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Topic: Utopianism


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In the News (Tue 10 Nov 09)

  
  Commentary Magazine - Utopianism and Politics   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
...Utopianism, on the other hand, signifies that one assumes as possible (or even expects as inevitable) an ultimate condition of absolute harmony in which individual selfexpression and social cohesion, though seemingly incompatible, will be combined...
...but may we not be witnessing a decline of revolutionary utopianism, similar to the lowering of atmosphere that came at the end of the wars of religion, when, utterly exhausted, both sides realized that continued war meant universal doom...
...whereas utopianism postulates a definite goal or preordained finale to history, for the attainment of which you need to recast and remold all aspects of life and society in accordance with some very explicit principle...
www.commentarymagazine.com /Summaries/V28I2P63-1.htm   (3555 words)

  
 Utopia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
These are often grouped in a greater "utopian socialist" movement, due to their shared characteristics: an egalitarian distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money, and citizens only doing work which they enjoy and which is for the common good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts and sciences.
Religious utopias, perhaps expansively described as a garden of delights, existence free of worry amid streets paved with gold, in a bliss of enlightenment enjoying nearly godlike powers, are often a reason for perceiving benefit in remaining faithful to a religion, and an incentive for converting new members.
Society for Utopian Studies is the Main Page for the Society for Utopian Studies, an international, interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms, with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Utopia   (2054 words)

  
 Utopianism
Utopianism is the ideal of a perfect, present, earthly society, organic, harmonious, virtuous, satisfying, has a lengthy history.
In the Middle Ages there were many utopian groups influenced by monasticism, but their apocalypticism frequently drove them to dissent, which tended to mark the end of the road in a closed society.
Their utopianism was also charismatic, with their dancing in the Spirit and the founder, Ann Lee, being such a unique prophet of God that she was actually the incarnation of the feminine side of deity.
mb-soft.com /believe/txc/utopiani.htm   (1059 words)

  
 Problem is not Utopianism, it is Lack of Open Society
The reality is that even liberalism has been as utopian as the communist utopianism, whether in economic arena, or political arena, but what separates the experience of Western democracies is their dedication to *open society*.
Popper does not view modern socialism as equivalent to the pre-industrial socialist currents, although their ideals are similar, and Bertrand Russell's critic of these ideals as plans for a boring future society are appropriate, but the issue of despotism and dictatorship of modern socialism is a different discussion, and Popper answers that.
Having or not having ideals and utopianism does not mean pluralism or its lack of.
www.ghandchi.com /340-UtopianismEng.htm   (1095 words)

  
 Toward a Practical Utopianism
Utopian thinking needs to be rescued from fantasy and fanaticism; it must embrace science but disclaim moral relativism.
Utopianism was one of the foundational building blocks for futurism.
A practical utopianism would be based upon a Neo-Modernism that accepts the Postmodern critique of the hubris of Modernism but rejects Postmodernism's radical relativism and lack of coherent vision.
iranscope.ghandchi.com /Anthology/bisk.htm   (2274 words)

  
 J. Max Patrick- Iconoclasm, the Complement of Utopianism
His work’s potency lay in his exposing the intolerable nature of the old society by using an imagined one as a norm whereby to judge the old, and as a standard, measured by which the old was seen to be both destructible and in need of destruction.
All this eventuates, overtly or covertly, in the doctrine that a utopian society is self-defeating.
In sum, iconoclasm is the complement of utopianism; overemphasis on utopias as models must not he allowed to obscure the normative and iconoclastic functions of utopias.
www.depauw.edu /sfs/backissues/9/patrick9art.htm   (1901 words)

