... [A] lot of science fiction of the speculative kind used to be based on the premise of a forthcoming utopia, that we would eventually reach a perfect society. All those kids' books promising a great future to live during the sixties and seventies, and so on.
But now that idea, he says, has disappeared. When you see all the doomsday prophecies that dominate talk of the future these days, you start to wonder, what happened to all the optimism? Does anyone now believe in utopia?
First - I agree with Rynner's point that 'utopia' generally originated and proliferated in the context of fiction, and that the label is arguably misleading at face value. Personally, I've always tended to suspect More employed the 'no place' version deliberately, so as to be slyly sardonic or satirical. This tongue-in-cheek angle was more obvious with Butler's 'Erewhon' (derived by reversing 'nowhere').
Having said that ... I suspect GNC's query has more to do with historical attempts at visualizing, promoting, and / or operationalizing one or another utopian ideal over the last couple of centuries. I can only sketch how I see things in very broad strokes ...
- There was a broad-based but diversely manifested 19th century fashion for mindsets, philosophies, and policies grounded in the notion of dynamic change leading ever upward to better conditions or states. Much of this attitude can be traced back to over-simplistically distorted interpretations of (e.g.) Hegel and Darwin. In other words, 'utopia' was the often unspoken objective to be obtained through 'Progress' (with a big 'P'). This was the Bandwagon Utopia vision (i.e., it would be a positive outcome for everyone everywhere).
- To a lesser extent there were multiple groups who coalesced and 'dropped out' to establish their own mini-utopias, such as the many religion-based communes in the USA. This was the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Utopia vision (i.e., the positive outcome would accrue only to those who directly enacted it).
- Neither the Bandwagon nor the DIY visions survived the 20th century unscathed.
- Two World Wars effectively demonstrated mankind was not on track toward any sort of utopian status - especially since the scientific / technological achievements touted as contributing to Progress repeatedly seemed to be dedicated to warfare first and foremost. IMHO the culminating event was the arrival of nuclear weapons, which proved we were better equipped and more readily disposed to enact perfect annihilation than perfect society.
- In the wake of the World Wars we entered the dark Cold War Era, defined by conflict between the Capitalist / Consumerist Utopians and the Workers / Proletariat Utopians. By the time this era ended (assuming it really has ... ) both sides had essentially proven they were flawed and unlikely to lead to social perfection.
- During this period even the non-military scientific / technological wonders supposed to foster utopia began to be recognized for their downsides (e.g., pollution; side-effects; etc.).
- If pressed to specify a pivotal point at which belief in the Bandwagon vision clearly began to fall apart, I'd nominate the publication of
The Limits to Growth (Club of Rome; 1972).
- In the mean time, the DIY approach sporadically flourished (e.g., Sixties-era communes), only to have most of the participating groups / mini-societies dissipate over time.
- The unavoidable common element among utopian visions is 'everyone being on the same page' - i.e., everyone 'buying into' whatever 'system' is involved. To use the po-mo phrasing ... Utopia requires adherence to a totalizing narrative, and no one puts much stock in totalizing narratives anymore.
- Early on there were idealistic notions that the 'Net (broadly defined) would set the stage for widespread, if not universal, coalescence toward more constructive Progress in the direction of utopia. This idealism has been trashed as the 'Net has gotten increasingly territorialized, trivialized, and monetized so as to allow individuals to create their own isolated spaces within which they can ignore anything beyond their own whims. In other words, the widely expected 'utopian' effects have been progressively negated by the sort of 'you-topian' (personalized; personally circumscribed) usage modality that's proven so attractive to the masses.
