Utopian politics

 R A Butler once defined politics as 'the art of the possible.' Utopians reject that attitude entirely. To them it's possible to establish an 'ideal' society and they are determined to impose their vision on other people - by force, if necessary, but certainly by a combination of political pressure and media influence.

Communism, fascism, National Socialism, religious fundamentalism, the ecological movement, political correctness, radical feminism, social conservatism and the 'woke' approach all share this same Utopian conception of the world. As a result they are dogmatic, intolerant and authoritarian and exercise their attempts to enforce their view of the world with varying degrees of tyranny.

Of course it's possible to be authoritarian without being Utopian. Military dictatorships in particular are generally motivated almost entirely by lust for power, greed or fear and are complete cynical in their approach to life.

On the other hand, Utopian attitudes are inherently more likely to lead to tyranny and oppression (frequently under the pretence of liberating people.) Any idea of perfection inevitably leads to hostility towards what's seen as being imperfect and a desire to punish it.

The opposite approach is often known as 'meliorism'' which basically means not striving for an imaginary Utopia but trying to do the best we can with the tools we have and the circumstances in which we have to operate.

True liberals (there are plenty of fake ones) adopt the melioristic approach to the world. So do true conservatives (and again, there are plenty of fake ones.) Liberals and conservatives may disagree about means to achieve goals or even on some of the goals themselves but they share a common belief that the job of politics is to do the best possible rather than trying to impose an imaginary ideal societal viewpoint on the rest of the world.

Increasingly, perhaps particularly among the young and/or those most responsive to social media, Utopianism is gaining traction. As a result not only are a range of downright silly ideas being believed; not only is history being 'rewritten;' not only is politics polarized to a degree hardly seen since the days of the Nazis; but the various Utopian groups are gaining power and influence.

Academia has long been a lost cause in the West; from the 1960s onwards it has been dominated by Marxists or quasi-Marxists and even the abject and total failure of Marxism to deliver the promised Utopia doesn't seem to penetrate their closed minds. They are stuck in a time warp and operate at the level of student politics and try to turn real world politics into a mirror image of that.

The media too (with a few honourable exceptions like GB News) has become totally enslaved to the 'woke' agenda. I am married to a man who was a former victim of domestic violence at the hands of a woman and we both watched in disbelief an episode of Question Time in which a man in the audience raised the issue of female on male DV and was brusquely shut down and told that it was only a tiny fraction of DV cases. That of course is a downright lie. Even in terms of reported DV cases in the UK 40% of them now constitute men reporting abuse by female partners. And of course given the fact that men are far less likely than women to go to the police to report a domestic assault the true figures are obviously higher. We also watched about two years ago an interview with a woman who (rightly) was condemning male on female DV but when she was asked about female on male DV smugly answered that it didn't matter.

Now I'm not going to pretend that these extreme attitudes are typical but what worries me is that they never seem to be challenged. The assumption behind this mindset is almost that there are 'worthy' and 'unworthy' victims which is totally wrong on every level.

Racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are genuine and important problems. But they shouldn't be used as an excuse for reverse racism, female chauvinism, misandry, heterophobia or cisphobia. 

Utopia of course wants to present a one-dimensional view of the world and a one size fits all approach to achieving its vision.

Meliorism tries to work with what is and to make the best of the materials to hand - human and otherwise - and to adopt the path of reform by consent and education rather than through varying degrees of coercion. 

Ultimately, Utopianism, however noble its ideals, ends up by oppressing and enslaving the human race. 

Better to adopt the cautious reformist path of meliorism than the heady brew of Utopian visions.