Seven Ideals

topian analysis is the first science of civilization, the first normative science which does not commit the naturalistic fallacy (for those who have taken Philosophy 101). It builds upon the "moral sciences" of Hobbes and Locke, which in turn can trace their ancestry to Aristotle's Ethics. A science must have the equivalent of a fact, a theory, and a test. We must be able to rule out the alternatives. An idea which is neither testable nor reproducible is useless. The analysis of a social controversy like abortion or capital punishment relates each side to an underlying ideal. A proposed solution nearly always requires a deliberate (i.e., "utopian") change to community institutions, laws, or traditions. "Utopian" does not mean "perfection," does not mean "hopelessly impractical," nor does it mean "planned." City planning never works. Planned economies never work. I am a libertarian, which means leaving most things unplanned, and allowing things to evolve naturally, like a forest preserve which just requires occasional pruning.

he equivalent of a theory in utopian analysis is an ideal, such as socialism. That particular ideal is "from each according to ability, to each according to need." The equivalent of a test is a political experiment. Socialism was made a political experiment by the Soviet Empire, by the British after WW II, and by the Cubans. The equivalent of a fact is the observed outcome of a test. The socialist experiments have all been failures. Apparently, socialism provides no motivation to produce according to ones ability. The failure of socialism is a normative particular, something we had to learn by experience, something that could not have been known without the trial. Indeed, there may still be some devout leftists here or there in humanities departments.

olitical experiments show us that every deviation from reciprocity in economics, justice or marriage will fail. Utopian analysis is the science which supersedes ethics and aesthetics, without committing the naturalistic fallacy, since we never leave the normative realm or prove ideals. We rule out the alternatives. As in all sciences, a theory is well-established when we have ruled out the alternatives.

have found seven ideals which are both fundamental and true. There is evidence that they work and that the alternatives do not.

[1] Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: adult citizens can do whatever they like in private, whatever the risk, so long as no one is put at involuntary risk. Among the corollaries are the right to self-defense, freedom of expression and access, freedom of association, religion and privacy. This ideal does not require streetwalkers or crack dealers on every corner. Every community has a right to decide which of these things, if any, is allowed in public.

[2] Reciprocity: This is give and take, wages for labor, profits for risk successfully taken, the Golden Rule and the Mosaic Law. This is the foundation of every successful form of economics, justice or family that has so far been created.

[3] Democracy: Government by the consent of the governed. The people own the government, rather than vice versa, so no military draft. Separation of church and state, and separation of military and state. In other words, we don't want religious coups, or military coups. These always turn out badly.

[4] Union: The only permanent solution to the problem of war is to create a union of the warring communities in a hierarchy of communities. In the US, we fought a horrible Civil War to maintain the union, and the long range benefits are worth it. Alabama will never again fight Ohio, except on the football field.

[5] Equal opportunity and responsibility: equality under the law for every gender, class, race, tribe, religion, family, ethnicity, and age, both in prohibitions and in benefits. In the US, it has become difficult to get a movie made, become a college professor, or rise high in the financial or legal worlds unless one is a member of the overclass. Middle America has been disenfranchised.

[6] Justice: symbolized by Lady Justice, with her scales, blindfold, and sword. The scales imply that what the perpetrator did to his victims shall be done to him, if possible. The blindfold implies a blindness to irrelevant factors, such as intent or mental state. Only the act itself matters. Only the actions of the victim can lessen the responsibility of the perpetrator. The sword implies decisiveness. No bail, no appeal. Once the facts have been determined, judgment shall be made and punishment carried out immediately. In the 19th Century, the US had this kind of justice system. We lost it by successive decisions of the Supreme Court, which have fattened the purses of lawyers, by delaying justice indefinitely, and making the taxpayers pay for the lawyers. This has not improved the accuracy or fairness of the courts.

[7] Public Aesthetics: Aesthetic pleasure derives from intelligible novelty. Nothing is more hideous or brutalizing than the endless boxes which passed for architecture in the 20th Century. No place is more dangerous than the high rise boxes put up in mid-century for public housing. We each have our own likes and dislikes in architecture and the arts, but there are a few urban environments universally admired, as places to visit, or to live, such as Amsterdam, Paris, Greenwich Village in NYC and Albuquerque Old Town. These successful urban environments permit the greatest population density, 100 - 200 households per acre. They mix, rather than segregate, work and play, business and residence. These are neighborhoods made for walking, and for outdoor cafes, and for street-life. They are improved by excellent mass transit, as in Paris, and by banning cars and dogs, as in Albuquerque Old Town. They have a mix of the old and the new.

