Introduction
There is a plenty of evidence available as to the fact that, very often, the practical exploitation of utopian socio-political concepts leads to the creation of anti-utopias and even dystopias. The most recent example that substantiates the validity of this statement is the history of creation and the eventual collapse of Soviet Union. Ever since USSR founding in 1922, this country was meant to serve as the example of what can be accomplished, once the concept of capitalist exploitation of labor, as the basis for designing social policies in a particular country, is being disposed off. Before they had taken over a political power in Russia, Communists would never cease putting an emphasis on the fact that their doctrine of Communist society, where people contribute to society’s well-being, in accordance to their abilities, and receive back from centralized government just about anything they might need, makes perfect sense, because of its pure rationalist essence.
However, the practical realization of Communist concepts in Russia (and also just about anywhere else in the world), had resulted in millions of citizens loosing their lives and in those people, who managed to survive, during the course of Communist “social purges”, becoming the subjects of the fiercest system of slavery that world has ever seen – before the beginning of WW2, employees at Soviet factories were not even allowed to consider the possibility of changing their place of work. Moreover, if a particular employee was late showing up at work, even by as little as 10 minutes, he or she could have been easily sentenced to 10 or 15 years in jail as “saboteur”. Thus, the practical realization of Marxist idea of “workers’ paradise”, had actually resulted in creation the “workers’ hell”. And the reason for this is simple – as history shows, the designers of utopian social and political doctrines, have been traditionally deprived of a scientific understanding of Homo sapiens’ existential essence, as a species.
Moreover, as it appears, history did not teach a whole lot the spiritual and often biological descendants of hooked-nosed “idealistic promoters of workers’ cause”, as these people now actively shoving the purely utopian concept of “multicultural paradise” down citizens’ throats in Western countries. One does not have to be a prophet to realize what will come as a result, because the trail of death and destruction has always been the most characteristic consequence of political dreamers being put at liberty of “benefiting” a particular society, by subjecting society’s members to their obscure political beliefs. In this paper, we will aim at exposing the conceptual inconsistency of utopian type of thinking, by revealing it as such that simply does not correspond to the objective reality. The analysis of motifs, contained in videos “Rabbit – Run Wrake” and “Das Rad” (The Wheel), will come as particularly handy, in this respect. In the next part of this paper, we will also make mentioning of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s article “The Influences Of Nature Upon The Mind” and of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, as such that provide us with a further insight on the essence of discussed subject matter.
Videos
The animated video “Rabbit – Run Wrake” is now being commonly referred to as “innovative” and even “revolutionary”, in how it represents people’s irrational obsession with accumulation of material riches. However, the foremost idea, contained in this video, is as old as the world – the irrational instinct of enrichment, is one of the most important factors that define the existential mode of an average individual, regardless of his or her age. One of video’s most memorable aspects is that it utilizes a bucolic landscape as the background for horrific scenes of domestic animals being slaughtered in wholesale manner (the corpses of these animals would attract flies, which in their turn, would be turned into jewels by “idol”). Boy and girl, featured in “Rabbit – Run Wrake”, most certainly do not appear as being capable of killing animals, yet they pursue with their murderous task, as if they had worked in slaughterhouse for all their lives.
Thus, we can say that “Rabbit – Run Wrake” depicts the actual process of “dystopia in making”, by promoting the idea that environmental factors alone could not possibly define people’s social attitudes and their behavior. In its turn, this provides us with the insight on why utopias do not work in reality – whereas, people are best described as three-dimensional beings (they have spiritual, economic and social needs), the creation of political utopias comes as the result of philosophers idealizing only a few, out of many aspects of people’s existence. For example, Marxist theory suggests that, once people fill up their stomachs with food, all their needs are being satisfied. In their turn, religious fundamentalists idealize people’s spiritual needs – they seriously believe that a particular individual can achieve happiness by establishing a “personal contact” with non-existent God, while pointing out to citizens’ scientific, cultural, and economic pursuits as irrelevant and even counter-productive. Feudists idealize human sexuality – according to them, it namely the length of man’s penis, which directly corresponds to his perception of surrounding reality, etc. Yet, as it appears from the video, people’s way of acting does not necessarily derive out of context of their social, gender, or generational affiliation. Therefore, only very naïve people can believe that the creation of utopist society is possible by definition. When utopia does not work, it quickly transforms itself into its antipode – dystopia, as it has been illustrated by “Rabbit – Run Wrake”.
