Musings on Utopianism and Social Engineering

For philosopher, social critic, and critic of Marxism Leszek Kolakowski, the utopian idea of human fraternity was disastrous as a political programme even though it and the optimism and hope associated with it was indispensable to human life. I would have to agree with Kolakowski (and Lev Tolstoy before him) on one level, so much utopianism in the modern West is potentially if not inherently dangerous to human health. This social engineering of human life utopianism goes far beyond the Marxist tradition Kolakowski was critical of, however.

Yes, Bolshevism mixed an alchemical brew of utopianism, paternalism, and Comteanism (the academic mentality?). But you can also find the same alchemical mix in the neo-liberalism of those who seem to believe that capitalism will bring us to the promised land of endless wealth and consumption.

So, social engineers who believe they know the direction of history or the science of society share visions of utopias dancing in their heads. Ironically another movement shares much with these "secular" social engineers. But that movement is not so secular.

Fundamentalisms of all varieties of religious stripes and colours share a utopianism and a paternalism with the Enlightenment movements mentioned above. Where "secular" utopians and "religious" utopians differ is in their epistemology (a postmodernist might argue that there is, semiologically, no difference at all). Secular utopians find their authority in science, social science, or the humanities. Religious utopians find it in divine revelation. Both, to me, are equally paternalistic. Both, to me, are equally utopian. And both, to me, are equally dangerous.

As for human hope, I am reminded of the relevant verses of Reinhold Niebuhr's "Serenity Prayer" of 1932 and 1933. I have to wonder whether hope is possible in a world where globalism has strengthened the hegemonic control of oligarchs in the core nation world and where digital communications have taken misinformation, disinformation, anti-intellectualism, and demagoguery to new heights...