I am among a growing number of people who believe that there is an urgent need for a rebirth
of utopian thinking within the church and in society at large.
Optimistic assumptions are standard components
of utopian thinking, and they have until recently been voiced by many Western leaders and thinkers.
A strong case has been made by F. J. E. Woodbridge that Plato not only does not seriously regard his «perfect state» as realizable, but that he means to make us see the error of imposing perfection too rigorously on human fallibility.3 Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward illustrates the utopia which becomes a persuasive call to radical social reforms.4 It also illustrates one of the functions
of utopian thought as a medium of realistic criticism of the present.
In his thought there was none
of the utopian thought or «evolutionary optimism» often attributed to liberal theology and the social gospel movement by its critics.
As a basis of working, he acknowledged and offset two related and oppressive qualities
of utopian thought: first, that the logic of spatial organization is political and is based on exclusion as much as inclusion; second, that utopian projects develop an idealist space isolated from material reality.
Not exact matches
Indeed, Amazon could almost be
thought of as a sort
of digital brutalism: it is direct and efficient, with a near -
utopian aspiration to meet people's needs in the least fussy way possible.
When you attempt to sweep real issues under a rug
of disingenuous and delusional positive
thinking to create a
Utopian version
of reality, it keeps you from accurately assessing situations, making smart decisions and taking effective action.
The refreshing part
of this
utopian approach was that I was never told what to do or
think; neither that my feelings were sinful, nor that I had to reject that view and accept my sexuality.
Thus he was part
of the broad, humanistic, and stoic (and, later, Christian) tradition
of the West — one that valued basic natural rights and was incessantly called into question by variations
of utilitarian and
utopian thinking.
My father himself, whom I loved dearly,
thought much
of my vision might be
utopian.
Hope for our society lies in the possibility
of the rebirth
of visionary
thought,
utopian dreaming, the resurrection
of the split between present and future that provides the dynamic
of change in the direction
of projected ideals.
The eschatological vision, which expected God to bring in that radically other and better world, has been reduced to myth;
utopian thinking, which expected the new age as the outcome
of human effort, has come to be regarded as illusion.
We've conducted a
thought experiment in response to those questions and in this chapter it has yielded some elements
of a
utopian proposal about a theological school.
The city is the place
of hopes and dreams, as the
utopian thought of Plato, Augustine, and Thomas More attest.
The conception
of peace as an ordered tranquillity which must continually be worked for through history contrasts markedly with the
utopian ideal
of peace found in some religious and nonreligious
thinking about the possibilities
of international order, not to mention with the empirical reality
of conflict within states and conflicts between states and nonstate actors in the contemporary world.
Meanwhile, Protestant
thought, influenced by the moral idealism and historical optimism
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, followed a similar course but moved closer and closer to a form
of utopian pacifism in which war would be eliminated because
of the increasing perfection
of human social institutions.
In his review
of Pointing the Way Niebuhr suggests that Buber's
thought becomes
utopian when its illuminating insights into personal life are applied to the relations
of the «we» and «they»
of organized groups or nations.
Not all things are possible — to
think so would be
utopian, in the wrong sense — but some things are, and the trick is to learn just what these are, to master the art
of «discerning the signs
of the times» (Reinhold Niebuhr).
To use the term «
utopian» merely as a scornful epithet does not serve the purpose
of clear
thinking.
I believe there is a particular need at the present to focus attention on
utopian dreaming as a way
of shaking us loose from obsolete ways
of thinking and opening us up to those ideas, attitudes, and values that are appropriate for the future.
Though formulated by some
of the toughest minds in the history
of modern philosophy — Hobbes, Locke, Flume, and Adam Smith — this tradition gave rise to what would appear to be the most wildly
utopian idea in the history
of political
thought, namely, that a good society can result from the actions
of citizens motivated by self - interest alone when those actions are organized through the proper mechanisms.
Rejecting both
utopian socialism and
utopian individualism, he opted for a balance in the tradition
of American
thought that went back to John Winthrop.
How can we reconcile this position with the high esteem
of G. Gutiérrez for
utopian thinking and the expectation that a Christian community should always produce new utopias?
Even if an enormous amount
of thought and planning were devoted to such an alternative,
thought and planning that the small struggling groups we have been studying are quite incapable at the moment
of supplying, the revolutionary alternative seems quite
utopian.
