Zealand andAustralia in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.
In 1905,H. G. Wells publishedA Modern Utopia, which was widely read and admired and provoked much discussion.
The utopias created by Soviet authors, especially during theKhrushchev Thaw era, were simultaneously social and technological, depicting a communist society of the future underpinned by the advanced technology[55][56] and featuring both a new person and new socio-economical institutions.[57] Ivan Efremov'sAndromeda was the key text of this genre[55] in which the boundaries of humanity are transcended.[58] Later works byStrugatsky Brothers includingNoon: 22nd Century, are more ambivalent[55] and their utopian future is a distillation of whatever is best in today's humanity.[58] Soviet utopian works were influenced by theutopian socialism and the concept ofnoosphere.[59]
Utopian flying machines, France, 1890–1900 (chromolithographtrading card)
ThoughFrancis Bacon'sNew Atlantis is imbued with a scientific spirit, scientific and technological utopias tend to be based in the future, when it is believed that advancedscience andtechnology will allow utopianliving standards; for example, the absence ofdeath andsuffering; changes inhuman nature and thehuman condition. Technology has affected the way humans have lived to such an extent that normal functions, like sleep, eating or even reproduction, have been replaced by artificial means. Other examples include a society where humans have struck a balance with technology and it is merely used to enhance the human living condition (e.g.Star Trek). In place of the static perfection of a utopia,libertarian transhumanists envision an "extropia", an open, evolving society allowing individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms they prefer.
Mariah Utsawa presented a theoretical basis fortechnological utopianism and set out to develop a variety of technologies ranging from maps to designs for cars and houses which might lead to the development of such a utopia. In his bookDeep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, philosopherNick Bostrom explores what to do in a "solved world", assuming that human civilization safely buildsmachine superintelligence and manages to solve its political, coordination and fairness problems. He outlines some technologies considered physically possible at technological maturity, such ascognitive enhancement,reversal of aging,self-replicating spacecrafts, arbitrary sensory inputs (taste, sound...), or the precise control of motivation, mood, well-being and personality.[60]
Opposing thisoptimistic perspective are scenarios where advanced science and technology will, through deliberate misuse or accident, cause environmental damage or even humanity'sextinction. Critics, such asJacques Ellul andTimothy Mitchell advocateprecautions against the premature embrace of new technologies. Both raise questions about changing responsibility and freedom brought bydivision of labour. Authors such asJohn Zerzan andDerrick Jensen consider that modern technology is progressively depriving humans of their autonomy and advocate the collapse of the industrial civilization, in favor of small-scale organization, as a necessary path to avoid the threat of technology on human freedom andsustainability.
There are many examples of techno-dystopias portrayed in mainstream culture, such as the classicsBrave New World andNineteen Eighty-Four, often published as "1984", which have explored some of these topics.
Ecological utopian society describes new ways in which society should relate to nature.[61]Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston from 1975 by Ernest Callenbach was one of the first influential ecological utopian novels.[62] Richard Grove's bookGreen Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism 1600–1860 from 1995 suggested the roots of ecologicalutopian thinking.[63] Grove's book sees early environmentalism as a result of the impact of utopian tropical islands on European data-driven scientists.[64] The works on ecological eutopia perceive a widening gap between the modern Western way of living that destroys nature[65] and a more traditional way of living before industrialization.[66] Ecological utopias may advocate a society that is more sustainable. According to the Dutch philosopherMarius de Geus, ecological utopias could be inspirational sources for movements involvinggreen politics.[67]
Utopias have been used to explore the ramifications of genders being either a societal construct or a biologically "hard-wired" imperative or some mix of the two.[68] Socialist and economic utopias have tended to take the "woman question" seriously and often to offer some form of equality between the sexes as part and parcel of their vision, whether this be by addressing misogyny, reorganizing society along separatist lines, creating a certain kind of androgynous equality that ignores gender or in some other manner. For example,Edward Bellamy'sLooking Backward (1887) responded, progressively for his day, to the contemporary women's suffrage and women's rights movements. Bellamy supported these movements by incorporating the equality of women and men into his utopian world's structure, albeit by consigning women to a separate sphere of light industrial activity (due to women's lesser physical strength) and making various exceptions for them in order to make room for (and to praise) motherhood. One of the earlier feminist utopias that imagines complete separatism isCharlotte Perkins Gilman'sHerland (1915).[citation needed]
