Word: utopias
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...black in the original, white in the reversal. Its transformation thrusts Black Olympia out of the world of politics and back to aesthetics by suggesting that the color of people matters no more than the color of cats -which, in some Utopia, may eventually come true: but not here and now. Admits Rivers: "The only way to test the idea would be to change every Rembrandt that hangs in every Dutch museum, in fact every painting that exists, into black people...
...creating a Utopia, an author assumes a God-like stance -a fact admitted by the social engineer who devised the briskly efficient community described in Psychologist B.F. Skinner's novel Walden Two. "I like to play God," the master-manipulator proclaims. "Who wouldn't, under the circumstances? After all, even Jesus Christ thought he was God!" In a way, it is something of a relief to turn from social architects who want to program human behavior to the modern variety of Utopian, who seeks power only for pleasure. "Do it!" commands the Utopian sprite Jerry Rubin-meaning just...
...simply be willed (or smoked) away, that it had to be handled decisively or it would undermine human community. "All that is necessary to describe the new society is to describe a new way of life," writes Charles Reich at his most euphoric. But while he is contentedly describing Utopia for the benefit of his enchanted listeners, others may be acting quite contrary to such instructions. The weakness of inner Utopia is that it surrenders control of outer events. In the end, it may prove to be guilty of the most discussed sin of modern times. It may be irrelevant...
...classic Utopias were often quite relevant to the real world. They projected patterns of life and politics that were later adopted. Universal suffrage, the separation of the powers of government, the basic ingredients of the welfare state were first suggested by Utopian thinkers. Wrote Anatole France: "Without the Utopians of other times, men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better world." A world increasingly threatened by universal pollution and weapons of total destruction needs Utopian thinking more than ever. It may be that only a vision...
...Utopia without a respect for the richness of individuality is not worth having-the chief lesson, perhaps, of the 20th century. It is out of revulsion against the omnipotence of the technological state that the inner Utopians have rebelled. In doing so, they have created a monster of the spirit just as surely as earlier Utopians built a prison for the body. Utopia is not meant to be lived in. At its best, it is a model for the exemplary life, not a guide to reality. As he brought his majestic Republic to a close, Plato acknowledged that...