Utopia for Realists

Utopia for Realists

The term was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South America. Utopia is an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

This was taken further by Rutger Bregman showing that we can construct a society with visionary ideas that are, in fact, wholly implementable. Every milestone of civilization - from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy - was once considered a utopian fantasy. New utopian ideas such as universal basic income and a fifteen-hour work week can become reality in our lifetime. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he introduces ideas whose time has come in his book “Utopia for Realists”.

Rutger Bregmen in his 2017 TED talk mentions about eradicating poverty. An experiment was conducted in India of sugarcane farmers before and after a harvest. After the harvest they got money. Before the harvest they were broke. When an IQ test was conducted before and after the harvest, they scored much worse on IQ before the harvest. The farmers lost 14 points of IQ before the harvest compared to after the harvest which is equivalent of a night’s sleep! Imagine their state of mind before the harvest and after the harvest and what IQ levels they can have and what they can achieve if they have such a harvest at all times of the year!

Rutger Bregmen goes on to say he believes in a future where the value of your work is not determined by the size of your paycheck but by the amount of happiness you spread and the amount of meaning you give.

He believes in a future where the point of education is not to prepare you for another useless job but for a life well lived.

He believes in a future where existence without poverty is not a privilege, but a right we all desire.

He goes on to say, here we are, we have the research, we have the evidence and we have the means. Now, more than 500 years after Thomas More wrote about Utopia and 100 years after George Orwell discovered the true nature of poverty, we all need to change our world view because poverty is not a lack of character, poverty is a lack of cash.

My comment is all which is mentioned may still feel utopian, although we may not think of poverty as a lack of character, finding meaning in our jobs, spreading happiness, preparing for education the way Rutger Bregmen has mentioned and eradicating poverty shall be the goal. The point is that is it not the right way to improve the world? This can be done one person at a time. Can we remove “Utopia” from the dictionary, time will tell? It may be possible in our life time, one person at a time!