Is Utopia Actually Possible?

Is utopia just too utopian? In this episode of Crash Course Political Theory, we’ll explore visions of utopia from Plato to bell hooks. And we’ll investigate whether “the good place” is a good-for-nothing, impractical daydream—or a path to charting political futures.

Crash Course Political Theory #11

Introduction: EPCOT 00:00
Plato's "Republic" 1:03
Thomas More's "Utopia" 2:41
Marxism & Critiquing Utopia 4:59
Libertarianism 7:08
Progressive Utopias 8:27
Review & Credits 9:49

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[depro]

"Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I'll never reach it. So what's the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep walking." -Eduardo Galeano

[lmeeken]

It's a little strange that we're given a binary scale between libertarianism and progressivism, and that libertarianism is described in more materialist and systemic terms - property and who controls it - while progressivism is described in more identitarian terms - how society treats women and queer people.

It kind of omits how progressive political utopias are very concerned with material questions of power (equitable distribution of material wealth and the means of producing it), and how libertarian utopias conveniently ignore gendered and racialized modes of oppression and inevitably reproduce them (lets count how many libertarians in the comments have an avatar of a white bespectacled dude...).

It also omits utopias that exist outside of that binary - like the fascist utopia (for them) that the fascist party in the US is presently trying to force into existence through executive orders. Or decolonial visions of utopia articulated by some Indigenous activists and philosophers.

[mugglescakesniffer]

Some live in Utopia right now. They are called 1%ers. Some people live in hell now they are living pay check to pay check or are poor. I don't think they think this is Utopa. In the great words of the Commander Waterford in The Handmaid's tale (which right now if you watch it was almost like a future prediction) "The Commander : Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some."

[DireDandelion]

The question is "whose utopia?"

[Miycu]

Iirc, important context for Moores book is that despite being the trope namer, it's not utopian fiction in the way we understand it today but political satire aimed at his contemporaries.

[robertoleary]

As more of an ideal to aspire to rather then an actual destination.

[PrashantMaurice]

I love his trippy and engaging ellie makes videos. Good vibes

[RobertCourtemanche-xh]

Too bad you didn't discuss the best known Utopia - the original 1960s and 1980s Star Trek shows.

[itmecube]

One person's utopia is another's dystopia.

[mrfalleo]

it depends on what you believe a utopia is. it is a subjective concept, it is based on what you feel and want as well as what you are taught, a Utopia is. And that comes from society and experience.

[intellectually_lazy]

kinda think it's partly socrates fault the thirty tyrants took power, what with his flirting with spartan sympathesizing at the end of the peloponnesian war until they actually seized power and it wasn't the glorious republic he envisioned. that's what i read between the lines anyway. that's, i think, what corrupting youth really meant, not that bs from clouds, which was totally not what socrates was into

[davidrose]

Another problem (challenge) to Utopia is...not surprisingly, ourselves.

[theomen]

Political power is an endless struggle that will always lead to groups of people using it to gain more power and wealth and to seek to entrench and protect that status. Even if we create a "utopian" society it will inevitably break down to those pressures and the corruption it causes.

[lalitthapa]

Its not bout the destination
But the journey

[jer-bear]

So the perfect system can be built with imperfect parts?

[BaithNa]

Utopia is just a place where people don't have to worry about basic needs or being a wage slave.

Globalization is a clear necessity for any potential Utopia but A.I. and automation will be the driving factor in any potential Utopia due to having to rebuild entire cities, likely 3D printers.

The Zeitgeist movies laid out a perfect format for a Utopian endgame but getting there is the hard part.

[albertcamus]

Utopia is the stars ⭐✨ at the night sky and Butterflies 🦋🦋 and, and quasars shining..,

[PaperySloth]

As long as people fear death, as long as resources are perceived as finite, and as long as people get pleasure from harming others for any reason whatsoever, utopia is impossible.

[TheDanishGuyReviews]

"Is Utopia possible?" Not as long as humans draw breath, no.

[dhararry]

Humans have different desires and values, so making a world that appeals to everyone is impossible. Bad people will always exist, as that isn't a systemic problem, but a human being problem, and some of them will inevitably acquire power, so making a perfect society is impossible.