Examples of Utopian Analysis

Capital Punishment

hose in favor of execution are applying the scales of Lady Justice. Nothing balances a life but a life. The problem is in the practical application. In the US, since the development of DNA technology, dozens of people on Death Row have been found innocent and released. We must call a moratorium on executions until our justice system has developed to the point where it does not make mistakes...if that is possible.

World Peace

n the Middle East there are fanatic mullahs teaching the masses to reject and destroy the secular modern world. How can we create a global community that can encompass such wild eyed lunacy? We can't. We must make secular democracy more inviting by opening society to the new sciences and the new spirituality with its new aesthetics. Fanatic sectarianism cannot be defeated by reductionist materialism.

Liberty

iberty may be defined as "full citizens doing whatever they like in private, whatever the risk, so long as no one else is put at involuntary risk." Prohibition was a violation of the ideal of liberty, as well as a disastrous political experiment, since it resulted in gangs, drive-by shootings, robbery-killings by desparate addicts, and the corruption of police and public officials. It should not be surprising that we have the same result from the War-On-Drugs. Utopian analysis should allow us to learn from our mistakes and be able to counter religious fanaticism (the root of all evil).

ike every act of tyranny, the War-On-Drugs is supposed to be for our own good. It isn't. Every person must make her own discoveries about what is good for her and worth the risk, the trouble, the expense and the time for her. It is not simply a matter of protecting people from things that are risky. If we did that, we would ban cars, not marijuana. In the US, 60,000 people are killed in or by cars every year, whereas no one has ever died from smoking pot. Everything has its risks, including doing nothing. The Blue Laws savagely persecute a minority over a difference in lifestyle and recreational drugs. The DEA takes their property and lets them rot in jail. The USA jails more of its population than any other industrialized country. Land of the Free? I don't think so.

Education

ublic education is a violation of the freedom of access for children. To put that in another way, adults have a right to go to school or not to go to school, and a right to pursue whatever subjects they find interesting, no matter how the majority may disapprove. Sadly, education is nothing like that. It is just indoctrination in whatever the powers that be decide every kid must learn. It never works. It only alienates students and kills their natural curiosity and creativity. I am surprised that no one ever noticed that required education for children is a direct violation of our ideals of liberty. Are not children citizens? Do they have any civil rights? At what age do children become citizens? I argue that it is between 8 and 12, since historically children began their apprenticeships at that age, and went off to boarding school at that age. Eight year olds are capable of committing cold blooded murder. I was driving a tractor at age 8, and so do most kids raised on a farm. So I think there should be a "coming of age" ceremony, like a Bar Mitzvah, at whatever age the community deems appropriate, where we welcome a child to the full rights and responsibilities of citizenship. After that, education cannot be compulsory. After that, a child may decide where to live, and with whom. This doesn't mean we allow them to drive cars, which is dangerous enough for 16 year olds. Driving carefully and responsibly requires a level of maturity not usually found in 8 year olds. It seems to me the right to drive, to drink, or to vote should be based on some objective test of maturity, and could be taken back for a few years if an adolescent behaves irresponsibly.

The Ecolomat

ome of my Utopian colleagues make equal assets the foundation of their utopias. I wrote about that in my 1973 book, Whole Earth Inner Space. At some point, we might add that to our list of ideals, but there are some prerequisites: (1) a high standard of living worldwide, (2) stable world population, (3) recycling of resources and a solar-hydrogen economy, (4) preserves for every major ecological system, and last but most important, (5) an end to technological change. If all these requirements are met, we could build the Ecolomat, a global system of self-repairing and automatic factories that produce on demand the basic tools, parts and materials for modern life, and distribute them to the place where it is needed. Final assembly would be done by the consumer.

hange in a civilization is a constant. Not only is change constant, but the rate of change is constant. It just moves around to different areas. It is only the "temporal illusion" which makes us think things are changing faster the closer the events in question are to the present. There have been many great Centuries in Western history which saw no technological change, but did make social, artistic or spiritual progress. Technological change will come to an end someday, and until basic technology stabilizes, the Ecolomat is not feasible.

Copyright © Dr.H 2002