Towards a Sustainable Care Utopia

Abstract

Imagine a global community where people care for others generously and consistently, behave considerately at all times and aspire to the flourishing of all humans, other species and the environment. Imagine too, a world where peace reigns, poverty is extinct and deep inequalities have been eliminated. Imagine finally, one world where the virtues of hospitality, generosity and gratitude prevail. At this point, some readers may find themselves remembering John Lennon's 'Imagine' which includes those well-known and beautiful words: Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger [. .. ] Imagine all the people, sharing all the world. 1 John Lennon was far from the first to imagine a perfect world or 'utopia'. 'Utopia' has been written about for centuries, with the invention of the term attributed to Sir Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia. 2 Other tomes on 'utopia' followed with Frances Bacon's New Atlantis in 1627, 2 Henry Neville's The Isle of Pines in 1668 2 and Samuel Butler's Erewhon ('nowhere' spelt backwards) in 1872. 3 Ideas relating to perfect societies go back further to philosophers such as Plato and into the more recent past with thinkers such as Charles Fourier, Robert Owen and Karl Marx. 4 Alongside the rich literature that illuminates the idea of a 'utopia' (of the light and the good), is literature relating to 'dystopia' (of the dark and the undesirable). Readers are likely to be familiar with more modern portrayals of 'dystopia' such as 1984, 5 the Handmaid's Tale 6 and the Children of Men. 7 Some literature, such as Gulliver's Travels 8 and The Giver, 9 provide glimpses of utopia and dystopia within the same text. Perhaps, not surprisingly, a key theme of both types of literature relates to the manner of ageing and the quest for immortality. In Gulliver's Travels 8 by Jonathon Swift, the narrator becomes excited at the potential of a section of the Luggnaggian population who are known as Struldbruggs or Immortals. The narrator cries out, Happy Nation, where every child hath at least a chance for being immortal! Happy people who enjoy so much living examples of ancient virtue, and have masters ready to instruct them in the wisdom of all former ages! [. .. ] who being born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature, have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused by the continual apprehension of death. (p. 156) Unfortunately, the narrator's enthusiasm was short-lived when a rather different and gloomy portrayal was presented of the Struldbruggs as they reached the usual 'extremity of living' age: [. .. ] they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other older men, but many more which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying. They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morose, vain, talkative;