An Ode to Utopia

Xuefeng

April 9, 2024

Utopia embodies the loftiest and most beautiful ideals of humanity. A person without a longing for Utopia is akin to a rat living in a gutter. A nation without a group of people pursuing Utopia is a soulless species.

Owen’s “New Harmony Community,” a Utopian experiment, failed. Does failure mean that the pursuit of an ideal society is erroneous? Without the pursuit of an ideal society, wouldn’t we become walking corpses?

The bestsellers of “anti-Utopian” books such as “1984,” “Brave New World,” “Animal Farm,” “We,” “This Perfect Day,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “It Can’t Happen Here,” “Harmony,” “Lord of the Flies,” “Maid of the Century,” “Neuromancer,” “Iron Heel,” “Chrysalis,” and others have made people start to despise the Utopian ideal. But what we haven’t realized is that it is precisely these anti-Utopian thinkers who have paved the way for the arrival of Utopia, making us clearly understand what should and should not be in the Utopian ideal. Just like the failure of the “New Harmony Community” provided material for reflection and improvement for the Second Home of Lifechanyuan, making the Second Home lifestyle not only exist healthily for 16 years but also remain vibrant and full of vitality.

Anti-Utopians have three major pieces of evidence or ironclad proofs: the failure of historical Utopian practices, the warnings of anti-Utopian fiction, and the drawbacks brought to people’s livelihood by the totalitarian system caused by the Utopian nature of social practices such as North Korea, the Soviet Union, China, and others. What I see is the opposite. It is precisely the failure of Utopian practices, the warnings of anti-Utopian fiction, and the Utopian nature of social practices in countries like the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea that provide a massive number of factors that can be referenced and warned against for the creation of a truly ideal Utopian society.

When Utopian thought completely disappears, what will be left for humanity?

Currently, people are striving for: an open free market economy, the inviolability of private property, and one person one vote to elect leaders at all levels of government.

I want to say that these three pursuits are very good. If these three pursuits are realized, society will prosper, the government will be relatively clean, people will gain more freedom, and productivity will be liberated and maximized to the greatest extent. This is better than any social operating system in human history.

But have we ever thought that an open free market economy is like an open African savannah, where various animals forage and reproduce freely on the open savannah. Please watch the survival situation of the animal world in the African savannah or jungle. Is that the ideal living environment and state for humans? The inviolability of private property has a good side. For example, property legally obtained through hard work and wisdom should be protected. But who can determine whether their property is obtained through legitimate means? Should illegally obtained property also be protected? Do the poor who have nothing still have hope and opportunity to live a wealthy life? How many people at the bottom of society can counterattack to become middle-class? One person one vote to elect leaders at all levels of government is a good measure, but the person elected by one person one vote must be someone who can cater to the vulgar wishes of the public, a mediocre person who pursues “political correctness.” It is very difficult for a truly visionary sage to be elected as a leader.

Good! Now we eliminate all Utopian thoughts and practices in the bud, taking the United States, which has the most perfect democratic system on the planet today, as an example, please tell me: how do we solve the following eight problems?

Theft and robbery.

Dereliction of duty by officials and civil servants.

The old age security of the poor.

Drug use and trafficking.

Class contradictions caused by wealth disparity.

The inner troubles, pains, anxieties, and worries of family members.

Huge military spending.

Homeless wanderers.

Without an ideal Utopian society, many problems facing humanity are insoluble. Do we think that these insoluble problems should exist? Do we think these problems are unsolvable?

The new production and living model created by the Second Home of Lifechanyuan is a true Utopian mechanism. Before understanding the Utopian model of the Second Home, easily conclude that Utopia is unfeasible and unsustainable, don’t you feel ignorant? Don’t you feel too dogmatic?