Ecotopias Utopian Vision of the Future Society - Essay Example

Ecotopias Utopian Vision of the Future Society Introduction The paper discuses Ecotopia vision as the utopian vision of how the society could be structured in the future. It focuses on how Ecotopias could make the world a better place to live in the future, analysis its structure, and the cases for and against. It also analyses the objections that are likely to be encountered in creating the new world as well as the responses to the objections. It also considers the nature of human beings and their relationship to the world. According to Leonard &Barry (2009), the aim of the utopian visions of the structure of the society in future is to create a future society that will be sustainable and that will bring harmony with nature.The changes that are intended in the vision areaimed at all aspects of human life and for the betterment of the world. The paper therefore will focus on ecotopias in creation of a future society. The new ecotopia society The utopian vision of ecotopia is aimed at building a future society that will be ecologically responsible and stable. Ecotopia is an imaginary form of society that is ecologically ideal. It will help to solve the current environmental problems in the future and will deal with issues of technology and infrastructure. These will be eliminated and people will be able to live simple lives in the absence of tedious technological advancement. It will also address issues related to economic organization and poor lifestyle of people. It will solve the problem of unsustainable cities as well as dealing with issues of social inequalities. The cases for ecotopian future therefore are that it will result to ecological harmony, democratic participation, social justice and nonviolence. The vision will basically focus on preserving the ecological, social and community development while limiting the use and advancement of technology. Following the neo primitivist future vision, the future society will entail a simpler and less civilized way of life where technology will be rejected. Technological aspects such as using cars, watching television or even using electricity will not be present. There will be no cities and few places of permanent habitation will therefore be present. The future will totally be different from the current and will therefore entail the collapse of the current civilized systems.Food in the ecotopian future will be primarily gathered and hunted and only handmade tools and not the current technologically made will be used. Domesticating the natural wilderness will be highly discouraged and manipulation of nature will be limited by gathering food rather than farming. People will be a part of the natural environment that they will find themselves in (Kassman, 1997). Social justice will be based on community organization, personal identity and security, which will be based on clans and tribes. Everything that is available will be shared equally and communally among the people and therefore private ownership will not be in existence. Focus of the community will not be on material wealth but on the personal dignity and worth of the entire community. Every member of the society will be regarded as contributing positively to the community and there will be no gender stereotyping and everyone will possess the right to undertake social roles. In addition to social justice, democratic participation will be enhanced given the neo primitivist emphasis on freedom and individual responsibility. The role of government therefore will be limited and the applicable form of government will be tribal meetings, and communal decisions will be made in favor of all involved parties. In large tribes, tribal councils will act in the forms of government, leaders appointed for these councils and tribal disputes will be resolved by the members of the specific tribe. The ecotopian society will also be associated with lack of structural violence among human beings since self-control will be an important value (Costanza, 2000). The mystical deep ecology of the ecotopian future vision concerns a future society based on mystical, matrifocal, peaceful and agrarian past that honored a mother’s wisdom. It focuses on a future with ecological harmony and nonviolence. It considers the earth as its mother and the life upon the earth as its sacred kin. It also has a restriction on the use of the creatures that exist on earth and is also concerned with a detailed attention on the environment. The argument concerning social justice is also present and is based on gender egalitarian whereby the role and status of women will be higher than it is in the civilized society. Work will be expected to be shared equally between men and women. However men will be expected to carry out the jobs that require more connections to the earth and nurturing. There will be an egalitarian and non-materialistic culture and religion will guide all the aspects of life. There will be no much work to be done and only the basic chores will be expected to be performedand the daily chores will include attending to small farms gathering places, taking care of the house and the surroundings and preparing food (Kassman, 1997). Demographic participation will be as well present and will be mainly in terms of both the male and female genders. Women will be given special political responsibilities and their views will be highly valued. Nonviolence will also be present since the mystical deep ecology stresses on compassion towards life. There will therefore be a remarkably peaceful life (Eder, 2010). Social ecologist vision of ecotopia stresses on creation of a just and participatory society in order to build healthy relationships among all people. There will be an elimination of hierarchy and delegitimation of all discrimination forms and respect for all people in the community will be held. Social justice will therefore be available to all people in the community as interactions and