Our New Utopia – Excerpt from Triumph of the Common Man
Our New Utopia – Excerpt from Triumph of the Common Man

Summary/Abstract: […] A widely accepted definition, not accurate though, states that the word “utopia” denotes a political project which is idealistic in its intentions, but completely unrealistic, impractical and incompatible with human experience. The writers of utopias are therefore usually looked down as naïve sentimentalists or feared as dangerously inhuman social engineers. This definition is wrong. None of the great utopians created blueprints for a good society with the assumption that those blueprints were completely devoid of practical value. None of them considered himself to be a dreamer, deliberately separating himself from and ignoring all lessons of human experience. What indeed would have been the point of such fantasies? Who would have devoted the time and energy to create political projects which were politically useless? The writers of utopias knew, of course, very well, and often admitted that given the circumstances, the implementation of their projects was difficult, extremely difficult or even unlikely. Yet they never had the slightest doubt about their functional value and their intention was to put them to practice.

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