What would a perfect world be like?
Utopia. Pardon the impact that reality will have in this discussion, but reality is just as much a part of utopia as is the purely illusionary Shangri-La. So, prepare yourself, for this discussion will shift from practicality to theoretical ideals on instantaneous whims, a facet of the human mind you certainly have some familiarity with.
It’s been the subject of many famous historical texts. Even if never directly mentioned, it is a concept entangled in nearly every philosophical or religious text one way or another. What is utopia? It may be described through an individuals perception of the world. The idea that has become considered by some to be a universal law—the law of attraction, that what the mind perceives, it can create in actuality. For some, this is generally the creation of an internal sense of accomplishment. But, rather than the “seek and you shall find” mindset that serves as a mental trick whereby people, through their consciousness, move through the world and find similarities and are continually drawn toward their desires or mental imagery. Rather, the real nature of utopia does not lie exclusively within the individual, nor specifically with the external world or society as a whole, but more realistically somewhere in between.
Many of the written texts on the topic suggest that the author, as well as followers of the discussed ideals or philosophy, might have defined utopia as a society that exists harmoniously with nature…subject to incredibly variation. A widespread text of its time, Thoreau’s Walden certainly suggested that much of the progress that man had made in his ability to manufacture products of naked earth were largely unwarranted. As the narrator describes it, ingenuity could be had of simply drilling holes in a large wooden toolbox that would create a perfect box in which to sleep with protection from the elements. He further criticizes men’s infatuation with trinkets and gizmos, finding it arbitrary that men would find status among other’s by their possessions of such items.
In the modern era, there’s undoubtedly the capacity for criticism of this obsession which has not subsided in the slightest and modern technology has only exacerbated such a fetish by creating expansive pathways for which to fulfill these desires. Modern technology held in the hands of a human illustrates a world that has all but abandon concern and fascination with the natural world—aside from a rare digital photo capturing a sky filled of color through a smoggy haze which, ironically enough only enhances the spectral variation. The mind of the taker, innocent and purely enough still acts in-comprehensive of man’s origins from the very sun in which he aims a perfectly round false eye at and taps his finger on an imaginary button.
Thoreau likely would be disgusted…but arguing that experiencing nature is valuable in itself is an idea nearly lost to entirety. Perhaps the protection from nature is something inherent in man’s unique nature. Or perhaps the wilderness is a deeply rooted part of humankind’s past that the majority would like to leave there, unless cleared, cemented, carpeted, and mopped with bleach. Sure, many people still go camping, fishing, hunting, or even wilderness excursions for the extreme adventurer’s…but its something distinctly contrary to normalcy, and its this change that many seek, or escape from civilization, because the modern world is so touched by modernized order that escape requires extreme measures. So, if humanity is so naturally supportive of creating a world of protection from the elements and enhancing comfort through modernization, how senseless preaching the positive aspects of getting in touch with nature must be. The only way to come to a conclusion upon which to move forward, then, is to assume that it is all natural…that, as living beings, our manipulation of the physical world for our purposes is just as natural as any ancient civilization building temples upon which to worship an imaginary god. It still leaves the question of attempting to describe utopia properly according some universal interpretation, or at least beyond an individual’s own perception of bliss.
Then, perhaps it may be described as continual progress and advancement toward a better humanity. This idea so often implicates modernization of technology and often the reduction of poverty or death…even altogether elimination of those two so-considered evils. Major multi-national corporations utilize this concept, very idealistic and still abstract to young minds, to create a positive stance by the majority of viewers regarding the corporations goals, such as utilizing their data analysis or communication networks for providing a structure for global medical care or disaster relief…the idea being that saving life and reducing poverty is inherently good and spreading this message globally. In reality, the duality of good and evil has become a rhetorical device despite its much more well-intended origins in ancient-Persian’s Zoroastrianism.
The “rhetorical device” description does, by no means, mean that it something politicians or people use as a means of self-actualization or imposing their will, desires, or manipulations on the world around them by simply saying that what someone else is doing is “good” or “bad”. Rather, it emphasizes something unique about our very nature, about our brain function, about our abilities to reason.