  
 Widmer, Utopia and Liberty: The Online Library of Liberty
Nozick's Unhistorical Notion of the Utopian and the Meta-utopian
In a ranging survey of much contemporary utopianism, I want to emphasize the counter-argument roles of the "ideal societies." Countering some common libertarian prejudices, I also want to argue that the utopias should not be taken literally; they require some multiple perspectives; and they must partly be understood in terms of their historical continuities.
Until recently, arcadian utopianism, whether in literary pastoral or back-to-the-land movements, tended to the romantic, that is, monogamous, relationships, while utopias of a more liberal or socialistic cast have been historically identified with the equality of women, and therefore less intense and looser familial patterns.
oll.libertyfund.org /Essays/Bibliographical/Widmer0310/Utopia.html   (14822 words)

  
 New Thinking
Utopians of the latter type, who forcefully argue for alternate social arrangements and institutions, are viewed as threats to the status quo by those in power.
The death of the utopian dream symbolically triggers the dramatic undoing of all communal relationships and efforts, and even the physical architecture of the community will be neglected and eventually crumble once the members’ conviction in their utopian vision wanes.
Utopian beliefs, like religious beliefs, are at their core very personal: there may not be a “fact of the matter” in the world regarding what is and what is not the best way for everyone to live.
www.new-thinking.org /journal/normativeroleofutopianism.html   (5251 words)

  
 Welcome to the WFS Utopias Forum   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
The concrete examples of various twentieth century utopian pretensions, such as collectivization in the Soviet Union and China, the pathetic self-indulgent communes of the sixties and seventies dropouts, or bizarre religious communes such as Jonestown and Branch Davidians have done little to improve the reputation of utopian speculations and experiments.
This has been the greatest failure of Utopianism; to understand the connection between economics and ideals: that no matter how lofty the ideal, if it does not rest upon a bedrock of practical, efficient, rational economic behavior it is doomed to fail.
Utopianism was one of the foundational building blocks upon which Futurism was built.
www.wfs.org /bisk.htm   (5861 words)

  
 UTOPIA UNMASKED: Utopianism: History and Current Application   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
Utopian ideology has developed over the centuries as theory only, until conditions were such that they were refined as complex systems in the 19th century and implemented in various forms in the 20th century.
Furthermore, utopians consider that the current conditions to have infected the so-called ‘masses’ to the point that the people themselves need to be changed in some way, so that the better way of organizing and running society will stand a chance of working.
The ideological roots of fascism have been neglected and are pertinent in the study of utopianism, because fascist ideology is derived from essentially utopian principles and is cousin to Marxism.
mason.gmu.edu /~walford/utopiatext.html   (4304 words)

  
 HLT Magazine, July 02 : The Seth Column
Utopianism is about the quest for the pure or the ideal in some much broader and more complex aspect of life.
Utopianism is something to which beguiles a great many people.
However, the case that concerns me here is the utopianism which has taken root in some Western educational systems, or at least in government and university departments of education.
www.hltmag.co.uk /jul02/lind.htm   (663 words)

  
 David Halpin - Hope, utopianism and educational renewal
Although not every expression of hope requires the exercise of the utopian imagination, all utopias are driven by hope – that is to say, they express the dreams of an age, and they say something about its capacities.
This interpretation of the function of utopianism links well with Ernst Bloch’s suggestion that utopias should be regarded sometimes as “wishful images in the mirror” or “daydreams of that which is not yet”.
Utopian daydreaming, he insists, is a significant way in which people reflect on future possibilities and in which, especially, they engage positively with the heavy demands of their everyday lives, thus facilitating a degree of psychic equilibrium that helps them to resist over-deterministic interpretations of how they should live them.
www.infed.org /biblio/hope.htm   (5835 words)

  
 Utopianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Utopianism refers to the many various social and political movements, and a significant body of religious and secular literature, based upon the idea of paradise on earth.
All these myths also express some hope that the idyllic 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 would be to look for the earthly paradise -- for a place like Shangri-La, hidden in the Tibetan mountains and described by James Hilton in his Utopian novel Lost Horizon (1933).
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Utopianism   (1054 words)

