The traditional definition of utopia is “an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.” The traditional definition of perfect is “having all the required desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.” The traditional definition of good is “to be desired or approved of.” Used as a noun, good is defined as “that which is morally right; righteousness.” Combining all of these definitions, we can expand on the word utopia to mean “the morally right place or state of things that have all the required desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics.”
Throughout history, cultures have vehemently disagreed on what is “morally right.” This disagreement has been the cause of countless wars and conflicts. Furthermore, cultures have disagreed on what is desirable. Some societies prefer a simple, minimalist lifestyle while others prefer a life of fancy gadgets and endless to-do lists. These lifestyles do not interact well. Buddhists encourage denouncing worldly possessions and blame desire as the root cause of suffering. Scientists and mathematicians believe the desire to improve one's quality of life is the driving force towards progress. To the scientist, stagnation and a lack of intellectual curiosity is reprehensible, regardless of the motives.
Unfortunately, the traditional definition of utopia confines any idyllic social structure to fiction. There has never been a singular society that incorporates the entire global population because of the vast differences in the dominant values of a geographical region given a particular time period. Identifying an updated definition of the word utopia is an important first step to realistically working towards global peace. Understanding the motives of a population while having clear, realistic goals will maximize the efficacy of long-term social programs. If an updated definition of utopia is to be found, it must account for the great variances among cultural values. No matter what set of values are chosen as the “most important” in a particular society, they are still experiencing their humanity. All humans have the ability to learn and understand active (dominant) and dormant cultural norms. Fostering an understanding of all cultural norms will make it possible for human beings to relate to one another in ways that may not otherwise be possible.
The goal of social engineering is to manage Earth's limited resources in such a way that would enable maximum “freedom, prosperity, and happiness” for a target population (Wikipedia, Social Engineering – Political Science). If the target population is the entire world, this goal indeed seems fictitious considering the vast cultural diversity found on this planet. Although the transitional period may be extremely difficult, it is the crucial first step towards a healthy universal government.
The fact remains that forcing entire groups of people to perform actions against their will is never a permanent solution regardless of the message. By dispassionately participating in cultural exchanges in ways that appeal to the basic values we all have in common, entire populations can be influenced enough to rethink their attitudes and solve problems with creativity rather than resorting to violence. This must be accomplished by mutual cultural exchanges rather than by one culture asserting dominance over another by way of a forced student-teacher relationship. Separate cultures exist because they place more value on some cultural norms than others, and over time, they socialize and formalize their group arrangements. No matter what cultural norms are chosen in a particular society, they are still experiencing their humanity, and that is the common ground we all share. By appealing to one or several strong cultural norms in a geographical region, we can teach that population about the motives of other cultures and desensitize them to what would otherwise be completely foreign.
I already know of more edits I would make to this but as I've heard before, finished is better than perfect, so for right now, just posting this an achievement for me.
#decentralizeeducation #education #learning #utopia #morals #values #philosophy #culture
I really liked your well thought out post! I think you hit the 'nail on the head' on multiple important issues such as the need to define the concept itself as well as it's goals, as well as the differentiation of these answers across different people.
Some of us have been getting into answering some of these things from our own perspectives that started here and i tried to compile the discussion via reply on this post. I'd love to hear you're take on things. I doesn't seem like were to far off in our goals.
One other things that hit me was where you were talking about
"groups of people being forced to do things against their will."
On one side I thought of the right action vs. right belief argument. There are a lot of people who mindlessly or begrudgingly perform various religious or cultural actions/ceremonies/etc or even the pledge of allegiance.. just because they feel they need to, whether due to not actually caring, fear of ridicule or worse.
I think this shows a HUGE issue that every individual needs to overcome of finding their REAL self and not just the facade put on for previously mentioned reasons, or others. We live in a world where presentation trumps essence, and that is sad.
Without at least beginning to be self reflective or taking personal responsibility when applicable can a person even take stock of themselves and start to answer the question, 'What do I WANT?"
Anyway, sorry if I babbled. I hope to further the discussion :)
I think one approach to create utopia can be in connecting like minded people together and then moving them in one place.
We already can process lot's of information about people and make much better mach-making that was possible before. And if world move from scarcity to abundance it will be more easy to relocate people and offer them option to live where they want. Universal basic income can help there too.
So potentially we can have some Utopia villages or even cities of like-minded people. Like Auroville but in much larger scale.
Also I recommend book "Manna" http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm - it's best known to me book about actually creating Utopia with potentially doable plan and realistic enough picture of Utopia. Do you know other books with realistic plans to create Utopia?
Most of the actually utopia books I've read, like Thomas Moore's Utopia, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged or B.F. Skinners Walden Two, unfortunately all seem to start the story after the utopian community had already been implemented and normalized. While still having great concepts, they don't really help establish a road map from here to there.
The closest I've come across is a pamphlet that is basically a Create Your Own Utopia questionairre. Some years back I had seen a rather in depth Build your own Utopia checklist, but I've not been able to find it again for some years now.