Remember me?

[NeonKaos]

Originally Posted by River

Yeah, Catfish, it feels a little uncanny on this end too -- but I'm getting more and more used to strange magic occurring between those of us who are open to it. I feel it in spades with you and your love.

===

NeonKaos,

Thank you for correcting the apparent typo or misspelling of utopia. I know you meant well. However, I really did mean to type out "eutopia," which a little etymological inquiry will reveal. You see, utopia literally means "nowhere," while eutopia literally means "good place" -- in Greek. Thomas More was apparently quite aware of this when he wrote his now very old novel.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?...earchmode=none


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia

that's very interesting. i'll undo it.

[River]

Originally Posted by NeonKaos

that's very interesting. i'll undo it.

Thanks!

It really is quite interesting. I discovered these nuances while reading up on utopian thought / literature some years ago. At that time, as now, the concept of utopianism was nearly universally pooh-poohed by "respectible intellectuals".
Only the "pollyana" and illiterate were expected to indulge. So I perceived a window back to respectability when I learned that the criticism of utopia was displaced. That is, it's a straw man. Utopia was evoked as an impossible perfection, the pursuit of which inevitably results in dystopia (a bad place). Well, that may be so. But that's not was what was at stake with a good ol' fashioned eutopian like myself (one who serves the creation of good place--or at least believes in its possibility). Good may be less than perfect, but it's at least somewhat achievable, and doesn't deserve to be lumped together with no place (nowhere--the impossible). Playful eutopians can even play around with breaking nowhere into now here! All that's needed is a little space.

[River]

PS -- I'm hoping one day to find the word "microeutopianism" in a dictionary. It's my coinage. It refers to "those who subscribe to the theory (or theories) and practice(s) of creating small (very local) good places".

Macro-eutopias, I theorize, would be built of micro-eutopias, little by little, and one can start as small as they wish, either in public or private space -- or even in what I call "the communal sphere" ("the third sphere"). The communal sphere is the third and less known and recognized "sphere" which extends the concept of the public and private spheres.

One concrete example of a living and vital miroeutopian tradition would be bioregionalism. However, my own term (microeutopianism) can be applied to ANY scale of activity, however small. Very temporary examples of microeutopian expression are sometimes called TAZs (Temporary Autonomous Zones). I'm sure examples of living traditions are abundant. E.g., the intentional community and ecovillage movements.

[redpepper]

Wow river. I love that. Thanks for posting that.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by River

Playful eutopians can even play around with breaking nowhere into now here!

I love this.