Inscience fiction and technological speculation, gender can be challenged on the biological as well as the social level.Marge Piercy'sWoman on the Edge of Time portrays equality between the genders and complete equality in sexuality (regardless of the gender of the lovers). Birth-giving, often felt as the divider that cannot be avoided in discussions of women's rights and roles, has been shifted onto elaborate biological machinery that functions to offer an enriched embryonic experience. When a child is born, it spends most of its time in the children's ward with peers. Three "mothers" per child are the norm and they are chosen in a gender neutral way (men as well as women may become "mothers") on the basis of their experience and ability. Technological advances also make possible the freeing of women from childbearing inShulamith Firestone'sThe Dialectic of Sex. The fictional aliens inMary Gentle'sGolden Witchbreed start out as gender-neutral children and do not develop into men and women until puberty and gender has no bearing on social roles. In contrast,Doris Lessing'sThe Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980) suggests that men's and women's values are inherent to the sexes and cannot be changed, making a compromise between them essential. InMy Own Utopia (1961) byElizabeth Mann Borghese, gender exists but is dependent upon age rather than sex – genderless children mature into women, some of whom eventually become men.[68] "William Marston'sWonder Woman comics of the 1940s featured Paradise Island, also known asThemyscira, a matriarchal all-female community of peace, loving submission, bondage and giant space kangaroos."[69]
Utopiansingle-gender worlds or single-sex societies have long been one of the primary ways to explore implications of gender and gender-differences.[70] In speculative fiction, female-only worlds have been imagined to come about by the action of disease that wipes out men, along with the development of technological or mystical method that allow femaleparthenogenicreproduction. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel approaches this type of separate society. Many feminist utopias pondering separatism were written in the 1970s, as a response to theLesbian separatist movement;[70][71][72] examples includeJoanna Russ'sThe Female Man andSuzy McKee Charnas'sWalk to the End of the World andMotherlines.[72] Utopias imagined by male authors have often included equality between sexes, rather than separation, although as noted Bellamy's strategy includes a certain amount of "separate but equal".[73] The use of female-only worlds allows the exploration of female independence and freedom frompatriarchy. The societies may be lesbian, such asDaughters of a Coral Dawn byKatherine V. Forrest or not, and may not be sexual at all – a famous early sexless example beingHerland (1915) byCharlotte Perkins Gilman.[71] Charlene Ball writes inWomen's Studies Encyclopedia that use of speculative fiction to explore gender roles in future societies has been more common in the United States compared to Europe and elsewhere,[68] although such efforts asGerd Brantenberg'sEgalia's Daughters andChrista Wolf's portrayal of the land of Colchis in herMedea: Voicesare certainly as influential and famous as any of the American feminist utopias.
The English political philosopherJames Harrington (1611–1677), author of the utopian workThe Commonwealth of Oceana, published in 1656, inspired Englishcountry-party republicanism (1680s to 1740s) and became influential in the design of three American colonies. His theories ultimately contributed to the idealistic principles of the American Founders. The colonies ofCarolina (founded in 1670),Pennsylvania (founded in 1681), andGeorgia (founded in 1733) were the only three English colonies in America that were planned as utopian societies with an integrated physical, economic and social design. At the heart of the plan for Georgia was a concept of "agrarian equality" in which land was allocated equally and additional land acquisition through purchase or inheritance was prohibited; the plan was an early step toward theyeoman republic later envisioned byThomas Jefferson.[74][75][76]
Thecommunes of the 1960s in the United States often represented an attempt to greatly improve the way humans live together in communities. Theback-to-the-land movements andhippies inspired many to try to live in peace and harmony on farms or in remote areas and to set up new types of governance.[77] Communes likeKaliflower, which existed between 1967 and 1973, attempted to live outside of society's norms and to create their own idealcommunalist society.[78][79]
People all over the world organized and builtintentional communities with the hope of developing a better way of living together. Many of these intentional communities are relatively small, with populations close to 100.[80] While many of these small communities failed, some are still in existence. The religion-basedTwelve Tribes, which started in the United States in 1972, grew into many groups around the world.
Similarly, the communeBrook Farm was established in 1841, founded by Charles Fourier's visions of Utopia. Its residents attempted to recreate Fourier's idea of the Phalanx, a central building in a society.[81] However, this commune did not sustain itself and ended after only six years of operation. Its residents wanted to keep it going but could not primarily due to financial difficulties. The community's goal aligned with utopian ideals of leading a more wholesome and simpler life and avoiding the atmosphere of social pressure in the surrounding society at the time.[81] Despite ambition and hopes, it is difficult for communes to stay in operation.
