ESSAY CEMETERY

"To see traces of the Utopian everywhere… is to naturalize it and imply that it is somehow rooted in human nature". Biologists in general and evolutionary scientists, in particular, would not hesitate to concede to this somewhat Freudian suggestion, posited by Jameson in his 2005 book Archaeologies of the future: the desire called Utopia and other science fictions . A frequently recited maxim in academic biological circles is that life is an extremely unfavorable energetic and dynamic state, as contrasted with death which is a state of easily self-perpetuating equilibrium. Similarly, the very rhetoric of Darwinian evolution implies that life inherently seeks better circumstances, with phrases such as "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection", in which the most enviable position belongs implicitly to the organism best suited to his or her or its surroundings. While Utopianism does seem to be a natural individual quality, idealism has not always been...

The process of envisioning or implementing a new society is one of complete reformation. Regardless of the nature or content of the reform, the visionary, aspiring leader, or established leader seeks to introduce entirely new concepts and practices into society. Acceptance of new utopians ways requires, as a basic prerequisite, the rejection of old behaviors and paradigms. Often, thinkers choose to modify the past and conceal the reality of the present to facilitate these changes. However, no new world can be built from nothing: the new ways must inevitably be constructed using old conventions. Language is utilized to skew present, past, and future; reality is severely modified to correspond to the revised ideology. The means to express, disseminate, enact and enforce a reform are all subject to and relegated by, language. Language has always been political on every scale and in every locale, as demonstrated by ubiquitous phenomena in everyday life: in extreme reactions to declarations...