U is for Utopia

We are persuaded to buy things with visions of an idyllic future.

Politicians try to win our votes by telling us how much better things will be.

But if we point out what’s wrong in the world and take action…

“That’ll never happen”

“Who would pay for it?”

“You’re just being naive”

But still we’re told: 

“There is no alternative”

Let’s take a look at this world for which there is no alternative.

Is that really what we want? 

Is it even possible to keep living like this? 

“Utopia” means “nowhere”. 

And this capitalist vision is certainly leading us all there – even those who think they’re on top right now.

When we challenge this, we’re asked to explain exactly how things will change and exactly how it will work. 

We don’t know. When has social change ever happened according to someone’s blueprint?

Or we’re told what someone else thinks we are proposing – and that it won’t work.

But what we do know is that we can make a start. 

We can imagine other possibilities. 

NOWHERE => HERE NOW

“At first, dreams seem impossible, 

then improbable, 

and eventually inevitable.”

NOTES AND REFERENCES

In Nowtopia Chris Carlsson explores a host of experiments in creating alternatives to the capitalist work machine in the here and now. The final quotation is from Christopher Reeve… yes, really, that Christopher Reeve, the actor who played Superman.