Do we yearn for a utopia ? Perhaps.
Utopia may not be like the imagery I have provided of course, originally these were intended as personalised montages, to get an agoraphobic friend out of his house by enticing him with a flavour of the things he enjoys the most. In that respect I apologise in advance for any sexism that they may be employed but in defence I would question why our society deems clothing as an act of being civilised, when we clearly are not civilised at all. However the purpose of this essay is not about sexism but to discuss the over arching necessity for Utopia, or a least something that is better than what we have now.
To create a better world from the one in which we inhabit, is widely considered by most to be naive and foolhardy and yet some would argue that the systems we currently live by are slowly destroying our eco systems and sustainable alternatives must be implemented.
So surely it could be argued that Utopianist's are not dreamers after all but realists, selfless and driven, inclined to literal truth and pragmatism.
The rhetoric against the Utopian ideal however, is plagued by the put down, which in itself is naive. The logic behind this, is that a Utopia is an impossible goal mankind can never reach. Or so we are told. But who is telling us this ? Economists, members of numerous political parties, the bloke in the pub, your friends and family, all with a vestige interest in keeping all things tied to the things that they consider to be normality.
Yet is it normal a man to remain cooped up his house for years on end ? Driving his family and friends to despair, one of the countless millions across the globe who suffer from this rather bizarre fear of open spaces. Is this normal behaviour ? Or does this complaint vertically integrate into a column of numerous other social and mental disorders stemming from the advent of our industrial age?
When one considers how overly industrial our environments have become, so coldly mechanised, so unwieldily and unsustainable - is it any wonder many of us wish for a better world ? In fact we demand it. Consider how so many of our current day ailments are a direct product of the environment we have created. Consider agoraphobia for example. This irrational fear of open spaces, confining a man to the limitations of a life indoors. We all try to help, but our efforts are all in vain. The doctors give him pills and therapy, his wife gives him encouragement but none of this makes a blind bit of difference to an individual who regards the outside world as hostile and threatening. That everyone and everything in it is negative to which one would be lying if they were to say there wasn't a certain amount of truth in that aspect.
Perhaps we are looking in the wrong places to cure such infirmity. Perhaps instead of trying to treat the patient, we should be trying to treat the environment. Ah ! but it would cost trillions to do that, I hear you say. Maybe so but the same was probably said about the concept of a pocket calculator .
Never the less, our environment is hostile enough without the human race exasperating things further, yet we find ourselves still divided and fighting over finite resources that should be shared by all. Is it normal to wage yet another war on our tiny little blue planet? And to what end is war but to overthrow dictatorships and implement the US Senates brand of democracy ? Regardless of all that, we live by the dictatorship wether we like it or not. But this is governed by a much higher order than man himself, an order bestowed relentlessly by the immutable laws of Mother Nature.
For she can be more inhospitable than anything man could ever offer. All his nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction are insignificant to the brutality which nature deliver's upon the planets of our universe, every single second. It is perhaps odd to think of Nature beyond the birds, bees and trees but all things environmental, should be considered as such. In the cold subzero temperatures of space, where an ejected politicians blood would boil, our little world makes its 365 day trip across a frozen black void drawn around a star in an elliptical orbit that hurls us forward at an astonishing 18.55 miles per second, or 66,700 miles per hour.
Returning to Earth, your street, your house and your television set, one only needs to tune into the daily slaughter of our own kind and think little of it other than accepting it as the way of the world. Anything else would be imposing against this norm, this senseless killing, waring, judging, mocking material insanity called the human race. Those in power perpetuate it and the rest of us must endure.
This interminable ethos has to be questioned and ultimately reformed. That is the problem and also the solution . Considering the amount of money that is poured into cancer research or new ways to cure agoraphobia and so on, what if this money was also used to build a more sustainable and healthier environment ? For surely if all that money, instead of ending lives was used on saving lives, making our world sustainable. In doing this we would also eliminate or at least curb the rising social mental disorders inherent within our society.
Would such ailments exist if the environment were a more positive and healthier one? Depending on where you live, this is also dependent on the level of crime in your area. Many of us have either been a victim of crime or have known someone that has. Certain underprivileged areas in London, Manchester or even Portsmouth, are not the most inviting of places, at best, they are tolerable and at their worst, a living nightmare to those trapped within these concrete jungles.
Yet is it normal a man to remain cooped up his house for years on end ? Driving his family and friends to despair, one of the countless millions across the globe who suffer from this rather bizarre fear of open spaces. Is this normal behaviour ? Or does this complaint vertically integrate into a column of numerous other social and mental disorders stemming from the advent of our industrial age?
When one considers how overly industrial our environments have become, so coldly mechanised, so unwieldily and unsustainable - is it any wonder many of us wish for a better world ? In fact we demand it. Consider how so many of our current day ailments are a direct product of the environment we have created. Consider agoraphobia for example. This irrational fear of open spaces, confining a man to the limitations of a life indoors. We all try to help, but our efforts are all in vain. The doctors give him pills and therapy, his wife gives him encouragement but none of this makes a blind bit of difference to an individual who regards the outside world as hostile and threatening. That everyone and everything in it is negative to which one would be lying if they were to say there wasn't a certain amount of truth in that aspect.
Perhaps we are looking in the wrong places to cure such infirmity. Perhaps instead of trying to treat the patient, we should be trying to treat the environment. Ah ! but it would cost trillions to do that, I hear you say. Maybe so but the same was probably said about the concept of a pocket calculator .
Never the less, our environment is hostile enough without the human race exasperating things further, yet we find ourselves still divided and fighting over finite resources that should be shared by all. Is it normal to wage yet another war on our tiny little blue planet? And to what end is war but to overthrow dictatorships and implement the US Senates brand of democracy ? Regardless of all that, we live by the dictatorship wether we like it or not. But this is governed by a much higher order than man himself, an order bestowed relentlessly by the immutable laws of Mother Nature.
For she can be more inhospitable than anything man could ever offer. All his nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction are insignificant to the brutality which nature deliver's upon the planets of our universe, every single second. It is perhaps odd to think of Nature beyond the birds, bees and trees but all things environmental, should be considered as such. In the cold subzero temperatures of space, where an ejected politicians blood would boil, our little world makes its 365 day trip across a frozen black void drawn around a star in an elliptical orbit that hurls us forward at an astonishing 18.55 miles per second, or 66,700 miles per hour.
Returning to Earth, your street, your house and your television set, one only needs to tune into the daily slaughter of our own kind and think little of it other than accepting it as the way of the world. Anything else would be imposing against this norm, this senseless killing, waring, judging, mocking material insanity called the human race. Those in power perpetuate it and the rest of us must endure.
This interminable ethos has to be questioned and ultimately reformed. That is the problem and also the solution . Considering the amount of money that is poured into cancer research or new ways to cure agoraphobia and so on, what if this money was also used to build a more sustainable and healthier environment ? For surely if all that money, instead of ending lives was used on saving lives, making our world sustainable. In doing this we would also eliminate or at least curb the rising social mental disorders inherent within our society.
Would such ailments exist if the environment were a more positive and healthier one? Depending on where you live, this is also dependent on the level of crime in your area. Many of us have either been a victim of crime or have known someone that has. Certain underprivileged areas in London, Manchester or even Portsmouth, are not the most inviting of places, at best, they are tolerable and at their worst, a living nightmare to those trapped within these concrete jungles.
On the other
hand, perhaps one day, it will no longer be deemed a pipe dream of
Utopianists and scoffed at by Label Junkies, but will be an absolute
necessity, for our planets continued survival.
No comments:
Post a Comment