Reader Mailbag on the Demise of Utopianism
Happy Thursday, here’s a mid-week special edition of the newsletter.
On February 18, we discussed utopian movements in the interwar years and why there seems to be fewer utopians in our times.
After hitting send, I thought more about how the devastation of WWI was particularly severe in Europe, creating fertile ground for utopian, or as one reader suggested, revolutionary movements. Despite entering the war late, being spared the worst of the combat, and basically shoving over an exhausted Central Powers, the US still saw the emergence of utopian movements post-war. This observation leads me to wonder why even in regions less affected by the war's horrors, like the US, such movements flourished then but not now.
So, I asked where all the utopians went, you answered. Here are a few. These first two replies are telling a similar story, fatigue:
First, LH: Here's what i think killed utopian thinking - progressive disillusionment about the ‘people in charge’... Loss of public trust bc of corporate/white collar crime: Enron, world com, Lehman bros, housing/subprime lending crisis, madoff, fannie mae Loss of public trust bc of government corruption: ponzis, nixon, watergate, iran contra, “best & brightest”/vietnam, panama papers, GW Bush/WMDs, Trump, Jan 6.
The next one is from a former student, AV (who is currently reading 1984, thus the Winston & Julia).
In all honesty, though, thinking about me and my peers I think a big piece of why radical "utopianism" as you describe it is dying (I wouldn't say dead, yet, but definitely dy*ing*) is our sheer exhaustion…. We're the Julias to two prior generations of Winstons, and where the Winstons have seen the triumph of these "utopian" endeavors as well as the current failures of society, all we really have to go on is our reality—and that's one of mass shootings, political polarization (barely-passed debt ceilings), mental health crises, US public school crises, crises and human rights emergencies on the world stage, etc, etc, etc.
After watching elites go unpunished for their failures for decades, people have simply given up. Utopian thinking is grounded in the idea that a better world is possible but if you don’t believe that any longer, then just surviving or trying to make the best situation for yourself in the muck is a version of self-care. I nod at that.
KN offered an adjacent take: “I’m placing the death of utopian thinking at the feet of individualism. If you think institutions can’t or won’t solve your problems, why would you think that people can band together to improve the world?”
Next, GW suggested a utopian movement that hadn’t occurred to me—Kibbutz—communal settlements in Israel and occupied Palestine:
One utopian movement still operates after 80 plus years in the Middle East. Kibbutzim movement. From each according to their skills, to each according to their needs. The utopian side of it is: benefits of innovation and efficiency accrued to everyone, since there was no single owner or capital investor. That margin of benefit was shared. Agricultural enterprise efficiency did not result in layoffs like they do in capitalism. Same with factories.
For a lot of very obvious reasons there is baggage with Kibbutz and there are limits to what I can say due to my employment situation. But yes, the Kibbutz movement is an example of utopian collectivism, albeit a colonial one.
JW asked: “To what extent would you say Trumpism is a utopian vision? I’m serious.”
I replied to him that I don’t view Trumpism as utopian because there is no real ideology underpinning it. The MAGA movement is a nostalgia play designed by DJT to enrich his family and punish his foes. There’s no dogma. His only vision is power.
Last two.
CC asked “Is Bitcoin, in a sense, utopian? Making wars expensive was a big selling point for me.”
Disclosure, I own some Bitcoin as a speculative asset. I’m not a true believer but I also think the true believers have some points about the way the economy is structured today. That said, if you listen to hardcore Bitcoiners talk about Hyperbitcoinization—the proposed moment Bitcoin becomes the dominant global means of exchange—they absolutely have a utopian vision. It may not be one you want or share but it’s a vision. They believe Bitcoin will be a reset button, help topple traditional global financial institutions, and sideline non-state actors like the IMF. These are not my takes, please don’t @ me with an anti-Bitcoin screed. I am just saying they have a vision grounded in anarcho-capitalist philosophy, Austrian economics, and a devotion to “hard money.”
Lastly, E. sent me this remarkable piece from 2013 that describes our situation as a “Beige Dictatorship”. Here’s the money quote:
The status quo has emerged by consensus between politicians of opposite parties, who have converged on a set of policies that they deem least likely to lose them an election — whether by generating media hostility, corporate/business sector hostility, or by provoking public hostility. In other words, the status quo isn't an explicit ideology, it's the combined set of policies that were historically least likely to rock the boat.
That’s something.
It was written in 2013, pre-Trump and pre-Brexit. The US had just elected Barack Obama to a second term. In England, the British Labour Party was deep in the wilderness, with David Cameron sitting on a 80 seat Tory majority—different parties, different countries—the same policies. If I offered you twenty bucks to tell me five topics the British Tories and centrist Democrats like Obama disagreed on, I’d likely be keeping my twenty dollars. The gap between Biden and Sunak today feels equally slim and beige.
So at their core, our politics are perpetually about winning the next election cycle to keep the other guys out, rather than building an optimal sustainable future.
Thanks for being thought partners with me on this. If you still have thoughts about the death of utopias, I’d love to hear them.
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On the Nerd Farmer podcast this week, we invited Professor Michael Artime from Pacific Lutheran University back on the show to discuss the upcoming election. In this conversation, we covered several topics:
Ezra Klein’s suggestion that Biden step-aside as the Democratic nominee
The 14th Amendment challenges to DJT for insurrection
The mainstreaming of Christian-Nationalism, with the rise of Speaker Mike Johnson
See you Sunday.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share the newsletter with their friends.