Utopia for Pessimists
/And the dark days draw on. Despite the winter solstice, despite the new year, this month has felt inexorably dark. And rainy. Bad news and wet weather are a dismal combination, the perfect fodder for black dogs and demons. Spring seems a laughable idea in the midst of one of the wettest Februarys on record (1).
But it’s not just February. Heaviness has set in over the last few years starting (in my opinion) with the descent of austerity after the financial crisis of 2008. Austerity touched everyday life in a way the preceding wars fought on foreign soil did not. Public services, particularly relevant to my work, were pared away to leave the mere skeleton framework underneath. We have suffered ever since.
And then came a pandemic. And then came an economic downturn. And then came the largest attack on a European country since World War 2.
So, yes, darkness may well be the word of the current decade.
However, a conversation with an old friend recently reminded me that such conditions have often sparked a flowering of positive change. He used the example of the expansion of the welfare state in the strained years after the Second World War and then the youthful countercultural optimism of the 1960s, where norms were challenged, often for the better.
‘‘The only way to get out of this gloom is to imagine better. And there are people doing that.’’
However, what optimism now? For my peers, who are working full-time but still struggling to pay bills and student loans despite a yuppie’s salary, I feel exhaustion overrides any positivity. How can you think to change the system when all energy is spent keeping yourself afloat?
And what about the next generation? Those in their twenties with the world at their feet? Surely there is more hope there? But they too feel the squeeze of a rigged economic system (rigged against them I hasten to add - the average student loan in £45000 (2)) and the psychological toll of a life spent online on social media.
So, are we doomed? Destined to find the bottom dropping from one low to another? No. I don’t believe so. I choose not to believe so. In fact, I think that is the only way to get out of this gloom - to imagine better. And there are people doing that.
Kate Raworth’s ‘Donut Economics’ envisions another, more sensible way to guide our economic direction. The refusal to accept that as it has been, so shall it ever be, is key in breaking the learned helplessness of decades of entrenched policies. And Rutger Bregman’s call to think of positive futures in his book ‘Utopia for Realists’ (from which I’ve borrowed the title of this piece), is essential if we want to imagine something better in the longrun. How do you build the future you want to see, if you don’t have a vision of it first?
I am constantly impressed by how many initiatives there are out there, envisioning a better future and going after it. From organisations like ‘Youth for Change’ advocating for Gender Equality, to my son’s nursery holding a Breast Cancer Awareness bake sale, there is so much good being actively done in the world, it’s there once you start to look for it.
So whilst the overall mood of the age may seem dark, brightening so many small corners, is the good of the world. I pray this is the turning point, the nadir before the hockey stick swings back on the upward track, but even if that’s not the case, I know there is still hope as long as there is a vision for the future. As long as we believe we can do better, we will.
Brighter days to come… margate in a rare break from the rain