SEssION 4
NOTES ON UTOPIA + DISTOPIA
U T O P I A Melvyn Bragg MEANS NO PLACE the idea has been there since human thought began thomas moore - utopia , no place — already kind of an idea
the conditions in england at that time
idealised perfect society - egypt time
the first kind of realisable utopia - better world for the public — plato’s republic - eugenics - selective breeding of human beings
filtering out - tourtures, terrors
human society was always driven to utopias, for producing the best conditions for everybody in society
religious ideas - paradox
all happy - suffering gone
writing utopias - wish to evade death
death is the ultimate anti utopian thing - if you can only find how to become immortal - ultimate utopia
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS // READ AGAIN
was plato’s republic - totalitarian
authoritarian - hierarchical / egalitarian communities - non hierachical fascist / anarchist utopia 20th century utopian communities communism
living up to Skinner ideals - everybody’s equal egalitarian communities
the federation of egalitarian communities
kibutz the idea in the k. those who can work work marx slogan From each according to his ability, to each according to his need (or needs)
sacrifice of individual to the whole ?
communities should have enough for everybody
/// h.d. wells > the face of things to come
//// Skinner —— walden
scientific minds see the problem of selective breeding and overpopulation
platos republice is = warriors virtues civic virtues
post darwinism - a lot of information that makes us human beings in genetic information.
its not institutions but human nature , inbread
human unhappiness or happiness is genetic
within a 100 years genetic engineering will allow parents to erase the diseases interbreeding will be impossible the modification of human nature in a way
the viruses are going strong nowadays the bacteria will get us
///modernist utopias
richard ______ - intelligent planet how long can it go on cannibals in brasil in the end utopia is going to be —— > going back into ourself ??
zamiathin huxley - fears of the unwashed masses will take over the society orwell - fearing big brother, societies over controlled
Ferdinand Tönnies (German: [ˈtœniːs]; 26 July 1855, near Oldenswort, Eiderstedt, North Frisia, Schleswig – 9 April 1936, Kiel, Germany) was a German sociologist and philosopher. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. He co-founded the German Society for Sociology, of which he was president from 1909 to 1933, after which he was ousted for having criticized the Nazis. Tönnies was considered the first German sociologist proper,[1] published over 900 works and contributed to many areas of sociology and philosophy.
late 19 st utopias - optimistic egalitarian
early 20 - pessimistic exclusive
marx >>>>> from each according to his ability, to each according to his need
edwards bellamie >>>>>> takes marxes ideal and .. there will be no money everyone will have a credit card -that entitled everyone to absolutely equal share of a national surplus ———> absolute equality
whether there were fit unfit hd wells >>>> represented a great change -ruination of the planet due to overpopulation first person to be worried about the planet reduce the population - overpopulation we’re destroying the planet
he’s a rasial suprematist
thomas moore - his utopia egalitarian
french revolution
main currencies in society industrial revolution - mid victorian after 1890s understood - second way ,other forms of utopia became prevalent.
naturalisation of catastrophic changes brought with industrialisation masses, mass society - society became to understand itself
mass will, mass labour mass psychology - gustav le bonne - “on Crowds” society became contious of themselves
invention of electricity
faster by the 1880 technologies become soft machines, intimate, even the light bulb gave birth to some utopias technology got inside the human beings
engineering people not engineering society per se
ideology - beings to become part of the effort to understand human beings of how they behave collectively beliefs feelings from the late 19th century - are seen as things that can be produced
engels - utopian propensity ??? the new woman writers using dreams and allegories
utopia - for women writers - not as a no-place but a “ not yet “ place. —————the tense of utopia of woman writings
van Dyke - a land of only girls - daughters
utopia
virginia wolf — orlando
marge pierce -
hd wells - people of the abyss
the cult of life life has been defined as regulative ideal - who isn’t on the side of life?
in this century - life is the ULTIMATE VALUE
it’s not getting rid of wickedness but of the ugliness
there should be no UGLINESS IN utopia
EUGENICS the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.
In Plato’s utopia, defective children were killed at birth
Synthetic genes - eliminate all genes designer babies - the future children no possible interbreeding
humanism - immune response to darwinism????
with the population growing no-one knows if the planet can sustain it nuclear war - in 1914 he said, and regulation by sensible birth control
huge game parks on the planet keeping all the animal species ____
planned society - organised society - utopia ...
Huxley - brand new world - utopia dystopia satire ?
>>the educated mind is what matters
BNW -allegory of contemporary America the world of jazz, of the mass culture distopya of the Good Time
classical music read shakespeare intellectual elite
the future lies with the — orwell
HOW MY UTOPIA LOOKS LIKE File:UTOPIA LOOKS.pdf
PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT
ALLOCATION RECOURCES
RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS
SOCIAL PLANNING -TEAM UP AND MAKE AN UTOPIA TOGETHER
PRINCIPAL
ROLE OF CHANGE:
“YOU SAY THE REAL, THE WORLD AS IT IS. BUT IS NOT, IT BECOMES!
IT MOVES,, IT CHANGES. IT DOESN’T WAIT FOR US TO CHANGE. .. IT IS MORE MOBILE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. YOU ARE GETTING CLOSER TO THIS REALITY WHEN YOU SAY IT “PRESENTS ITSELF” THAT MEANS THAT IT IS NOT THERE, EXISTING AS AN OBJECT.
THE WORLD, THE REAL IS NOT AN OBJECT, IT IS A PROCESS. “
GOVERNMENT - AND THE RULING BODY IS MADE OF A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS :
RESEARCHING AND BUILDING PRESENT AND FUTURE ARCHITECTURE FROM THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
FROM THE COLLECTIVE DREAMS
THE SYSTEM IS KEPT TOGETHER BY AN ALMOST DAILY TURNAROUND OF VARIOUS RESEARCHERS, SCIENTISTS, SPIRITUALISTS
PSYCHOLOGISTS NEUROSCIENTISTS ANTRHOPOLOGISTS MUSICICOLOGISTS HOWARD ZINN INSIPIRED HISTORIANS COMEDIANS WITH DEPRESSIVE BACKGROUND POETS, ARTISTS, PHILOSOPHERS, PHILANTHROPES, TAROT READERS, ASTROLOGERS
BUT ALSO WITH ALGORITHMS PROGRAMMED ACCORDING TO EXISTING MODELS OF OLD CIVILISATIONS, PREDOMINANTLY MATRIARCHIES, BUT ALSO ON EASTERN ZEN TRADITIONS AND VARIOUS ALCHEMIC TRADITIONS AND TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE
EDUCATION KOENS
S KEPT TOGETHER AND RESEARCHED DAILY BY PHYCHOLOGISTS, NEUROSCIENTISTS AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND HOWARD ZINN LIKE HISTORIANS COMEDIANS THAT HAVE ALL HAD DEPRESSION IN THEIR LIVES, POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS AND VARIOUS TYPES OF HEALERS AND ALSO BY ALGORITHMS INSPIRED BY THE TEACHINGS AND OF OLD CIVILISATIONS PARTICULARLY SUCH AS MATRIARCHATS (OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURES ALGORITHMS ARE NEEDED TO HELP A)VOID THE HUMAN CONDITION FACTOR THAT ULTIMATELY FUCKS UP EVERYTHING AND KEEPS A REGULAR UTOPIA UNSUSTANABLE and