  
 Concerning Earthly and Heavenly Utopianism Trubetskoy/Solov'ev)
Solov’ev was not free of, it is an end to all the utopian illusions, the illusions theocratic and social.
For utopianism it is characteristic, that religious life should be structured outside the realisable ideal.
Not utopian is the thought, which stands on the soil of rebirth into a new spiritual man, into a new creature both here and there, on the earth and in heaven.
www.berdyaev.com /berdiaev/berd_lib/1913_170.html   (4850 words)

  
 UTOPIANISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE AVANT-GARDE: THE ARTIST SHAPING THE SOCIAL CONDITION
The insight of artists who have engaged media in their work, and who are deeply entrenched in issues that arise from an increasingly cybernated society--issues such as privacy, intellectual property, access, identity, and freedom of information-should be of vital interest to the policy makers and subsequently to the culture at large.
This utopian assertion mirrors the equally hopeful ideologies of such media theoreticians as Pierre Lévy and Roy Ascott, whose writings have promoted the collective, participatory nature of telematic art 16 as a new catalyst for the realization of socially and philosophically motivated aspirations.
This has led to the utopian notion of no ownership/no authorship projects such as 0100101110101101's "Life Sharing," 28 in which two artists openly and freely expose their computer and all of its files for public inspection, appropriation and reflection.
www.zakros.com /bios/utopianism.html   (2937 words)

  
 Greenwood Publishing Group I1   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
Shor outdistances most predecessors in the field by his success in rooting the utopian impulse and vision in the specificities of United States culture, with special attention to issues of gender, race and class.
Utopianism and radicalism achieve greater prominence when economic and social crises render the dominant moral and political universe open to question.
The degree to which utopianism and radicalism were involved in that reformulation, either in its expanse or its constraint, is of prime interest throughout the book.
info.greenwood.com /books/0313303/0313303797.html   (664 words)

  
 1/4: Utopianism: Permanent Thought Pattern; Immmorality of; Nightmarish Re-shaping of Life; Mechanization of Change ...
The fact that utopianism has appeared in every point of time and place and has reflected real events in the language of the time and place shows that the utopians are neither erring children nor are they moved by malice.
It could not be otherwise because the utopian, in his speculation, ignores human nature, the rhythm of change, the fact that change involves not only gain but loss as well, the reality of time and the essential freedom of the soul.
The utopian poses as a seer when he speaks confidently of the radical change which will restore mankind to its true dignity and of the future which will be incommensurable with the past.
www.freerepublic.com /forum/a37bc8d7945a9.htm   (5491 words)

  
 Dissent: Utopianism, human nature, and the left   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
Their complaint is that the left has become too "realistic" and in the process has betrayed the utopian vision that once defined what it meant to be on and of the left.
Given that we were in the final year of the bloodiest century in all of recorded history, one would think that someone who was arguing on behalf of utopianism would at least raise the issue.
The Israeli kibbutzim, while still in existence today, have moved so far from their original utopian socialist values that, if anything, they feed the counter-argument-that human nature is not capable of sustaining a socialist society over the long haul.
www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_qa3745/is_200101/ai_n8939803   (1365 words)

  
 Jameson's Utopianism
The Utopian is after all the perfect world, the perfect state, that place in the mind where everything and everyone serves and fulfills your every desire.
Imagine, if you will, the likelihood of the manager of the Utopian DreamPark sending out invitations to everyone who fits into this category of "formalized" evil, reaching out as it were, bringing them into his circle because his theme park would not be a complete, perfectly round, world without their presence.
While all Utopian ideology is anathema to anyone who has fallen victim to its enactment, as native Americans have done to European expansionism, and where Jameson seems to slide off into that sociopathic abyss in the end, it would nevertheless be regrettable to throw every idea he articulates out on the slag-heap of logocentrism.
mayanastro.freeservers.com /jameson2.html   (1208 words)

