How to Bring About Utopia On Earth – A Practical Guide
Tommy Chen
At first glance this problem seems too big. What can three measly wishes do? After all, great men, the most brilliant minds of their ages: Plato, Sir Thomas More, Rousseau, Karl Marx… they each proposed a Utopia that was not only built on dozens, even hundreds of “wishes”, but which, on close inspection, are not Utopias at all, at least not to the slaves, the “bonded men”, those “forced to be free” or the “necessarily suppressed” bourgeoisie. However, there seems no prospect of me finding a genie at short notice, or any gods (or demons) answering any prayers, so why not engage in a purely hypothetical intellectual exercise?
Firstly, in a Utopia, everybody must be happy. This cannot be the drug-induced haze of Brave New World, but must be genuine satisfaction of life as it is. Now, the Economic Problem states that unlimited wants cannot be satisfied with limited resources. Hence life will never be perfect. In order, then, that everybody be happy, they must not wish for unlimited wants. This means they shouldn’t think too deeply, particularly of simple things. So, a limited education (at least in the conventional sense) and a saturation entertainment network to occupy the mind are in order. Now, a limited education system we already have (with an education minister urging people to leave the system). So what we need is more and better entertainment, of various degrees of intellectuality in order to satisfy the Alphas as well as the Epsilons. That, then, is my first wish.
Now, if everyone’s too engrossed in TV’s (and holographic films and suchlike), who will make the goods and the decisions that keep an economy moving? Computers, obviously, with those naturally inclined towards fiddling with the sockets of the universe their maintenance support. This will not only solve the problem of human error, it will remove all threats of horribly bored (and boring) economists. People who must work, meanwhile, like born inventors or natural gardeners, can become a workforce supplementary to the machines. Since they are second to machines, nobody will gain unnecessary prestige or power. My second wish, then, is for artificial intelligence computers.
What about hippies, rebels, punks, and various other lowlives bred of Capitalist excess? They must exist, in this merry summer world where nobody has to worry about where the next meal will come from, nor have the leisure to contemplate the nature of the universe (or at least only do so under the guidance of computers). These should then be sent off to areas of containment, where they can live in splendid isolation, well supplied and treated by the world, but in their own perverted livestyles. The same could apply to other menaces to society: serial killers, rapists, arsonists, evangelists, and the pathologically religious. My third wish, then, is the creation of these isolated communities (possibly in Afghanistan or America) for the quarantine and deposition of the excreta of society.
To take stock of the three wishes: mesmerising entertainment to saturate the senses; super-ultra-fast AI computers, and quarantine areas. Notice the amazing resemblance to the “feelies” and the drugs, the World State’s ever-present and all-permeable control, and the Indian reserve of Brave New World. Change the computers to the mysterious inner party core, the entertainment systems to telescreens and mass rallies, the segregated communities to psychological torture and secret killings, and we have Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is hard to suppose that the ordinary inhabitants of my imaginary world will be truly happy. Can we not escape from the vicious cycle of dystopia?
Perhaps the mistake was in starting out from a humane outlook. Let use take a more drastic measure. One: Kill off most of the population on earth. Maybe with a nuclear war, maybe with a disease so that all that remains are the strongest and fittest. This will solve all the problems of land, food, and resource shortages. Two: Create advanced robots skilled in manual labour and simple mental tasks. They can’t be put into high positions because then we will have the Terminator or Matrix scenario. So our survivors can live like kings on the labours of machines. (3) The government can be made up of a group of people chosen on intellectual ability and not money or bloodline. Lo and behold, we have… a simplistic version of Plato’s Republic. Next thing you know the robots (Plato’s slaves) revolt, or one of the rulers will become insane, or the ignorant masses will want democracy and overthrow the meritocracy. Even if none of this happens the common people will not be satisfied. Pretty soon the Utopia falls to pieces. Even if the Guardians put down the revolt (by this stage those who have been put down, at least, won’t be very happy), it will be known and remembered that somebody tried once. Next time, someone will try harder.
It seems any manner of supposition short of supposing that human nature fundamentally changes (in which case this whole conjecture is pointless because the Utopia will no longer be for humans), raises more problems than answers. It brings us back to the dreams of past thinkers, each of which has its own problem. The true Utopia is just as illusive as a perfect circle. It is, perhaps, time to heed the worlds of Nicolas Berdiaoff, famously quoted as the epigraph to Brave New World: “… perhaps a new age is beginning, an age when intellectuals and other educated people will dream up a way of avoiding utopias, and returning to a society that is not utopian, with less ‘perfeciton’ and more freedom.” It seems that, with the imperfections inherent in human nature, society, by definition an organised collection of humans, will only magnify these imperfections. We cannot achieve Utopia. We can only work a little way towards it by giving humanity a life that is just a little bit better.
Back to my three wishes then: the death of George W Bush; quality, substantial and free education for anyone and everyone; and at least one happy day in the life of everyone on earth.