UTOPIAS & DYSTOPIAS : How to break the cycle
"Utopias have two inherent flaws - primarily, that a ‘utopia’ intrinsically implies a system, or series of systems, built for all walks of life. However, society is innately heterogeneous. Secondly, styles, whims and fashions all change over time hence so do utopias. And yet humankind incessantly searches for this unattainable place. Are we indeed destined to remain in this cycle of utopia to dystopia for eternity?
There are some positive signs - where 84% of the world’s population still lived in extreme poverty in 1820, now it is under 10%. And since the industrial revolution, the global economy is 250 times what it was. Indeed, since said industrial revolution we have had both the headspace and means to perpetually create our utopias.
So where do we stand now? Still fixated upon the future and a utopian society, Humankind has nonetheless begun to attempt to correct its errors and consider the past into the equation. Whilst we would formerly adopt a policy of destroy and recreate, I would argue that we are now beginning to include the addition of reform and correction with the likes of ‘Cradle to Cradle’ and ‘Zero waste’".
