For some the idea that a society or humanity itself can be perfected and therefore help to bring about a perfect world of justice and fairness is a very attractive one. The problem is that this is an idea that just cannot work. It can’t work because humanity itself is not perfect and never will be and, as we saw in the 20th century, attempts to create Utopias, whether ones based on class or race or religion always seem to end up with millions of dead as Utopian leaders of nations and causes try to make what is for them a ‘perfect’ world out of imperfect and individualistic humans.
Samuel Mace writing over at The Critic Magazine has published a brilliant article looking at Utopian ideas in literature and in real life and makes the very valid point that Utopia seeking movements often end up with authoritarianism. He said that when there are major disruptions in society, such as the First World War, then in the aftermath you will get those who believe that they could and should rebuild society anew and make it ‘better’. You don’t need to be a degree level historian to understand that every attempt to make a ‘perfect’ society ends up with at minimum, a bunch of disillusioned and embittered believers in what ever utopian cult they’ve seen crashing down and at worse has resulted in millions upon millions of dead.
Mr Mace said:
Utopian movements, whatever their flavour, struggle against competing demands: the demands of political reality and the vision of the self-prescribed utopia. Leaders have to take on the mantle of the “saviour”. They have the answer, the one true answer to people’s struggles. It is that vision that, whatever detractors may say, needs to be implemented. Those who deny the prescription become enemies within; they become not just opponents but the ones who are halting the necessary progress for true freedom to emerge. Once you combine these elements, you have toxic political movements, immune to reason and willing to smash norms to achieve their goals. Rather than praising the saviour, we should always beware of those who claim to create a new “paradise on earth”.
Read the rest of this excellent piece via the link below:
https://thecritic.co.uk/william-golding-and-the-curse-of-the-dream/
Yes, we are a “fallen race”. “all we like sheep have erred and gone astray.”
Indeed. There’s something to be said about the idea that we should not put too much trust in gurus, charismatic leaders or even Princes as was said in Psalm 146. https://biblehub.com/psalms/146-3.htm
I do agree with the author in that utopian ideas can be very dangerous. After all who would have thought that a naive but nice sounding idea that basically boiled down as ‘bread and freedom for all’ could end up in a few decades with someone like Stalin murdering anybody who posed a challenge or even who disagreed with him.
“… It is that vision that, whatever detractors may say, needs to be implemented. Those who deny the prescription become enemies within; they become not just opponents but the ones who are halting the necessary progress …”
Sounds exactly like the attitude of Critical Race Theorists, Trans Activists, Woke etc.
None will accept that people who disagree may have valid points.
Critical race theory is so constructed that disagreeing with it, no matter how rationally, proves your racism.
As you had it with the song, F211, “Everybody’s Nazi [or racist / transphobic etc.] but me.”
Reminds me of the line in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the lady who is convinced that Brian is the Messiah tells him that ‘only the true Messiah denies their divinity’ to which Brian says ‘so what chance does that give me’. Cultish behaviour whether in religion or politics does, as with CRT, provide no room for nuance or question.