Utopian Desire: Humanity’s Recurring Trend
Humanity’s historical obsession with utopias is reflective of individuals’ discontent with the imperfect. Originally coined by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516, a utopia is an imagined place or society that is the paragon of perfection. Many of the Californian Countercultures exemplify humanity’s collective and individual desire to create social environments rife with utopian overtones. This utopian desire manifested itself in oppositional social justice movements aimed to fix post- modern society’s flaws, alternative social trends such as the revival of rural communes and collectives, as well as works of art and literature such as Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven. California Counterculture’s utopian desire is distinct because it highlighted a collective discontent with post-modern society. However, much of the California Counterculture’s utopian desire is ironically similar to the pillars of Western Judeo-Christian Culture.
Beginning in 1966 in Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton led the black nationalist and socialist Black Panther Party (BPP). The organization was committed to combating police brutality as well as developing programs to alleviate food insecurity and injustice. Notably, the BPP developed a 10 Point Program outlining their demands for standards within their community. This plan highlights the BPP’s utopian desire.
The 10 Point Program included:
- We Want Freedom. We Want Power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
- We want full employment for our people.
- We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black Community.
- We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
- We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
- We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
- We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
- We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
- We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
- We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
As the BPP’s demands were far from outlandish, the 10 Point Plan specifically highlights that the struggle for utopia differs on an individual basis. Reaching a state of utopia is dependent on one’s pre-existing condition. Furthermore, the BPP’s 10 point plan and various initiatives show that utopias and dystopias can often be intertwined. One’s version of a utopia can ironically be another’s dystopia.
During the 1960’s, the US government’s decision to participate in the Vietnam War as well as the pervasive presence of Consumerism prompted a large portion of California’s younger generation to escape post-modern society and create new, rural communes and collectives. For example, Peter Coyote and The Diggers had a commune in Olema, Marin County that operated without money and was committed to egalitarian farming. The “Back to The Land Movement’ highlights humanity’s utopian desire because the communes provided a place where individuals did not need to be directly discontented with the flaws of post-modern society.
Ursula K Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven of 1971 embodies humanity’s common struggle to create their own, personal utopias. Throughout the novel, Earth is presented as a dystopian environment. George Orr, the protagonist, describes his doctor’s perception of his personal dystopia on Earth when he says, “He thought, I am living in a nightmare, from which from time to time I wake in sleep.” (Leguin,38) Furthermore, Le Guin further emphasizes that dreams provide an escape as well as an opportunity to transport an individual to utopia. While referencing dreams, Dr. Haber contends that “Freedom is what you’re working toward,” (Leguin 88) Le Guin additionally refers to a “Palace of Dreams” throughout the novel to make the the quest to reach utopia more attainable.
While the California Countercultures had a utopian desire in order to quell the flaws of post-modern society, Christian and Jewish presentations of Heaven and the Promised Land, respectively, show humanity’s longstanding desire to reach their own personal version of utopia.
Christianity, for example, frames the purpose of one’s time on Earth as to gain entry into God’s dwelling place, the Kingdom of Heaven. This achievement requires unfaltering devotion to Jesus Christ throughout one’s lifetime. It is no coincidence that Heaven is often equated to a paradise. Moreover, the Bible deliberately advertises Heaven as Christ’s followers’ closest attainable version of a utopia.
To contrast, one’s time on Earth is portrayed to be full of struggle and labor. Philippians clearly delineates Heaven’s utopian nature:
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”-Philippians 1:21–23
In the same vein, Judaism’s Promised Land is the place that, according to the Jewish Bible, was promised and then given by God to Abraham for both him and his followers to enjoy. The Promised Land is a symbol of salvation and liberation, which has helped -throughout history- to define two tenets of a Jew’s personal version of Utopia. In addition, the Promised Land’s nickname as “the land of milk and honey” further reinforces its Utopian nature.
Christianity and Judaism’s utopian influence is ironic in regard to the Californian countercultures because the two religions served as a backdrop to the very culture that the counterculture both opposed or strayed away from.