The clearly dystopian motif can also be identified in German animated video “Das Rad” (The Wheel), which provides us with rather satirical outlook on the very notion of scientific and cultural progress. In it, the human-like shaped piles of rocks observe the passing of centuries in rather melancholic manner, while coming up with short remarks as to the particularities of surrounding scenery. After having found a rounded stone, lying nearby, the younger “rock entity” becomes exited, while pointing out that this stone reminds a wheel, which in its turn, is being closely associated with the concepts of “transportation” and “progress”. The older “rock entity” smirks back, as if it wanted to say: “it might very well be the case, but what makes you to become so exited over the notion of progress, in the first place?”. As video continues on, we get to realize the actual meaning behind its sarcasm: the civilization progresses with ever-increasing speed, the highways are being built and the advertisement billboard is being hanged in front of “intelligent” piles of rocks, yet; just before this civilizational progress is about to affect both piles of rocks, something happens – people that had built a civilization – extinct, and whatever they have created begins to deteriorate physically, with the flow of time.
The older and wiser “rock entity” turns to the younger one and says: “they were very close this time”, while implying that it must have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations many times, throughout its life. Video’s morale is simple – people tend to think of progress as an objective category, while in fact, this might not be the case. This is why, utopist socio-political doctrines, which are based on the assumption that progress is something ever-present, might not be as objective as their promoters want us to believe. For example, nowadays, many hawks of political correctness refer to the entire history of Western civilization, prior to 1960, as “intolerant”, “sexist” and “racist”, while seriously believing that from now on, people are going to live in the state of “interracial harmony”, while “celebrating diversity”, as their foremost preoccupation. Apparently, they are quite incapable of understanding a simple fact that, in time of a major international crisis, such their ideas will have as much value as the notions of etiquette and gallantry had among the passengers of sinking “Titanic”.
Texts
Despite the fact, that Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was written well before the time when designing social utopias, has gained a public recognition as fully legitimate pursuit, it does relate to the theme of utopia vs. dystopia, because it promotes the idea that people’s best expectations usually result in utter frustration, on their part. The fact that, after killing an albatross, fog had dispersed was being taken by sailors as the indication that Mariner had done a right thing:
“Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
‘Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist” (Coleridge).
In the similar manner, Soviet citizens greeted the news of Yuri Gagarin being launched into the space in 1961, as world’s first cosmonaut – these people thought of it as the sign that the murder of millions and millions of Russians (they belonged to “wrong” social classes), during the course of Industrialization in thirties, was actually justified, because it is namely that fact that Stalin had succeeded in transforming Russia into highly industrialized country, which allowed it to compete with world’s major powers and to even leave them behind in space race. However, by 1991, most of these formerly cheerful citizens have been turned into miserable wrecks, for whom grubbing in garbage containers became the very point of their lives, simply because they were being dumped by their own government as “useless old farts”. This was the price they had to pay for supporting the evilest form of political utopianism -Communism.
As we have mentioned earlier, the ultimate reason why utopias, based on wishful thinking, necessarily turn into dystopias, is because, as history shows, the creators of 19th and 20th centuries’ utopian doctrines had simply lacked the understanding of the most basic laws of nature. For example, the doctrine of Marxism glorifies the concepts of social and racial equality. However, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the concept of “equality” is nothing but nicely sounding synonym to the concept of “entropy”, which in its turn, signifies the notion of energetic death. This is exactly the reason why, as soon as in a particular country the doctrines of racial and social equality get to be given an official status, this country automatically begins to descend down into primeval savagery. The end of Communist rule in Russia was being marked with the scenes of citizens killing each other over the loaf of bread. Nowadays, every time an American large city experiences a prolonged electrical blackout, it becomes instantly turned into the battleground of everybody against everybody, with “ethnically unique” citizens becoming solely preoccupied with looting (diversity makes us stronger!).
As George Orwell had once said in his prophetic novel “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal then the others”. Therefore, it is the matter of foremost importance that the laws of nature are being always considered, within a context of politicians designing new policies. Despite the fact that Ralph Waldo Emerson lived in 19th century, he was well aware of this fact. In his article “The Influences Of Nature Upon The Mind”, Emerson provides us with the insight onto nature’s objective laws, as such that should never cease serving as only the foundation, upon which society’s inner integrity can be based: “The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of Nature… He (responsible individual) shall see that Nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind. Its laws are the laws of his own mind. Nature then becomes to him the measure of his attainments” (Emerson 1820). Unfortunately, we live in time when many politicians in Western countries take pride in promoting degenerative social philosophies; therefore, the dystopian future of the Western civilization might not be quite as remote as some people believe.
Bibliography
Coleridge, Samuel “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. [1798] 2009. The Literature Network. Web.
Das Rad (The Wheel). 2007. YouTube.Com. Web.
Emerson, Ralph “The Influences Of Nature Upon The Mind”. [1820]. 2009. American Scholar. Web.
Rabbit – Run Wrake. 2007. YouTube.Com. Web.