  
 Utopianism
One possible explanation for this accusation is the conventional idealism/pragmatism dichotomy.  The view there is that ideals and principles are things that cloud your judgment, and get in the way of "practical" solutions.  If you're an idealist, it must be at the expense of being practical.
A different accusation of utopianism is that Objectivism requires everyone to act perfectly morally.  Utopias are impractical when they can't deal with any failure to live up to the perfect model.  They require everyone to be perfectly moral, or the system fails entirely.
So there are three major reasons for the charge of utopianism, each failing.  The first based on the idealism/pragmatism false dichotomy.  The second fails because Objectivism does not need or expect universal moral perfection.  And the third fails because even in a free world, there will still be vegetarians.
www.solohq.com /Articles/Rowlands/Utopianism.shtml   (196 words)

  
 Utopian Socialism Archive   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
Links to the writings and biographies of Utopians and Marxist commentaries on them, and material on 20th century utopian movements and the use of utopian and dystopian visions in literature and political polemics.
The Terror which was the outcome of such a utopian project has been taken by many thinkers (Hegel, for example, in The Phenomenology of Spirit) as a warning against all forms of utopianism.
Utopian religious communities continue to this day, usually short-lived, invariably centred around one powerful personality and his disciples, declining after his death.
www.marxists.org /subject/utopian   (1853 words)

  
 SocioSite: ACTIVISM - COLLECTIVE ACTION - SOCIAL MOVEMEMENTS - UTOPIANISM   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
A course that examines the rhetoric of utopian - and dystopian - visions, explores the idea of utopia as both "ideal place" and "no place," while raising questions about the way this rhetoric shapes a society.
The closing assessment is that modern utopian thinking is pervasive and diffuse according to pattersn which are not easy to detect.
An international, interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias.
www2.fmg.uva.nl /sociosite/topics/activism.html   (2028 words)

  
 New York Public Library: Utopia
As we look both backward to previous notions of utopian thought and forward to the possibilities of the Internet, the question is whether the urge to attain the ideal society will persist and yield fruit in the centuries to come.
In early sources of utopian thought, a metaphysical transformation was needed to enter an ideal place such as Paradise or the City of God; this transformation was achieved through death, intellectual or spiritual transcendence, or otherworldly intervention.
The resulting proliferation of assumed identities, online communities, and micronations is reminiscent of the growth of utopian communities in the nineteenth century and again in the 1960s, formed by like-minded individuals disengaging themselves from society and starting life anew.
www.nypl.org /utopia/I_meta_1.html   (447 words)

  
 CMC Magazine: Hopes and Horrors
Technological Utopianism and Anti-Utopianism in Narratives of Computerization
Starting with an exploration of technological utopianism as it occurs in specific context, I outline utopian social visions and visions of computerized societies.
In the end, I argue that beyond technological utopianism and anti-utopianism there, are alternatives which are less deterministic.
www.december.com /cmc/mag/1996/feb/kling.html   (208 words)

  
 Utopianism's Role in Conquest   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
Mohawk describes some of the common elements of utopianism: "Utopian ideologies enable plunderers to claim even to believe that they are in pursuit of noble goals." (p.
Thus, the Spanish conquests was propelled by a triple-set of utopian myths, which have since been condensed to "God, gold, and glory." "Inherent in utopian thought...is a notion of progress," writes Mohawk.
Following the general collapse of the Marxist utopian vision, Mohawk arrives at the present time, which is notable for "globalization," the pursuit of secular utopia through the accumulation of wealth.
www.peacetree.com /akwesasne/utopiana.htm   (1436 words)

  
 Marxism, Maoism, and Utopianism   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
What this book sets out to do, then, is to trace the origins and the major characteristics of Maoist utopianism in an effort to demonstrate its centrality within Maoism, and how such visions in turn influenced the course of CCP history.
Meisner illuminates the unique fact that for Mao, the utopian visions that characterized the major events of the 1950s and 1960s were developed and disseminated largely after he and the CCP came to power (189).
While efforts were made in the Soviet Union to curb the radicalism of the revolution in order to soberly construct the state, this model was rejected in China.
orpheus.ucsd.edu /chinesehistory/pgp/meisner2.htm   (591 words)

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