Here is the certificate that all Fellows of 2022 Practical Utopias are receiving. They are the pioneers who participated in the first-ever season! And here are the words I used to introduce the concept to them: Hello, my name is Margaret Atwood. I’ve been interested in utopias – worlds we would like to live in – and dystopias – worlds we would hate to live in – for a very long time. My novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia – most of us wouldn’t like to live there. It’s a totalitarianism – so, fun for those at the top, just not everyone else.
Now then. I have just finished listening to the audiobook of David McCullough's biography of John Adams, and so it struck me right away that you want to discuss building materials and housing first. Adams would object, I think. He would say that building materials are immaterial—or at least, that they are questions that can be answered later. The first question for any builder of a better society is this: how are we to restrain the darker impulses in human nature? Changing human nature, Adams would argue, is impossible. The best we can hope for is a set of social and political structures that will contain greed, selfishness, cruelty, bigotry, etc.
Adams had his own ideas. Among them: 1) a legal system that is truly just, and impartial; 2) a limit on the accumulation of personal wealth; 3) universal education that prepares all citizens to participate fully in society and politics. All good ideas, it seems to me, and all of them imperfectly realized, at best.
So that's where I would start. How can we make the legal system truly just? How can we limit the accumulation of personal wealth? How can we improve public education?
So very glad to see you here - and equally glad that you're bringing things as hopeful as this. Thank you for publicly sitting with these questions and inviting us to do the same. It feels like the start of something grand. :)
Margaret, I was a participant in Practical Utopias and I want to thank you for initiating this project. It has energized me with resources, community, ideas and hope. Instead of despair I now feel excited about the steps, small and large, that I can take every day to save this beautiful planet and make it a more compassionate, joyful place for all beings. A million thank yous. I look forward to the next round! (yes, please!) And, hurrah for your substack.- Teal
Your words give me hope, even the simple knowing that there are doers and thinkers out there willing to consider how to build a better world is encouraging. I'd love to know more. And a step further than that - how can I contribute to building a better world?
Well, I wish I had heard about disco.co and your project of creating practical utopia‘s back in September. I would’ve loved to have joined this. Hope you do it again. In the meantime, it’s great to have you here on the sub stack and I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say. Thank you.
These are all very good questions to ponder, especially in the story I’m serializing now. Part of what I think makes both utopias and dystopias so compelling is their proximity to reality. No magic wand. Even the society created in the Handmaid’s Tale forms incrementally. We accept certain things and little by little are swallowed up.
Thank you so much for sharing your insight and for this project. It’s so helpful to contemplate the many facets of the worlds we create. I’m eager to see how this progresses.
My best thinking is to understand human development & maturation better and engage in small groups to heal our fears and bring forth creativity, play and innovation, slowly but surely. We want to create the optimum conditions for growth for the current and next crop of humanity. This means making sense of trauma in the current crop, and do a teeter totter of courage & cleaning up the past. Like the dragon and the treasure, we can feel some fear and trepidation while still acting on the next steps to creating a localization of the world we wish to see out there ;)
Then we can spontaneously erupt in loving acts of investment in the social determinants of optimum human functioning, which supports life on earth, and each other. Easy Schmeezy, one would think, given the warehouses full of information and experts supporting this transformation.
The evidence is in. We are amazing and we are vulnerable.
One has to be a bit of a fire walking ( life is the firewalk) closet mystic with a precious tribe to face the naysayers and the internal hopelessness, then finish the darn book. My own challenge at the moment.
This thing about narratives shining the light on the way forward actually seems to be true – if we can see the way we might actually be able to get there!
Somehow before joining Practical Utopias as a fellow, I had been lurking around in the shadows patching together some semblance of Utopia and waiting for cultural narratives to guide us into the future. Now I am actively hopeful and actively imagining with others where we want to end up so that we can figure out how to get there together, this visioning exercise is real empowerment you have given us. Thank you Margaret for sharing your brain with the world and inspiring us to share our brains with each other!
I'm all for hope. And I'm tired of utopias only being presented as cautionary tales... e.g. "don't try to make things better! You might make them worse! Enjoy your soma and get back to work."
I love this! I am fascinated by the possibilities of what I call the Post-Egoic Society alongside the opportunities that AI and advanced technology may afford for humanity in the future. I am currently doing some work at this very moment for a chapter about Utopia for a book that is in development. I never realized this was a passion for you as well. I'd love to know more!
Your work has taken my mind to many places. It’s so cool to encounter you here! My thoughts are deep into the How of changing our industrialized education complex (and parenting in isolation) here in the U.S. When I consider the idea of a Practical Utopia, I feel it must begin with the way we raise humans. All the Dystopias I see, real or fictional, are driven by our human behaviors.
