You Topia

At some point in my young life I was exposed to Utopian, and Dystopian literature. More than likely, Dystopian came first given my early interest in science fiction and fantasy, and often futuristic novels end up venturing into the dark side, rather than the ideal, of human possibility.

The term originated in Sir Thomas More's 1516 book, "Utopia," a fictional island society which is relatively far from what we today would consider a perfect place. While Utopians enjoy some benefits, like free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests can marry and divorce is universally permitted - premarital sex and adultery are punishable by slavery. Oh, yes, there are slaves in Utopia. They are prisoners of war or criminals, and while all enjoy more or less equal material goods, the administrators get the best of everything (sounds like a song I've heard before). People are free to travel within the island's many city states, and everyone must work at some trade for a minimum of 6 hours a day.

While scholars argue whether More wrote Utopia as a real ideal or a form of satire, the term "utopian," and later "dystopian" came to live with us in literary and social terms, and we refer back to it again and again in politics and in literature - and movies have capitalized on futuristic dystopias where all the rules of historic or even modern life are off the table.

During this election year especially, many have been referring to books like Nineteen Eighty-Four, or Brave New World, and it has been my habit to re-read at least one of these books or one of their kind each year, if for no other reason than to check on how we're doing, and remind myself of the ways in which we were warned societies can peak and fall, or change so subtly their inhabitants "never saw it coming" until it was too late.

One thing that has struck me as I see them referenced is, depending on what our political persuasions, how differently we will interpret these books. First, we have to distinguish between a real stab at a "utopia," versus a satire - sometimes a book intending to depict a horrible future is seen as a perfection, and vice versa. Then we have to place it somewhere in history, and some place, so that we can understand the circumstances under which the author was living, and why certain aspects of life might be seen as perfectible in one way or another, or as dreadful in the extreme while its inhabitants had to insist it was a modern wonder.

Pre-Utopia, Plato's Republic was the original Western version of a Utopia. Through a series of discussions, Socrates leads his students through a discussion of human needs, wisdom, justice, social interactions, and finally the part that political discussions of today are likely to reference, the four unjust constitutions: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. He argues that a society will decay and pass through each government in succession, eventually becoming a tyranny, the most unjust regime of all. The starting point is always with the philosopher-king, or the just tyrant. He rules all, but he does so benignly. When he dies, however, unless he is replaced by another such, the social structure breaks down and enters civil war, replaced by a timocracy, or rule of the "spirited," the warrior generals; the energetic and powerful (think of the American Revolution). Over time, as this class accumulates wealth, these are replaced by the oligarchs. These people have inherited their wealth and sequestered it, and are now an elite class. Eventually, "the masses" revolt, and establish a democracy. In a democracy, maximum freedom prevails, but the oligarchs will continue to claw their way to the top through their personal power and achievement - always leaving their less blessed brothers behind. With democracy, though, comes the threat of mob rule, and for fear of both that, and the rule of the oligarchs, a clever tyrant can once again grab power. With luck, he might be some day replaced by a philosopher-king. But the question raised repeatedly is whether we are in the oligarchy, the timocracy, the democracy, or perhaps taking the turn that neither Plato, nor Socrates envisioned, entering into the brave new world of socialism/communism.

In the 18th century, a number of satiric works were written, along with some serious pieces, depicting adventures like those in Robinson Crusoe, who shipwrecks with nothing on a desert island, and has to re-invent a means of surviving, eventually freeing a cannibal tribe's prisoner (but not without first having to decide whether or not the cannibals are sinners - they are not, for they don't know any better), and thus now having his own slave. Eventually, he "frees" his slave and they become companions, Crusoe having instructed Friday (the slave) in English and converting him to Christianity. Writer James Joyce sneeringly comments on Robinson Crusoe "He (Crusoe) is the true prototype of the British colonist. ... The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity." While nobody is specifically calling out Robinson Crusoe these days, the question of the inherent value of Western culture is certainly in play, with some defending it as an all-in-all worthwhile culture, and others sure it is the embodiment of all that is most base in human nature. 

In 1872, Samuel Butler wrote Erewhon, which is simply "nowhere" spelled backwards (though some have speculated that it also means "here now"). This novel, while rarely cited and certainly not in reference to politics, should be - it was one of the first to inquire into the implicit threat in Darwin's theory, and the ultimate meaning of creating machines (the industrial revolution) whose labors could replace those of men. Could, wonders Butler, machines develop consciousness - and more alarming, could they replicate themselves? The utopian life enjoyed by the humans depends upon the work of the machines - but what if the machines revolted? Today, as we become more and more dependent upon our devices, and they become more and more independent of us, this is a question to be asked again, some 150 years later. 

Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, was published in 1887, and while it is rarely read, or even heard of today, in its day inspired clubs and even socialized attempts at commerce and living. In the book, the hero falls into a hypnotic sleep and awakens in the year 2000 (already in our rear-view mirror) to find himself in a Utopia, including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and delivery of material goods to the door. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens, while the productive capacity of the United States is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens. Aside from the "credit card" everyone has, there is a cable telephone, and most alarming in terms of "how did he anticipate that one?" is Bellamy's notion that criminals, rather than being punished, are considered ill, and are treated medically. I remember when reading this one, the one argument that finally made a little sense to me when pondering why anyone would take one of the menial jobs required to keep such a society moving was that the nastier and dirtier a job was, the fewer hours one was required to work. Still, the question remains out there: is the attraction of more reward greater than the attraction of fewer hours - and how does such a society account for our unequally distributed talents, gifts, and energy? Maybe we're going to find out.

In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, everything is perfect: engineered, sanitary, citizens are engineered in artificial wombs to be limited to their planned station and to be content with it, and raised in communities; the family doesn't exist; sex is free and unfettered and largely sterile; learning (programming) occurs in sleep and everyone is rewarded with a little drug vacation thanks to something called Soma. Thanksgiving has been limited to 10 guests and Christmas has been called off - that part is a bad joke, of course. But Huxley was concerned with the "de-naturing" of human life - removing it from the aches, pains and natural joys that nature is heir to. Even so, his brave new world ranks people into Alphas through Savages - the Alphas being the most perfect of people, and the Savages, having been born naturally, with all the imperfections that implies, and who live on the reservation, will age disgracefully and die. If a "regular" life and death become abnormal, and you were living in a state of constant placation, what could be more attractive than the dangerous and ugly world of nature? Every so often, as the evening entertainment is chosen from the literally thousands of options (heaven forbid it be a book, a scrabble game, or some ensemble music), having eaten the prepared dinner and while the dishwasher attends to the final cleanup, I find myself wondering - did I take my Soma yet today?

Finally, 1948's Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. Of all of the books and imaginings of the future or alternative lifestyle, it is perhaps this book that is most often cited when we wonder about what a "new republic" would bring. Doublethink: can you hold two conflicting ideas simultaneously in your mind and not become confused or disturbed? Thought Police: if you are guilty of "wrong think," and you make the mistake of presenting the wrong think on social media, can the Thought Police be far behind? The Two Minutes Hate - just put the wrong candidate's picture up on the telescreen and watch how quickly the hate bubbles up. I guarantee it won't take two minutes. The Memory Hole actually exists, if not in reality then in effect: if something happened, and we no longer want it to happen, we simply erase traces of it from social media (Big Brother) and poof - it's gone. And even if you find it again, it will be Thought Crime, because it's Fake News/Faux News/doctored/photoshopped. The protests are peaceful, there are only good people on my side, and if you don't destroy the article upon finishing, you can be un-personed - at MiniLove, the Ministry of Love.