imagining Utopia
When I was a child in the early 70s, there was an ad on TV with a man dressed in a stereotypical Native American outfit, who stood on a cliff watching people litter, with a single tear running down his face. It was a very moving commercial, especially to a small child who didn’t know anything about the political complexities of the ad. As it turns out, it was created by the Keep America Beautiful group, which was created by companies trying to make people feel responsible for environmental degradation instead of holding the companies and corporations responsible for their greater harm. It worked like a charm, though, it made me believe that littering was wrong in a deeply emotional way and that I could do something about it.
The modern environmental movement is generally considered to have started with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the groundbreaking book about the effect of pollution on the environment During the 60s people became more and more aware of the dangers of pollution on people and the environment and Congress passed the Clean Air Act, in 1971, and the Clean Water Act in 1972, which started the regulation of pollution created by industry. Earth Day started in 1972, when I was 5, but I don’t have any memories of Earth Day from my childhood. Maybe it’s because I grew up in such an urban place, I don’t remember much of the environmental movement, except for the awareness of not throwing trash everywhere.
Thinking about the history of the environmental movement made me wonder about why I don’t have more childhood memories of it, considering that it is such an important part of my life. And what I found in the recesses of my mind was the threat of nuclear war. The No Nukes March, the largest anti-nuclear protest march ever, happened in 1982 when I was 15 and a sophomore in high school. It was my first of many protest marches and thinking about it reminded me how frightened I was that life on earth could be obliterated by the push of a button. Growing up in the 80’s was terrifying and when I did some research, I understood why.
In the 80s, the nuclear arms race accelerated. The period between 1979 and 1985 is actually known as the New Cold War. By the early 80’s, the Soviet Union had built up the biggest military in the world, bigger than the US. Then they invaded Afghanistan, which freaked us out, and our beloved Jimmy Carter started pouring money into our military, which Ronald Reagan was happy to increase. Thus the 80’s, when I was a teenager, was a period of continuous nuclear threat, being regularly reminded by Reagan’s posturing, that we were on the brink of mutually assured destruction. In 1983, there was a TV special called The Day After which showed the effect of a full scale nuclear war on people in the United States. It was very upsetting.
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, there was a palpable feeling of relief. The Cold War was over, Russia was now an ally, world peace was possible. We could live our lives without the threat of the annihilation of the entire planet. It had been such a terrible thing to grow up with, I think we all just put it behind us and moved on with our lives. Of course we know, deep down, that the threat is still there: they never finished destroying all the nukes when they had the chance. But since its not in the news all the time, we can pretend it doesn’t exist.
What do you imagine when you think of the future? Is it all death and destruction and crises? Can you imagine a more peaceful, ecologically sound world? One key technique in coaching is called future visioning. Being able to imagine a future makes it more likely that it will come into being. And I’m not talking about any kind of prosperity gospel. It’s just that when you have a clear goal in mind, you are better at making choices about how to allocate your time and resources to reach your goals. You will be tuned to see openings and opportunities that you may not otherwise notice. There’s a power to knowing what you want
The amazing thing that we’ve learned from the environmental movement and laws is that they work. When Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, she described how the use of pesticides was killing our predatory birds, including the bald eagle. Through the Clean Water Act, DDT was banned, and the hawks and eagles are back, you can even see them in NYC. One of my favorite examples in the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, which closed in 2001, and is now Fresh Kills Park. Now, over 20 years later, nature has started healing, woods, wildlife and wetland have returned. When you stop damaging natural systems, they heal and regenerate themselves.
Imagining utopia is a creative way to imagine the world getting better and what better might mean. It’s a thought experiment that counteracts our natural predilection for negativity. Can you imagine a future where everyone’s needs are met and we live in a world of abundance? If you could design a society to be the most supportive of everyone’s needs, what would it look like? Part of the challenge of imagining Utopia is that it is not just a physical challenge but a societal and psychological one. Many descriptions I’ve read about Utopia would require a massive shift in how we organize our social and work relationships, which makes it a more daunting process.
My image of utopia looks a lot like Europe, a real life image which comes from my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Slovakia, although I’m sure all my Slovak friends would think it’s hilarious that I feel that way. Denmark is probably the closest to the Utopia I imagine, except I’ve only read about it and never been there and especially haven’t lived there. But the socialism in these countries has been tried and tested for many decades and although they are not perfect (as if anything made by humans could ever be perfect) it seems a heck of a lot better than what we and many other places in the world have.
In his book, Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bergman, presents the idea that we are actually already living in Utopia. And in many ways we are: our time has the longest life expectancy the highest level of education the lowest rate of poverty and infant mortality ever. If you brought a person from any other period of history, even from my childhood, and transported them to now they would be blown away. We are already living in the magical future.
If everyone is given a basic income, food, shelter, health care, and education, what interesting things might start to happen? The thought is a little scary, it feels like it would be anarchy, If people don’t need to work for their survival, how will they sort themselves out? I have no idea how we go from here to there. History is littered with unsuccessful attempts at communal lives from Shaker communities to the USSR. But I do know that humans are creative, resourceful and adaptable, and I am certain that we could figure it our if we wanted to.
My vision of the future world is of beautiful garden, teeming with variety and life, where all the needs of all the beings who inhabit it are met. With human communities scattered around, in greater or lesser density, also teeming with variety and life. Can you see it in your minds eye, like I can, what it would be like to live in a world such as this? Like now, but with everyone truly equal, with no poverty, where everyone’s needs are met so they can prosper and thrive? Where all people have the freedom and resources to live whole hearted lives? A more humane world would also be a more ecological one. It makes sense, since we are a part of nature, that what’s good for nature would also be good for us. Humans can be a cantankerous lot, but when we band together, we can move the world.