Friday, 10 February 2012

Utopia

“The representatives of a given order will label as utopian all conceptions of existence which from their point of view can in principle never be realised. According to this usage, the contemporary connotation of the term ‘utopia’ is predominantly that of an idea which is in principle unrealisable…Among ideas which transcend the situa­tion there are, certainly, some which in principle can never be realised. Nevertheless, men whose thoughts and feelings are bound up with an order of existence in which they have a definite position will always evidence the tendency to designate as abso­lutely utopian all ideas which have been shown to be unrealisable only within the framework of the order in which they themselves live…By calling everything utopian that goes beyond the present existing order, one sets at rest the anxiety that might arise from the relative utopias that are realisable in another order.” - Mannheim, K., [1936] 1998. Ideology and Utopia, Routledge., p. 176-7
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2 comments:

  1. I'm always wonder what you take away from these quotes. However I still enjoy thinking its all about me.

    We have both utopian and dystopian literature. The former gives voice to our aspirations and dreams regardless of their attainability. The later provides a vision of what we fear the world could become. I see how M. finds the label a way for people to distance themselves from the burden of realization. But aren't some people just dreamers and not the planners and implementers needed to realize them? The artists live in the world of ideas while others are inspired by those ideas and have the skills and will to invest in their realization. Sometimes they even invest in the kind of utopian vision that is inherently unrealisable. I think there are the dreamers and the doers. I don't see that the doers are put off by the number of orders removed they are from its realization.

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  2. I generally like to post on this blog what catches my eye rather than saying what I think about it. That information will come through in other work.

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