So many utopias that never come into being - these ideal scenarios with the power of logic behind them....A society operating on visions of order and harmony, shared wealth, distribution of goods and services, civility, morality, respect for the common good - a world that simply moves on from outworn, useless, backward practices, from inequity and injustice... the excising of stupidity and irrationality... One assumes: If such a world can exist in principle, on paper, it will exist, it must exist, it will come to be under the right conditions....when the stars and opportunities align...Logically speaking ....because what is to stop it? Why should fear alone impede the advancement of humankind? ....Looking around however - we see not utopias, but the ruins of various attempts... And with such consciousness, a contrary notion asserts itself, namely that if such a place could truly exist, we would have already seen a successful form of it... something would have gained a foothold...Voluntarily - a shift would have occurred...it simply makes more sense - collective advantage...like cooked food, clean water, safe housing, sanitation, protection from the elements - all of the lessons learned by the tribe - objected to by none...A matriarchy, for example, - to replace a brutal patriarchy, to end exclusionary practices, to offer preeminent status to women, to teach men humility and restraint, to instantiate the idea of equality like never before... A new millennium and still nothing in sight? Still grumblings and nay-saying...Excuse-making...Discomfort over the new and untried? Or have we already seen glimpses of this very thing from the ancient world?! Supposing one could build a matriarchy, that the demand is growing for one... If it can exist as idea, it will exist, it shall exist, it must exist... If the idea and the impetus are there - what creates resistance? ...You could build a matriarchy, but not without a system of enforcement - not without repressing the "illogical" objections to such an edifice... not without placating, medicating, neutralizing, eliminating the "opposition" - that large contingent of unruly, incorrigible, power hungry males...who at all costs will continue to resist - out of fear of emasculation...You have a problematic animal existing in large numbers - not entirely tame, not entirely malleable, headstrong, vain, insecure, restless, unpredictable - this is your main hindrance to utopia...
I have spent much of my early life in the suburbs and after a brief stint in the big city - with its noise, crowding and cramped spaces, I find myself immersed again in this familiar realm - an environment that seems part of my destiny. I've always thoughts of the suburbs as a place meant for children - where children can feel safe and protected - with non-busy streets and clean sidewalks - room to ride one's bike or go door-to-door selling cookies. To consider how many of our early impressions and sensations were spawned by this largely artificial world...How different such a milieu is from other places on earth, war zones, rain forests, Siberian outposts, tiny mountaintop villages or large sprawling mazes of high rise apartments in vertically-inclined mega metropolises...The suburbs are a place where a definite order and routine can be imposed...where regularity is king... lawns get mowed on time, shrubs are trimmed, garbage bins are placed at the curb and returned to thei...
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