Word: utopias
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Then there is the international preoccupation with a benign Utopia -- Europe's reaction against the horror of war -- whose "spiritual" symbol was glass architecture. Besides the familiar Constructivist icons, such as the sculptor Vladimir Tatlin's wooden model for a giant tower that was to commemorate the Third Communist International, there are fantasies by much- lesser-known artists -- the outstanding one being a German, Wenzel Hablik, whose radiant glass towers and many-colored domes resemble designs for the New Jerusalem...
...Khmer Rouge sent to the killing fields all who spoke French or wore glasses or had soft hands. The Khmer Rouge aimed to cancel all previous history and begin at Year Zero. Utopia, this century has learned the hard way, usually bears a resemblance to hell. An evil chemistry turns the dream of salvation into damnation...
Movement advocates say Goddess worship restores a prehistoric belief that was eradicated in Europe and the Middle East around 6,000 years ago by patriarchal invaders. The prepatriarchal utopia is portrayed as egalitarian, peace loving and "gynocentric." New scholarly backing for the creed comes from archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in The Language of the Goddess (Harper & Row) and the forthcoming Civilization of the Goddess. The author contends that worship of the "Old European Great Goddess" goes back to 25,000 B.C., though Gimbutas' major evidence stems from farming cultures in southeastern Europe from 6500 B.C. on, especially their ubiquitous female statuettes...
...line out 60 ft. or 70 ft., drop the fly (a vulgar tuft of feathers and Mylar) some 5 ft. in front of the tarpon's snoot and start stripping it in. The fish will then charge the fly, you will strike, and it's showtime! So much for utopia...
Thus, two almost indistinguishable Pan-Arabist doctrines lead to diametrically opposed outcomes: Mr. Ben-Gacem's to a Saladinesque Arab utopia, and Saddam's to the wholesale destruction of Kuwait and, consequently, Iraq. In short, Pan-Arabism is a destructive political theory because it bills itself as a moral imperative without regard to the morality of its consequences...