Sunday, August 11, 2013

UTOPIAS: The Allure and Mirage of Perfection

For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans, it is just beyond the horizon. ~ Henry Kissinger


Humans have always yearned to live a utopian existence. The word "utopia," created by Sir Thomas More in the early 16th century for the title of his renowned book, refers to an ideal and perfect place where everyone lives in harmony and everything is done for the best. Interestingly, the Greek language basis of "utopia" can mean either " good place " or "no place," illustrating its simultaneous allure and mirage-like qualities. The earliest description of such a place is found in Plato's Republic, probably written in 330 BC, where he describes a society that eliminates poverty and enjoys an equitable distribution of resources for its citizens. Plato's version of utopia has benign rulers, few laws, no lawyers (!) and rarely sends its people to war.

Since Plato and More many other authors have written their own distinct accounts of utopia, including Samuel Butler (Erewhon), Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward), B.F. Skinner (Walden Two) and Arthur C. Clark (Childhood's End). Utopias certainly can be in the minds of the beholders.

In the wild and crazy 1960's and 70's various groups of free-thinking people (aka, hippies) headed for the hills and rural areas not to establish literary utopias, but real ones. By the late 1960's more than 2,000 utopian communes were founded in the US. This back-to-the-woods movement is described in a recent documentary film, "American Commune." The film reveals the founding and adaption of America's largest utopian socialist experiment, The Farm. The Farm started in 1970 when more than 300 people headed from Northern California to woody, rural Tennessee on buses to chart a more perfect union. It is still operating although much differently than it did 40 years ago.

Unsurprisingly, such utopian fantasies prompted others to describe their own dark-mirrored impending societies, dystopias, imaginary places where everything is dreadful, and misery and oppression prevail. The utopia/dystopia yin and yang go hand in hand. Well-known 20th century dystopias include George Orwell's Animal Farm and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

I remember being fascinated with utopias in high school, when I read a number of these utopia/dystopia classics. I didn't then head off to the woods; I waited to do that in grad school.

Movie-makers, like their literary cousins, have also portrayed numerous utopian/dystopian futures (mostly based on published literature), including Lost Horizon, Things to Come, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and my fav, Brazil. Dystopian films seem to outnumber utopian ones; should we be surprised? There's even an "official" guide to dystopian films. The latest screen-based dystopia is Elysium, an extravagant special-effects laden rendition of Earth's bleak future in 2154, with Matt Damon as the rescuer-in-chief.

Literary and film utopias are presented as imaginary visions, places that might be possible in a perfect future. Often they are satirical commentaries on present-day society[1]. Socialist utopias neglect the malfunctions of centralized planning; just like capitalist utopias disregard the consequences of market failure. No real-world warts besmirch perfection. But authors rarely offer an actual pathway from now to utopian perfection.

There is one mechanism that many, many people see as a means of reaching their personal utopias –lotteries. In 2012 folks spent about $69B on lotteries across the US in hopes of winning the jackpot. Their individual odds? About 1 in 175M; which is why such expenditures are called a tax on people who don't understand math. Nevertheless, the size of the jackpot, not the odds, is what motivates players to spend their money so someone else can win it. Just imagine having $448M (a recent Powerball jackpot) for only $2 down! That sum is bound to open the pearly, golden gates of your own utopia, even though many winners succumb to the hazards of something called the "sudden wealth syndrome." So it goes…

Not just lottery ticket-holders, writers and film-makers have explored utopias. Politicians and private decision-makers have played with the utopia myth (that utopia is indeed achievable) on a recurring basis.

You can easily argue that marketers rest their sales pitches on this myth. If you just buy that BMW or Johnny Walker Black or Crest toothpaste, your life will be happier, more rewarding and more filled with success. Can we each be willing consumers of the utopia myth? Perhaps.

Our sense of utopia being potentially accessible but just beyond the horizon, as Henry Kissinger states[2] above, was put into high gear during the US housing boom. Towards its peak, Joe and Jane America were led to believe that they (meaning real, regular folks, not just the rich) could be guaranteed to make lots of money just by purchasing a tract house in Tracy (or elsewhere). Real estate-based fiscal utopia was within reach, all you had to do was sign on the dotted lines.

This belief in the utopia myth wasn't confined to America. Even the notably skeptical Irish citizenry drank their financiers' magic real estate potions. Sipping these utopian potions didn't end well for anyone. [Except for virtually all the financiers, the purveyors of the dark potions, who have escaped retribution.] Both the individuals who bought "too good to be true" real estate as well as their nations were devastated. The real-estate-based Irish bank bailout totaled $571B, or an astonishing 365% of its GDP. Ah, the elusive nature of utopias.

Utopian fantasies also can be fortified during down-cycles as well as booms. Just look at what libertarian politicians like Ron Paul and Ted Cruz preach with apocalyptic fervor: you can be "saved" from your disintegrating present existence by stripping dystopian government out of your life. Oh, my.

Are tea-partiers thus mere mortals searching for utopia? More broadly, are all of us looking for that good (but perhaps nowhere) place just beyond the horizon? Has the "American Dream" always been intertwined with utopian wishes? Quite possibly, although it would surprise Plato and Sir Thomas More that we are now characterizing utopia far more personally than collectively.




[1] Erewhon, written in 1872, embodied Butler's satirical views of Victorian England, based in part on the author's trip to the South island of New Zealand. From far more recent personal experience, I found the South island indeed remains one of the most impressive, visually-arresting places I've ever travelled to. Forget central Tennessee, head for Milford Sound.
[2] I find it oddly amusing that the former Secretary of State, who practiced black-belt realpolitik, ever thought about utopias.

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