Speaking of trying to find utopia, I began re-reading Mark Levin's "Ameritopia" as I began to recall some of the book. Looking at the civil unrest in the US, certain quotes came to mind
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"Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology. There are, of course, unlimited utopian constructs, for the mind is capable of infinite fantasies. but there are common themes. These fantasies take the form of grand social plans or experimentation, the impractibility and impossibility of which, in small ways and large, leads to the individual subjugation.
A heavenly society is said to be in reach if only the individual surrender more of his liberty and being for the general good, meaning the good as prescribed by the state. If he refuses, he will be tormented and ultimately coerced into compliance, for conformity is essential.
Especially threatening, therefore, are the industrious, independent, and successful, for they demonstrate what is actually possible under current social conditions -- achievement, happiness, and fulfillment -- thereby contradicting and endangering the utopian campaign against what was or is.
Utopianism also attempts to shape and dominate the individual by doing two things at once; it strips the individual of his uniqueness, making him indistinguishable from the multitudes that form what is commonly referred to as "the masses", but it simultaneously assigns him a group identity based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, income etc., to highlight differences within the masses. It then exacerbates old rivalries and disputes or it incites new ones. This way it can speak to well-being of "the people" as a whole while dividing them against themselves, thereby stampeding them in one direction or another as necessary to collapse the existing society or rule over the new one.
Where utopianism is advanced through gradualism rather than revolution, albeit steady and persistant as in democratic societies, it can deceive and disarm an unsuspecting population, which is largely content and passive.
Rather than cultivating a moral society and individual virtuousness, whether through faith, education, or sociability, and building on the accumulated experience and wisdom of earlier generations, utopianism breeds dishonesty not good character; it encourages ideology not reason; it rewards rashness not reflection; it attracts fanatics not statesmen; and it is transformative not reformative. As the world around him grows increasingly unpredictable and hostile, and the moral order of the civil society frays and then unravels, the individual may feel that his daily survival depends on abandoning his own moral nature and teaching, including prudence, self restraint, and forethought. He may become radicalized and join the ranks of the predators, or become isolated and conniving, hoping to avoid notice. He may become dispirited and detached, resigned to a life of misery. He may defiantly stand his moral ground, in which case he may become the predators' prey. in any event, the law of the jungle becomes the law of the land as the civil society disintegrates."
The globalised free market is failing...
03 May '15 14:13
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