Critical utopia is a theory conceptualised by literary theoristTom Moylan.[82] In contrast with utopianism, critical utopia rejects utopia. The idea is highlyself-referential and uses the idea of utopia to advance society while critiquing it simultaneously. A problem with utopianism is identified: it has limitations since the imagined utopia is significantly distant from current society. Utopia also fails to acknowledge the differences between people that result in differences in experience.[82] Moylan explains that "[critical utopias] ultimately refer to something other than a predictable alternative paradigm, for at their core they identify self-critical utopian discourse itself as a process that can tear apart the dominant ideological web. Here, then, critical utopian discourse becomes a seditious expression of social change and popular sovereignty carried on in a permanently open process of envisioning what is not yet."[83]
Several plays and films also present utopian visions. The 1937 filmLost Horizon, the 1954 nudist filmGarden of Eden, and the 1984 filmThe Other Side of the Horizon portray utopian communities.They Came to a City, a 1944 British science fiction film, was adapted from the 1943 play of the same title written by J. B. Priestley. It portrays the arrival of nine Britons in a mysterious city that to some is a utopia; to others not so much. The 2024 Francis Ford Coppolla filmMegalopolis considers the obstacles faced by an architect who wants to found a utopian community in an alternate future U.S.A. under a corrupt emperor.
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^abSargent, Lyman Tower (2005). Rüsen, Jörn; Fehr, Michael; Reiger, Thomas W. (eds.). The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A cross-national perspective.Thinking Utopia: Steps into Other Worlds (Report). New York: Berghahn Books. p. 11.ISBN978-1-57181-440-1.
^Lodder, C.; Kokkori, M; Mileeva, M. (2013).Utopian Reality: Reconstructing culture in revolutionary Russia and beyond. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. pp. 1–9.ISBN978-90-04-26320-8.
^Douglas, Christopher (2013). ""Something That Has Already Happened": Recapitulation and Religious Indifference in The Plot Against America".MFS Modern Fiction Studies.59 (4):784–810.doi:10.1353/mfs.2013.0045.ISSN1080-658X.S2CID162310618.
^Fondanèche, Daniel; Chatelain, Danièle; Slusser, George (1988). "Dick, the Libertarian Prophet (Dick: une prophète libertaire)".Science Fiction Studies.15 (2):141–151.doi:10.1525/sfs.15.2.0141.ISSN0091-7729.JSTOR4239877.
^Joel B. Green; Jacqueline Lapsley; Rebekah Miles; Allen Verhey, eds. (2011).Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics.Ada Township, Michigan:Baker Books. p. 190.ISBN978-1-4412-3998-3.This goodness theme is advanced most definitively through the promise of a renewal of all creation, a hope present in OT prophetic literature (Isa. 65:17–25) but portrayed most strikingly through Revelation's vision of a "new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1). There the divine king of creation promises to renew all of reality: "See, I am making all things new" (Rev. 21:5).
^Tian, Xiaofei (2010). "From the Eastern Jin through the Early Tang (317–649)".The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 221.ISBN978-0-521-85558-7.
^Berkowitz, Alan J. (2000).Patterns of Disengagement: the Practice and Portrayal of Reclusion in Early Medieval China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 225.ISBN978-0-8047-3603-9.
^abLongxi, Zhang (2005).Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 182.ISBN978-0-8014-4369-5.
^abLongxi, Zhang (2005).Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 182–183.ISBN978-0-8014-4369-5.
^abcdLongxi, Zhang (2005).Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 183.ISBN978-0-8014-4369-5.
^Gu, Ming Dong (2006).Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 59.ISBN978-0-7914-6815-9.
^Suslov, Mikhail; Bodin, Per-Arne, eds. (2019).The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia. Bloomsbury Publishing (published September 19, 2019). p. 157.ISBN9781788317061.
^abGomel, Elana (2014). "Utopian doldrums".Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism: Beyond the Golden Rule. Palgrave Macmillan (published June 24, 2014).ISBN9781137367631.
^Grebens, G. V. (1978).Ivan Efremov's Theory of Soviet Science Fiction. Vantage Press. pp. ix, 38, 48.ISBN9780533035113.
^Bostrom, Nick (March 27, 2024).Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World.ISBN978-1646871643.
^Kirk, Andrew G. (2007).Counterculture Green: the Whole Earth Catalog and American environmentalism. University Press of Kansas. p. 86.ISBN978-0-7006-1545-2.
^For examples and explanations, see:Marshall, Alan (2016).Ecotopia 2121: A Vision of Our Future Green Utopia. New York: Arcade Publishers.ISBN978-1-62872-614-5. And Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, and Bellamy, Brent Ryan (2019).An Ecotopian Lexicon. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.ISBN978-151790-589-7
^de Geus, Marius (1996).Ecologische utopieën – Ecotopia's en het milieudebat. Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel.
Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science (1870?) byFriedrich Engels.
Ideology and Utopia: an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge (1936), byKarl Mannheim, translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils. New York, Harcourt, Brace. See original,Ideologie Und Utopie, Bonn: Cohen.
Spirit of Utopia (2000), byErnst Bloch. See original,Geist Der Utopie, 1923.
Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (2005) byFredric Jameson. London: Verso.
Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction (2010), byLyman Tower Sargent. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology (2010) byDarko Suvin. Frankfurt am Main, Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang.
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