I am anti-Utopian. You should be too. If you are, then good for you. But you may be a Utopian despite believing that you are not. I am sure that most Americans are Utopian, despite the best efforts of suppressing their own pride. It is something that permeates humanity’s very soul and will not simply go away.
Do I have my own visions of a perfect society? I do. But these visions are usually squashed as soon as I leave my condo and venture out into the real world. It’s usually when I find myself faced with an individual who has acted in a very careless fashion by disrespecting the property rights of others. It is usually something inconsequential too, like leaving the cleaning wipes in the cup holder of a treadmill rather than walking to the trash can and throwing them away. It really shouldn’t annoy me so much, but it reminds me of why Utopias are just pipe dreams.
Human beings cannot rule themselves very well. And yet, allowing other to rule them is just as bad, if not worse. It has become abundantly clear that allowing individuals the right to vote for their own leadership has just given rise to distractions and disappointments. After all, only a sniveling, unprincipled weasel would stoop so low as to run for political office. Compromise is the action of a weak-willed and cowardly man, yet compromise is often the language of politics.
To be anti-Utopian means to keep your pride in check and realize that there are probably several solutions out there and that by simply stating that being, say Communist or Anarcho-Capitalist is not necessarily the answer. For the Communist, it is quite clear that forced collectivization does not work as the mass graves of the past century would tell you. For Anarcho-Capitalism, it is clear that they don’t understand the true concepts of justice nor do they have any concept of the value of human life. Do you seriously expect society to simply allow a serial killer to be exiled to his or her apartment after all the mass killings they’ve done? Sometimes I wonder if anarchists have any idea how foolish they sound.
Being anti-Utopian means you are not tied down to a specific ideology but that you recognize that the ultimate goal of the individual is to simply live life. You top goal is to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in your work. Simple desires make for a much simpler life.
For me, this blog and everything related to it is merely a hobby. I used to think I could make money doing it, but I’ve now come to realize that I got in the game too late and that there are much more interesting (and deserving) people out in the blogosphere. I used to think I could change the world, even just a little, but these days I’m content with just writing down whatever comes to mind. It is obvious to me that the only way to get high traffic volumes is to criticize semi-celebrity atheists or popular war veterans. At least that is what Google Analytics tells me.
I only wish to share my ideas and to caution my readers that not every political ideal is the be all, end all. Many get stuck in their dogma and become zealots who are just as bad as the people they oppose.
The truth about politics and political viewpoints is that there are no political solutions to any of the problems we face. Politics is the socialization of conflict. As such, it requires constant conflict in order to maintain itself. So any political ideology, be it anarchism, Socialism, conservatism, or fascism is inherently prone to maintain conflict in some way in order to retain power in some way.
The only solution is found in what you do about your own life. And many of us have problems that are big, costly, and require great sacrifice in order to solve them. You do not have the right to vote for someone who promises the easy out. All you’ve done is taken the path of the Utopian. And the end of that road is not a pretty one.