After the Death of Utopia

Back to Utopia?

Suddenly, the library of utopia seemed within reach.

The limits of technocratic utopianism have been reached.

A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones.

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.

When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

In this world without utopia, individual freedom is the supreme value.

While the word does not retain its original virtuous connotations, we still warm to the virtuosity of doing more with less.

The post 1945 ideal of a united Europe was very much a planner s archetype, a technocratic Utopia.

To defend post utopian values in the longer term, politicians (and generals and spymasters) cannot seek security by drastically curtailing fundamental freedoms, because to do so risks forfeiting public support and a weakening of the pillars of the post utopian market order.

The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs and the city shall be in its midst.

And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs and the city shall be in the midst thereof.

The result is a litany of post utopian values that include a stronger emphasis on individual freedom and personal responsibility.

But to dismiss them would be unwise, because their utopian aspirations are based on genuine and legitimate anxieties.

To all Uruguayans, friends, and our huge Latin American family, I want to pay my respects and remind you to keep on walking with eyes on the horizon, in our utopia. Hasta siempre Galeano!

Like my wish that no one went hungry or that everything were a free kind of utopia.

It is a fascinating story about the conflict between ideals and reality, or Utopia and humanness about being faithful to a cause and betraying it and about sacrifice and solidarity.

As for the anarchists, their utopia of widespread self management tied to outdated historical references appeared entirely unsuitable.

The solemn Communist Manifesto announced the specter of the Great Utopia haunting Europe, but failed to warn us of the bloody tyranny.

Indeed, there is a kind of virtuous circle at work the more successful the Court is in fulfilling its responsibilities, the more cases will be brought to it.

Indeed, atheists and agnostics do not behave less morally than religious believers, even if their virtuous acts rest on different principles.

It may inspire virtuous feelings, but its vain symbolism reveals exactly what is wrong with today s feel good environmentalism.

But the belief that America is the only virtuous country, the sole beacon of light in a dark and unstable world, continues to shape many Americans worldview.

The right policy choices to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are possible they are within our reach and they must be adopted so that the situation can be turned around and a virtuous circle of growth with equity brought about.

Sometimes a knowledge of history and the past failures of utopian ideals can be a burden because you know that if everything were free, then the food stocks would become depleted and scarce and lead to chaos.

Today s Iranian intellectuals have undergone a similar maturation process, dismissing the utopianist and nativist political ideals of their predecessors.

In a world in which terrorists have committed atrocities and threaten to commit more, to seek complete government transparency is utopian.

Zionism s unique combination of democracy and utopianism enabled the Jews to recover their birthright and gave them a key to the future.

As there is not much space in such thinking for individual moral action, social critics are often ridiculed as naive moralists or elitists.

The kind of politics that imposes sacrifices for the sake of future utopias has caused immense human suffering in the service of a variety of impossible ideals.

The post 1945 ideal of a united Europe was very much a planner s archetype, a technocratic Utopia. And, certainly for Monnet and the other founders of postwar Europe, it was an entirely benign, even noble, ideal.

In May, I and along with me, the world and its brother submitted a request to renew my Palestinian passport, in order to keep the promise I made to my dear mother that we would perform the umrah pilgrimage together in the blessed month of Ramadan. I followed all the required procedures, paid the postal fees and the charges for renewing a passport and waited.

So the economic problem will certainly be with us for a long time yet. But at least we can count on being able to generate a relatively egalitarian middle class society as we collectively slouch toward our consumerist utopia, right?

The idea of financial singularity may seem inspiring but it is no less illusory than the rational Utopia that inspired generations of central planners.

There is something to be said for this attitude. The kind of politics that imposes sacrifices for the sake of future utopias has caused immense human suffering in the service of a variety of impossible ideals.

MELBOURNE Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written. Then, in 2004, Google announced that it would begin digitally scanning all the books held by five major research libraries.