A time that is best described by its rampant cynicism.

Locked into the present, seemingly unable to imagine any change, despite knowing that without it, we seem to be destined to perish.įredric Jameson calls this predicament 'late capitalism' or Postmodernity. And how this curious, but seldom acknowledged connection, resulted in our current state. I will explain why, by taking you back to its beginnings, rooted in Anti Utopianism. It's the story of neoliberalism, the most successful utopian ideology to date, yet we never call it that. Because, as I will try to show you, Utopia is not only the cause, it is also the key to get out of what Fukuyama calls the end of history.īut to make my point I first will have to clarify some terminology, because words and their meanings are important to understand the story, I want to tell you afterwards. But that it's not Utopia that we should fear, but our denial of its powers. I want to argue that Utopia is inescapable 2., and that we have indeed been trapped. What if, we have been trapped by what we fear?

What if, nameless and hidden from our view, it still controls the world?Ī world, which seems to be quickly changing, into a bad place for people everywhere. It's this, our rightful fear of its totalizing powers, that made us banish Utopia. And with time it kind of almost became unthinkable.īut what if, being unable to think it, has also made us blind to see it, to recognize Utopia? It's either ridiculous or will lead to the horrors of Stalinism and Nazi Germany. If we think about Utopia, we think about it only in negative terms.

Yet, today a lot of people believe, even if maybe naïve and useless, that such imaginary exploration of difference, if taken seriously, will always and inevitably lead to disaster. And if one thinks about it like this, it doesn't sound very alarming, more like a rather harmless exercise of the imagination, a thought experiment. Utopia by definition is a 'good place that is no place'. I stole this from recent panel called Apocalypse Buffering 1., but thought I change it just a little bit.īecause I'm here to talk to you about Utopia, not so much as science fiction, but as a thinking tool that can be used by anyone, and that I hope will help us get our future back.

Jameson archaeologies of the future