Utopia

Colorado River, Grand Canyon - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

A society that puts equality... ahead of freedom will end up with neither.
Milton Friedman -- US economist (1912 - 2006)

Our human nature yearns for a perfect world free of injustice and deprivation. Many Americans living in our free and prosperous country have grown to expect this condition as a right. Yet until the advent of market based, capitalistic economies and republics based on the rule of law, most people's lives were wedged between a brutal, unforgiving world and leaders who controlled their behavior and exploited their labor. For those unaware of these historical facts there is a sincere but naive passion to transform America into a 21st century Utopia.

Utopian communities have a long and varied history in this country. Often led by dynamic personalities, they appeal to idealists who profess equality of outcome. Consistent patterns define the Utopian experience:

1.The promise of a higher form of life free of want and inequality
2.Charismatic leaders
3.Rigid control of followers
4.Communities exist for only short periods of time
5.Near universal failure

The first noteworthy Utopian community in America began in 1825 when Robert Owen founded Iowa's New Harmony Community. The guiding philosophy of the group was socialism where profit and work were equally shared. Within months the experiment proved unsustainable as irreconcilable divisions arose between the residents. Chaos ensued and the experiment collapsed.

The Transcendental movement followed in the 1840's and attempted to provide a life free of religious, family, and social responsibilities where the adherents transcended from the mundane real world to one of natural mysticism. In 1841 Brook Farm offered its residents a life free of capitalism, where work was deemphasized in favor of intellectual pursuits. George Ripley, a minister from Boston and prominent Transcendentalist, longed to create an alternative to the capitalistic state - the“city on the hill.” Despite support from luminaries such as Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Emerson, the movement failed due to economic non viability and dissension between the workers and intellectuals who lived together in the community.

From the mid 19th and throughout the 20th century a variety of Utopian communities were formed and based on either religious, secular, or anarchist themes. More then twenty-five sectarian communities were established between 1865 and 1920. Their leaders and idiosyncrasies varied, but common ground was achieved only in the universal failure rate.

On the secular front Edward Bellamy's 1888 book entitled Looking Backward: 2000-1887 described the transformation of capitalism to centrally planned, state sponsored economies where citizens were guaranteed equal wages. The literary work spawned a number of socialist communities from New England to California and Tennessee to Washington, but again all eventually faltered.

Barack Obama is the latest in a long line of Utopians who seek to bring heaven to earth. Heedless of the poor success rate of the two hundred year Utopian experiment, the President chooses to repackage his version under the vague appellation “change.” His agenda is obfuscated by euphemisms to beguile the young, the naive, and the indolent. Like George Ripley, he intends to build his “city on the hill” where society's producers dutifully obey their masters and donate their wealth to the common cause.

In the last few months the President's veneer has begun to crack exposing his socialist core. A proud man who prefers to talk rather than listen, he seems confounded that America is beginning to judge him more assiduously and balking at his efforts to steer the country toward socialism.

After only a year into his presidency, even his cheer leaders in the media are beginning to doubt him. In a recent interview the ever loyal Diane Sawyer, who can be counted on to lob soft ball questions to the President, asked him if the pressure was too much to bear and was he considering serving only one term. What was the intent of this shot across the bow? Was it a hint from the Left to graciously step aside or an acknowledgment from his former supporters that he has more in common with Elmer Gantry than Martin Luther King?