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eBook details

• Title: Utopians at Play (Essays)
• Author : Utopian Studies
• Release Date : January 01, 2004
• Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 202 KB

Description

THE UTOPIAN FORM1 as a sub genre of theorizing about political issues has been widely criticized as one that is especially characterized by its absence of play. Activity that is enjoyable, lacking extrinsic goals (that is, "inherently unproductive"), spontaneous and voluntary (2) is regarded by critics as the antimony of utopia. Jean Elshtain's conclusion that when utopias are not boring, they are deadly (204) is typical of these reactions which themselves form a large part of an antiutopian sensibility. This critique includes both the authorial decision to engage in the writing of utopia itself as well as the description of life in imagined utopian societies themselves. The decision to construct an ideal society is thus seen as animated by a kind of earnestness that eliminates play. Utopians are so single-minded, so resolute in their project, so serious and sober that they cannot tolerate play. While antiutopians would readily admit that play itself frequently includes elements of earnestness, to which any bridge player, wedding planner, or pick-up touch football quarterback will attest, the utopian will permit only one instance of earnestness, the building of her society. Thus Leonard Schapiro in his summary of antiutopian thought includes a series of propositions each of which is antithetical to play conceived as experimentation, spontaneity or simple recreation. For the antiutopian, utopians (1) are preoccupied with ends and are indifferent to means; (2) view persons and society as a totality; (3) make firm and dogmatic assumptions; (4) are obsessed with management; (5) neglect human variety. (3) Karl Popper in his classic attack identifies the "utopian engineer" who cannot afford to permit any respite that might delay or alter his "blueprint" (160). More recently Frederic Rouvillois concluded that utopias "with their obsession to rehabilitate man and condemn him to happiness" resemble totalitarian regimes and totalitarian systems: "Even when they don't acknowledge the connection, they invariably remind us of utopias, whose goals, mottoes, and means they appropriate" (317). For the antiutopian, the content of any particular utopia is immaterial to her assessment. Whether the utopia is one of abundance or scarcity, centralized or decentralized, capitalist or socialist, the genre derives from the same theoretical and methodological approach to politics. Utopias that are overtly playful such as somtopias and those that are noted for their stolidity such as Bellamy's Looking Backward are indistinguishable. (4) Similarly, antiutopians argue that the content of utopias proves their broader critique. Utopias are bereft of play, both for adults and children. Either play is scrupulously excised as a form of activity or play is transformed into agitprop for the utopian regime. For example, Plato in the Republic systematically censors music, literature and poetry as well as "playfulness" among the gods in order to protect young minds from contagion and More's dinner hour games are all designed to reinforce the triumph of virtue. In Rabelais's account of the Abbey of Theleme play is performed on demand: if anyone said, "'Let's drink,' everyone drank. If he or she said, 'Let's play,' they all played. If he or she said, 'Let's go and have fun in the meadow,' there they all went." (5)

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