![]() In Pacific Edge, the direct brand of politics Extinction Rebellion advocates is central to social and ecological wellbeing.Įxtinction Rebellion urges efforts of wartime proportion to decarbonise by 2025 – a utopian target that has been met with scepticism in some quarters. In Ecotopia and many other similar works, most aspects of life are decentralised, from small-scale agriculture to neighborhood-specific healthcare. For example, her viral video, titled “ A Message from the Future”, creatively imagines a more socially and ecologically resilient society just a few decades on from now – and, crucially, helps us to believe that it is possible.Īs a decentralised global movement that gives its members autonomy and demands politics in which citizens lead, Extinction Rebellion also echoes ideals from ecotopian novels. But judging from the way she has been promoting the Green New Deal, she certainly sees the value in painting visions of utopia. It’s not clear whether Alexandro Ocasio-Cortez, the leading figurehead for the grand policy package, was directly inspired by these works. These ideas are reflected in many aspects of the Green New Deal, which aims to transition the USA towards communal ownership of energy systems and a 100% renewable energy system by 2030, as well as enshrine into law rights to single-payer healthcare, guaranteed work at a living wage, affordable housing, and free university education. Extreme wealth disparities have been eradicated through income caps and minimum earnings schemes. Healthcare, education, and meaningful employment are available to all. In the ideal worlds sketched in Ernst Callenbach’s Ecotopia and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Pacific Edge for example, resources are renewably sourced and communally owned. What’s more, many of the ideas put forth by these projects were long since imagined in prominent ecotopian literary works. “Ecotopian” aspirations are already in full view in community networks attempting to create more conscious ways of living such as the Transition Network, social movements such as Extinction Rebellion, and bold policy proposals such as the USA’s Green New Deal. Now, our relationship with the natural world is humanity’s defining challenge – and utopian ideas have shifted to meet it. Take Martin Luther-King’s dream of a world free of racial segregation for example, or the strivings of the suffragettes for gender equality. ![]() ![]() Utopianism is manifest in countless historical examples of those that have dared to challenge the status quo and assert that things can – and indeed, must – change. ‘I have a dream.’ Emijrp/Bureau of Public Affairs Put simply, it embodies a longstanding human impulse towards self-improvement. Present in communities, social movements, and political discourse, it critiques society and creatively projects futures free of the strangleholds of the time. It begins with the seemingly simple yet powerful declaration that the present is inadequate and that things can be otherwise. Utopianism is in fact a philosophy that encompasses a variety of ways of thinking about or attempting to create a better society. The name may derive from Thomas More’s classic 16th-century fictional work, Utopia, but it is not confined to literature depicting distant or fantastical ideal worlds. Utopia is not, as its Greek etymological roots suggest, a “no-place”. Utopianism is the lifeblood of social change, and has already inspired countless individuals and movements to change the world for the better. But these assumptions are largely incorrect. Such visions are often dismissed as nothing more than pointless flights of fancy, yearnings for impossibly perfect societies. At a time of such social, political and ecological upheaval, it’s natural to dream of a utopian world in which these problems are no more – in fact, people have been doing it for centuries. Climate breakdown, mass extinctions, and extreme inequality threaten the earth’s rich tapestry of life and leave our own fate increasingly uncertain.
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