Is it You-topias??
It seems like we have an obsession with utopias….
Every year a new book emerges, which then turns into an over publicized blockbuster movie, which then turns into an endless amount of sequels that all come to the same conclusion; utopias NEVER work. Even with the Garden of Eden in the Bible, it is described as this picturesque paradise where everything is at peace with one another, but I think we can all just look around to see that is not how ite ended up. Instead, the question we should be trying to answer is, do we truly understand the meaning of what a utopia represents? And after so much time, why are we still obsessed with them?
If you think about it, utopias are created to satisfy our egos. Utopias cater towards each individual person; what they value, where they live, what they believe, who and what they want to be surrounded by. Everybody’s utopias are their own, thus the best interest of the society as a whole is not usually the priority. On the surface, utopias offer a world without tension, or greed, or violence, but utopias also degrade individuality, change, and improvement.
In your own utopia you can be your own God, your own president, your own enemy because YOU control the world. Even today with this new emergence of virtual reality worlds, who are the ones creating them and influencing how the public perceives them? The rich egocentric tech tycoons who have the wealth and power that also claim they want to create a “better world for everyone”, but isn’t it just a better world for them?
However, utopia’s are not new by any means. This idea of ideal worlds better than our own has always remained an obsession for humankind. Additionally, this idea of being at the center of the world, this hub where the new world is emerging, has become a core element in the making of a utopia.
The perfect example of this is Humbead’s Revised Map of the World With List of Population. Emerging out of the radical 60’s, this map depicts Berkeley as bordering New York along with Los Angeles and San Francisco. This demonstrates the fallacy of space that comes with a utopia; a place categorized by like-minded people and not geography. This map quite essentially legitimizes the notion that distances become obsolete when everything and everyone that is “important” is in the major metropolitan areas. Even though this centristic point of view may be close minded to the rest of the world, this utopian perspective has remained a recurring theme for centuries. As Oscar Wilde put it, “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 realization of utopias.” It is human nature to want what we don’t have, but a trend that is even more innate is going against what is considered conventional or orthodox. A utopia is the epitome of a counterculture because it is a world that exists solely just to counter the existing culture.
Our obsession with Utopia’s is more of a reflection of the problems within our own society. It is human tendency to run away from the problems at hand, so in a way, imagining a Utopia is a product of an escapism mindset, even though on the surface it seems idyllic. Utopia’s represent a world with peace, but doesn’t peace among everyone mean a lack of individual voices? What people do not understand is the promotion of a peaceful society where everybody gets along, is promoting a world without diverse perspectives, and what type of world would that be? Diversity and contradictory points of views are what add character and color to society, without it we would all be living the same lives.
A utopia that promotes peace, or creating a map that redefines “borders”, or even writing a book of radical poems amidst an obscenity trial are all examples that demonstrate our society’s trend of countering and challenging modern day culture. The question is, do we end up learning from them?