Dear Margaret,
What an inspiration you are! Thank you.
Now then. I have just finished listening to the audiobook of David McCullough's biography of John Adams, and so it struck me right away that you want to discuss building materials and housing first. Adams would object, I think. He would say that building materials are immaterial—or at least, that they are questions that can be answered later. The first question for any builder of a better society is this: how are we to restrain the darker impulses in human nature? Changing human nature, Adams would argue, is impossible. The best we can hope for is a set of social and political structures that will contain greed, selfishness, cruelty, bigotry, etc.
Adams had his own ideas. Among them: 1) a legal system that is truly just, and impartial; 2) a limit on the accumulation of personal wealth; 3) universal education that prepares all citizens to participate fully in society and politics. All good ideas, it seems to me, and all of them imperfectly realized, at best.
So that's where I would start. How can we make the legal system truly just? How can we limit the accumulation of personal wealth? How can we improve public education?
Eric
So very glad to see you here - and equally glad that you're bringing things as hopeful as this. Thank you for publicly sitting with these questions and inviting us to do the same. It feels like the start of something grand. :)
Margaret, I was a participant in Practical Utopias and I want to thank you for initiating this project. It has energized me with resources, community, ideas and hope. Instead of despair I now feel excited about the steps, small and large, that I can take every day to save this beautiful planet and make it a more compassionate, joyful place for all beings. A million thank yous. I look forward to the next round! (yes, please!) And, hurrah for your substack.- Teal
Your words give me hope, even the simple knowing that there are doers and thinkers out there willing to consider how to build a better world is encouraging. I'd love to know more. And a step further than that - how can I contribute to building a better world?
Well, I wish I had heard about disco.co and your project of creating practical utopia‘s back in September. I would’ve loved to have joined this. Hope you do it again. In the meantime, it’s great to have you here on the sub stack and I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say. Thank you.
These are all very good questions to ponder, especially in the story I’m serializing now. Part of what I think makes both utopias and dystopias so compelling is their proximity to reality. No magic wand. Even the society created in the Handmaid’s Tale forms incrementally. We accept certain things and little by little are swallowed up.
Thank you so much for sharing your insight and for this project. It’s so helpful to contemplate the many facets of the worlds we create. I’m eager to see how this progresses.
I am looking forward to learning more. It’s an absolute pleasure to see you here.
What a wonderful learning experience for the builders of tomorrow
I'm in
Dear Margaret & Community
Thank you Margaret for this wonderful invitation!
My best thinking is to understand human development & maturation better and engage in small groups to heal our fears and bring forth creativity, play and innovation, slowly but surely. We want to create the optimum conditions for growth for the current and next crop of humanity. This means making sense of trauma in the current crop, and do a teeter totter of courage & cleaning up the past. Like the dragon and the treasure, we can feel some fear and trepidation while still acting on the next steps to creating a localization of the world we wish to see out there ;)
Then we can spontaneously erupt in loving acts of investment in the social determinants of optimum human functioning, which supports life on earth, and each other. Easy Schmeezy, one would think, given the warehouses full of information and experts supporting this transformation.
The evidence is in. We are amazing and we are vulnerable.
One has to be a bit of a fire walking ( life is the firewalk) closet mystic with a precious tribe to face the naysayers and the internal hopelessness, then finish the darn book. My own challenge at the moment.
This thing about narratives shining the light on the way forward actually seems to be true – if we can see the way we might actually be able to get there!
Somehow before joining Practical Utopias as a fellow, I had been lurking around in the shadows patching together some semblance of Utopia and waiting for cultural narratives to guide us into the future. Now I am actively hopeful and actively imagining with others where we want to end up so that we can figure out how to get there together, this visioning exercise is real empowerment you have given us. Thank you Margaret for sharing your brain with the world and inspiring us to share our brains with each other!
I'm all for hope. And I'm tired of utopias only being presented as cautionary tales... e.g. "don't try to make things better! You might make them worse! Enjoy your soma and get back to work."
I love this! I am fascinated by the possibilities of what I call the Post-Egoic Society alongside the opportunities that AI and advanced technology may afford for humanity in the future. I am currently doing some work at this very moment for a chapter about Utopia for a book that is in development. I never realized this was a passion for you as well. I'd love to know more!
LOVE you AND your work, MA!!!
Maybe 'eutopia' for the Symbiocene? See: https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/2022/12/07/utopia-vs-eutopia/
Your work has taken my mind to many places. It’s so cool to encounter you here! My thoughts are deep into the How of changing our industrialized education complex (and parenting in isolation) here in the U.S. When I consider the idea of a Practical Utopia, I feel it must begin with the way we raise humans. All the Dystopias I see, real or fictional, are driven by our human behaviors.