Essays in Idleness

Dystopia and Utopia are really the same place. It is simply viewed through different temporal perspectives. Utopia is invariably in the future, whereas Dystopia happens now. But the belief that they are different places is among the Utopian fantasies. “Heaven” might be mentioned as a variation on the Utopian theme, except, it works the other way. For Heaven is divine territory, out of earthly reach. Utopias are earthly parodies of some Heaven that we have imagined. They descend into Dystopias, as Utopias are achieved.

Note: I am not saying this is a trend, or tendency. It happens every time. The promises of revolutionary politics always end that way. So many of the misrepresentations and falsehoods that gird us round in the daily news, are the consequence of an aspiration to reach Utopia; or once we have got there, they pretend that it is nice. It was necessary to discourage those who were in the way of progress; but upon arrival, opponents of the revolution must be vigorously suppressed.

This is how I know that in the West, Utopia has been achieved — the way it was in, for instance, the Soviet Union after 1917. It is by observing Dystopia, descending everywhere. We have moved from the “propaganda” phase into the “realization” phase of our Utopian revolution.

Of course there is still plenty of propaganda. In places like the mass-media, and throughout our captured institutions, there is basically nothing but. Notwithstanding, the “dreamers” have been transformed into “activists,” or replaced by them, as needed. For the time has come when progressives stop making demands, and start enforcing them. Woke up and smell the coffee, as it were. (“The lockdown must continue until resistance ends.”)

Still, we are in the early stages of the revolution. In Russian terms, the old government has been overthrown, but the Mensheviks have yet to be replaced by the Bolsheviks. And even when the Bolsheviks take over, things will not outwardly change right away. A time must be allotted to “defending the revolution,” against opponents who are still visible. The priority, for progressives, must be to defeat them before they do the things that would help them gather allies. The equivalent of a civil war must come first.

History never repeats itself precisely, as everybody knows. The waves in its channels are all brand-new waves. The game is always scoreless, at kickoff. Who knows what comes next? Nor would I predict the result, at intermission. The second half might look very different, and the fourth quarter might prove very exciting.

Moreover, Americans are different from Russians, and had much deeper traditions of liberty. They aren’t fully accustomed to being pushed around by apparatchiks. American serfs were free to choose new fates. Europeans, likewise, although they drive smaller cars. According, at least, to one school of thought, even Europeans can be pushed only so far. I haven’t seen any evidence for this, but I am willing to entertain the possibility.

Will a slave revolt follow, among people who weren’t slaves? And who suddenly remember prosperity and freedom? We’ll see how it all works out. Certainly I hope the revolution will be extinguished.

But to my mind, people are unreliable. So we’d better petition God.