According to the post-modernists the
utopian thinking of modem times proved to be the most merciless enemy
of the people.
It is for this reason that
utopian thinking led some
of its modern promoters, such as Arthur Koestler and Carl Sagan, to propose ways
of «improving» human beings by biological manipulation such as surgical removal
of certain centers in the brain or by genetic engineering to remove «bad» genes.
Then, with that eternally self - deluding wishful -
thinking that so characterises them, the moral libertarian, the Secular Fundamentalist and the
utopian will tell us that all we need is more
of the same.
Back in 1986, futurist K Eric Drexler (now
of the Foresight Institute — a US nanotech
think tank) imagined a
utopian future where self - replicating nanoscale robots, or nanobots, carry out most
of the work in society.
«We were also
thinking about our Spring / Summer 2018 collection, which was a
utopian positive vision
of multicultural Europe — we felt this collection needs to be more aggressive, in a way,» he adds.
As complex it may be to realize, world peace must stand as a tangible goal and not something to be
thought of as a mere
utopian ideal or intellectual exercise.
It's an example
of Nintendo's cute,
utopian thinking.
The methods
of teaching developed at the BMC — such as an emphasis on interpretation and dialogue in the form
of the student critique (or «crit»)-- are still present in many
of our most advanced art schools; the language
of interdisciplinarity began at BMC and the mixture
of disciplines and mediums gave way to what is largely regarded as the first «happening»; and the aspirations
of intentional communities,
utopian ways
of thinking, bridging the gap between art and life, and the creation
of a counter-culture that are characteristic
of American culture in the 1960s all flourished at the college in the preceding decades.
Timothy Earl Neill objects are made to question a
utopian suburbia, in which he «seek (s) to confront the notions
of ideological stability within dominant cultural modes
of thought.»
Meanwhile, The Other End (2017) presents a cornucopia
of deliciously painted fruited fruit fit
thoughts are never far from a
utopian imagination; Deus (2017) echoes Hajime Sorayama's 1980s illustrations in its depiction
of a dark metallic breast against a sunrise — a sign
of better, posthuman futures to come.
Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged from Land art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and
utopian thought — ideas that propose a new «radical nature» to reconcile the earth's needs with those
of humankind.
This living room was the site
of one
of the first American
think tanks and served as a space to indulge cold war doomsday theories and
utopian plans for the future.
Her work is influenced by and references
utopian thought found in literature, art and architecture, which are formally applied in sculptural works that refer to society's pursuit
of perfection in all forms
of life; physically and as a society.
Spatial City brings together an international, multi-generational array
of artists — with an emphasis on artists living in France — whose work contends with idealism,
utopian thinking, and, in counterpoint, the cynicism that follows failed revolution and the retreat
of optimism in the face
of pragmatic reality.
The Gardener Digs in Another Time, which is on show till 9 October 2016, reflects upon the use
of the garden in visual culture as a vehicle for
utopian thought and an emblem for an ideal society.
Her practice explores histories
of radical, political and
utopian thought, bringing to light specific ideas in order to question how we might live today.
To Marlon de Azambuja, the great architects
of the world have not only erected enormous buildings, they have also projected a large cluster
of ideologies — in many cases
utopian — that were fixed in the collective consciousness models
of thinking and living in the world.
McElheny combines the methodologies and mathematics
of science with the craftsmanship
of artisan glassmaking, and translates the imaginings
of Jorge Luis Borges, the
utopian endeavors
of Bruno Taut and Paul Scheerbart, the futuristic
thinking of R. Buckminster Fuller and the sculptural sensuality
of Isamu Noguchi into a range
of kaleidoscopic scale models for the infinite — most notably in his recent collaboration with a cosmologist on Island Universe, an accurate scale model
of the Big Bang.
However, Smith's eschatological
thoughts are never far from a
utopian imagination; Deus (2017) echoes Hajime Sorayama's 1980s illustrations in its depiction
of a dark metallic breast against a sunrise — a sign
of better, posthuman futures to come.
Episode # 084: Yinka Shonibare MBE «The
thought of being an artist itself is a
utopian idea because I don't make anything useful... I am realizing my dreams and that somehow is also my profession.»