building of healthy society will be advocated. There will be demographic participation since every society member will have an opportunity to participate in decision making. Violence will also be unavailable since all there will be efforts to build healthy relationships among people. However, there is an argument against the ecotopias utopian vision which is violence for wild animals. This is obtained from the fact that the neo primitivist future vision and the social ecologist vision that will guarantee hunting as a way of getting food. This will involve killing of the animals which will be a form of violence to the animals will as a result be against the visions of creating nonviolent society (Kassman, 1997). Objection to the ecotopias utopian vision The first objection to the ecotopia vision is that it results to nonexistence for the role of markets and its need for significant planning requirement. It may require the breaking down of national states in order to create new regional and global bodies that will be responsible for governing people. There is also an objection based on the fact that it may result to severe resources redistribution which might be difficult to resolve and that might require the states’ intervention. It is also objected on the basis that it might result to regional racism and chauvinism as a result of decentralization and regionalism. Another objection basis is that it can only result to self -determining communities if all the communities involved share common values concerning the environment, an aspect that is difficult since the diverse communities share diverse values and beliefs (Leonard & Barry, 2009).Another major objection is political attacks where political leaders might fear losing the centralized power of their states to decentralization and regionalization. The leaders might also fear to accept the truth of the vision concerning the transition to a state that there will be loss of materialism. There is also another objection based on the fact that the future society is described to be static with minimal movements and change. This aspect is in contrast with the modern dynamic world that is rapidly changing. It is objected on the basis that there is likely to be improvement in the future if only the elastic and flexible state is maintained as opposed to the proposed static state (Eder, 2010). There is also on objection for ecotopia vision of the future society that is based on the assumed degree of isolation where there is an assumed state of equilibrium with contact with outsiders being considered as being threatening to the ideal society. Another objection is based that the ecotopia vision limits the existence of diverse lifestyles, with the assumption of the presence of only a single waythat is ecologically sound for living. The monotony assumed in the way of living is strongly assumed. The objections therefore that are brought forward against the ecotopia utopian vision about the future therefore are merely based on the fear of implementing change. This is because the objections hold that the current states can also be used to bring the desired ecological improvements and sustainability in the environment. The objections can therefore be argued against considering that the ecological conditions have been deteriorating over while the same systems have been into existence. There should be therefore a different perspective on how things should be conducted which necessitates the facilitation of the ecotopias so as to aim at achieving what has not yet been achieved by the existing measures (Lockyer & Veteto 2013). Conclusion In conclusion, utopian visions of the future are aimed at creating a future society that will be better for human lives than the current. The paper has therefore considered the ecotopia vision of the future which ecological considerations aimed at making a better living society. Ecotopia vision is technologically skeptic since it does not consider the technological change as being the avenue for the desired change but focuses on social and community changes as the avenues for creating the desired future change. It views a society where the lives of people will be simple with the absence of technology and where there will be no existence of governments to centralize the ruling authority. It views a society whereby social justice will be maintained in communities made up of different tribes and clans. It is a society that people will be governed by the form of demographic participation and where peaceful living will be encouraged and thus it will be a nonviolence community. There are therefore objections that have been raised concerning the vision which derive their basis from the fact that it focuses on a non-materialistic nature of the future society, its assumption of technological advancements, its assumption of some degree of isolation and the fact that it assumes the existence of diverse lifestyles, assumes the existence of markets and that it requires a significant planning. It is also objected on the basis that it might lead to resources redistribution. The objections therefore are only based on the limitations of the vision and therefore the vision is still valid. Reference Costanza, R. (2000). Visions of alternative (unpredictable) futures and their use in policy analysis. Conservation Ecology 4(1): 5. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol4/iss1/art5/ Leonard, L., & Barry, J. (2009). The transition to sustainable living and practice. Bingley, UK: Emerald. Lockyer, J., & Veteto, J. R. (2013). Environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: Bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. New York: Berghahn Books. Kassman, K. (1997). Envisioning ecotopia: The U.S. Green Movement and the politics of radical social change. Westport, Conn: Praeger. Eder, K. (2010). Ecological concerns and their collective realisation in Ernest Callenbachs "Ecotopia". Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Read More