Pragmatic Utopianism

   Througout the history of Western Civilization there is abundant evidence of man's desire to create a better or more perfect city, state, empire or world in which to live. Humankind has never been, nor will it ever be satisfied for too long with the status quo: an innate characteristic of all humans is the drive, the constant striving to improve, advance, progress beyond our immediate situations.

   From the creative geniuses of our macro-cultural past, from the works of Plato to Wells to Roddenberry, descriptive as well as prescriptive visions of a more-perfect- than-the-present human society have been shared with us. These visions offer creative, innovative solutions for many perceived "problem areas" of society as a whole -- political and judicial administration, social programs (health, education, welfare), economics and commerce, and security, to name the most prominent concerns. There are, however, inevitable imperfections to be expected in all such proposals, as there are two elements under direct and perpetually irreconcilable conflict throughout any societal plan: the individual and the collective. Mark Hillegas correctly addressed this issue in the introduction of a 1960's edition of H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia when he identified the foremost obstacle to be addressed by any utopian: " the problem of freedom vs. happiness".

The following links are pages I've created regarding discussion of this page's subject: utopias and society . . .

Sound Bytes on Society (en français)

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page