Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World in Science and Inquiry

Dec 29, 2024 Mitchell Friedman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy, political, nonfiction, economics, library

I'm in 5 book groups. In my hard-books book group we are always working out how to pick our next book. I've taken to getting all the nominated books from the library and looking them over. And this one stood out, so even though it wasn't selected - and really didn't look like it would ever be selected - this one I read.

And it is not exactly a wow book - it's more of a slow burn - but it has a couple of messages that I already kind of believe, which of course made this book believable. That and t ...more

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Jul 02, 2019 ktsn rated it liked it

Thomas More's concept of utopia was aimed as a half irony, for the word include two possible but contradictory interpretations ("good place" and "no place"). Similarly, the title of this book is also only half right: it's about utopia, but it's not for realists.

The problem is not about ideas. The consensus is gradually and steadily formed (at least among people who care about society and scientific data) that we should adopt universal basic income (UBI) and make borders more open. The author spe Thomas More's concept of utopia was aimed as a half irony, for the word include two possible but contradictory interpretations ("good place" and "no place"). Similarly, the title of this book is also only half right: it's about utopia, but it's not for realists.

The problem is not about ideas. The consensus is gradually and steadily formed (at least among people who care about society and scientific data) that we should adopt universal basic income (UBI) and make borders more open. The author spent a large amount of contents to argue for these ideas and I have nothing against that. The real problem is how to overcome the political obstacles to implement them, and that's what I wished to find some insight in this book claimed to be "for realists". Unfortunately it's still basically a repeated utterance of propaganda. It seems the author believes that, as long as we say it frequently enough, some day the majority would get accustomed and convinced enough and suddenly vote for these ideas just like women's suffrage movement. Sometimes the level of naive optimism is almost irritating. For example, when it comes to the problem that the job market don't reward those who really benefit society fairly, the author writes:

If we restructure education around our new ideals, the job market will happily tag along. Let鈥檚 imagine we were to incorporate more art, history, and philosophy into the school curriculum. You can bet there will be a lift in demand for artists, historians, and philosophers.

If only you can bet! Even Obama once publicly mocked art history students for their poor job market prospects. The fundamental problem is, as long as most people still worship consumerism, it's very difficult to convince them there are more meaningful things in the world other than money. If the status quo is the most convenient system for people so they can despise and bully others according to money, they will embrace the status quo and say no to UBI. Put it short, any proposal that heavily relies on people's good intention is destined to fail and not for realists. ...more

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