"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias."
-Oscar Wilde from The Soul of Man Under Socialism
"'As the ordeal went on, it became clear to certain of these
balloonists, observing from above and poised ever upon a cusp of
mortal danger, how much the modern State depended for its survival on
maintaining a condition of permanent siege--through the systematic
encirclement of populations, the starvation of bodies and spirits, the
relentless degradation of civility until citizen was turned against
citizen, even to the point of committing atrocities like those of the
infamous pétroleurs of Paris. When the Sieges ended, these
balloonists chose to fly on ...'"
-(Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, Pt. I, Ch. 2, p. 19f.)
"Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
A group devoted to Utopian visions, the search for the Earthly Paradise, better ways of being, the Temporary Autonomous Zone, Qiyamat, magical environments & accounts of fictitious Utopias. While the ideal of Utopia is unattainable, the project itself may prove more than a little diverting.
Topics for discussion here might include sustainable living; renewable energy sources; social models for community; planned communities; parties as situationally Utopian; activism; Utopian and dystopian fiction; Kumar Krishan; Christian anarchism; socialism; Buckminster Fuller; the Paris Commune; Thomas More; Urban Planning; theme parks; kibbutz; Michel Foucault; New Australia; Findhorn Community; Outopia; Dystopian fiction; Ivan Efremov; dropping out; feminism; civil rights; desert islands; Moksha; egalitarianism; kolkhozes; Nirvana; Bali Hai; Shangri-La; Heterotopia; gypsies; hedonistic imperative; Sointula; Eschatology; Riker's Holy City; technocracy; Shakers; Quakers; Garden of Eden; Qumran; Local Exchange Trading Systems; Edward Bellamy; Plato's Republic; Eutopia; William Morris; tribalism; extropia; transhumanism; nomads; The Great Explosion; The Land of Cockaygne; Bolo Bolo; Hesiod; News from Nowhere; Dhalgren; art colonies; Looking Backward; space migration; altternate lifestyles; Global scenario group; Schlaraffenland; nudism; communes; Robert Heinlein; Aldous Huxley; millennial movements; Transcendentalism; Ayn Rand; Johann Valentin Andreæ; Arcadia; SeaLand; Oneida; Golden Age; Saturnalia; Feast of Fools; James Hilton; fountain of youth; Brooke Farm; La Reunion; The New Atlantis; Francis Bacon; Utopian films like The Valley Obscured by Clouds or My Dinner With Andre; Gone to Croatan; arcologies; Ecotopia; The City of God; Augustine of Hippo; Walden; Walden II; Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game; Globus Cassus; Henry David Thoreau; El Dorado; Castalia; The League for Spiritual Discovery; Timothy Leary; Robert Anton Wilson; Ralph Waldo Emerson; The Gospel of Thomas; The Matrix; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Nicholas Roeg; The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas; solar power; Ursula K. Leguin; Rudolph II; the New World; The School of Night; Islandia; Rosicrucianism; The Cloud of Magellan; historical Utopian idealists; guerrilla gardening; Ahimsa; Gabrielle D'Annunzio; Autonomedia; the sexual revolution; Pirate Utopias; Moorish Spain; the Spanish Renaissance; the Italian Renaissance; William Blake; the Ranters; the Diggers; Bioregionalism; Hakim Bey; Charles Fourier; the Free Spirit movement; heresy; Utopian art movements; the commons; Dada; Situationism; and personal stories.
Indulge, play, discuss and make this group the best that it can be- not just another vehicle for promoting your projects or asking for random adds. Please get involved- it makes a difference!
USE THE INVITE BUTTON TO ADD YOUR FRIENDS TO THIS GROUP. BY DOING SO, YOU HELP TO CREATE A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTING UTOPIANS!
UTOPIAN RESOURCES ON THE WEB
www.sporeprint.org
http://www.d-holliday.com/tmore/utopia.htm -Thomas Mores Utopia
http://www.angelfire.com/co/harmony/utopiapa.html- Utopia Pathway Assn.
http://www.utoronto.ca/utopia/ -Society for Utopian Studies
http://www.arcosanti.org/ -Soleri/ Arcosanti
http://fadr.msu.ru/rodale/agsieve/txt/vol6/3/art3.html -Tree people
http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/ -Sustainable Communities Initiatives
http://www.ic.org/acorn/ -Acorn Community
http://www.thefarm.org/index.html -The Farm
http://www.findhorn.org/home_new.php -The Findhorn Foundation
http://www.victorycities.com/ -Victory City
http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~lhsjamse/utopias.htm -Modern American Utopias
http://www.euro.net/mark-space/Utopia.html -Utopian Resources & Films
http://www.coloradocollege.edu/Dept/EN/Utopus/links.html -Utopian Links
http://www.bfi.org/ -The Buckminster Fuller Institute
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html -TAZ by Hakim Bey online
http://www.deoxy.org/moorish.htm -Moorish Orthodox Church catechism
http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/~vreed/PU_shock/contents.html -Pirate Utopias
OTHERS
http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/subcultures/colors/red/jtrieb01/utopiafront.html
GROUP GUIDELINES
1) Please don't spam the discussion BBS or Bulletin Space with "add me" messages, promotions for other groups, or your epic poetry project/ music project/ fetish website/ merchandise giveaway scams.
2) Please don't include graphic sexual imagery in your posts.
3) ANY MYSPACE WHORES/ WEBCAM GIRLS WHO REPEATEDLY REJOIN TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE WILL BE DELETED AND REPORTED.
4) Those who post preachy, off-topic religious rants will be banned from this group and the thread will be deleted.
5) As a result of The UTOPIAN Dream poll, off-topic, partisan political posts are welcome even though that is not the focus of this group.
6) We encourage Utopian Dreamers to support charities that will uplift fallen humankind and alleviate suffering. However, I will delete any posts soliciting funds for charities since there is so much disinformation on the web and I do not have the time to check out every charitable post. Make up your own mind and do your part.