 |
| Sir Thomas More |
I like to say that I "majored in utopia" when I was in college. While I was officially a history major, my claim to have "majored in utopia" is actually a pretty accurate description of my academic experience. I participated in an Honors Seminar in Social Thought and Institutions, focused on "Utopia," during my entire third and fourth years in college. This means I took three five-unit classes per year, for those two years, all on "Utopia." This was certainly the single largest academic commitment I made during my time in college.
Because of my past (and continuing) interest in utopia, I always read articles that talk about utopian thought and utopian ideas. Thus, I was particularly happy to read a recent article in The Nation magazine, by Jeet Heer, "Utopia and Dystopia Are Twins—Both Are Born Out of Criticism." Click the link if you'd like to read that article yourself.
Heer's article was subtitled, "But it is only Utopia that allows us to dream together." From my perspective, "dreaming together," about what we want to do (together), is the essence of a truly democratic politics.
And as I have reported before, some of the best advice I ever got from my father was this:
If you don't have a dream, Gary, you can never have a dream come true.
Quoting my Dad is just a reminder. Let's not give up, quite yet, on that "American Dream."
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Image Credit:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/utopia-dystopia-criticism-dreams/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!