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https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/nathan-j-robinson-wants-you-to-be-a-socialist/>
"I think as an exercise in imagining a better world, utopianism is not
just useful but crucial, because what we have to do is have some real
sense of what we’re aiming for. Not just what our general sympathies
are, but also if we look at the world around us and try to imagine what
we, as people who are trying to effect social change, are going to do:
What kind of world do we see in our minds at the end of all of this?
I did this exercise where I listed in the book all of the things that
people would put in their utopia. I asked my friends and people who
follow Current Affairs on social media, “What would you have in your
utopia?” And people were talking about quite simple things that weren’t
that far away from things we have now but have been made to seem kind of
impossible. It was things like, “I want to be able to go to the doctor
and not get a bill,” but then it was also things like, “I want public
spaces. I want free theater and free outdoor movies. I want these
amazing great playgrounds where every child can come and use it.” And a
lot of it was about things in common, places where you don’t have to
spend money. It was about a world free of violence and deprivation, but
also one with really strong communities and really well-endowed public
institutions.
And in the book I use the examples of getting rid of borders and prison
abolition. Getting rid of borders seems crazy utopian until you realize
that for most of human history, there weren’t any borders. It’s the same
with prison abolition. You can think, “Well, there are countries around
the world today that really have very, very few people in prison—is it
that crazy to think that someday we can reduce that population to almost
nothing, if not nothing?” I don’t think so. Your utopia becomes
something much more feasible when you start having these dreams and
start thinking about what it would take to achieve them."
Via
libramoon@pluspora.com.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
