438

THE IMAGE OF HISTORY AND OF THE FUTURE

and implies the optimistic faith that this ideal society is one towards which
man can and should purposefully progress in time, as he is free and therefore
responsible to determine his own future through exercising the proper
initiative and creative activity.
In a nal summing up of the diffurence between utopia and eschatology,
it can be said that eschatology is the oratorium of religious fullment, and
utopia is the laboratorium of social progress. Eschatology and utopia: ora et
labora.

CHAPTER

XV

THE UNCHANGING HISTORICAL TASK

OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA
We have seen in the preceding chapter that while eschatology and utopia
both belong to the genre of positive images of the future, there are important
differences between these two types of thinking. Utopism differs from
eschatology in respect to each of the three major components of the positive
image of th~ future. It differs in respect to its positive view of the future as
an expression of the human spirit, in respect to e~pectations concerning the
course of events as they move toward the future, and in respect to the manner
in which these various conceptions and expectations are woven together
into a specific image. We will now give a little more attention to these
differences, and take this opportunity for a summing up of the basic
charaCteristics of the utopia and a brief review of the historical forms it has
assumed. 1

r. Essential Characteristics
A. Dualistic
The utopia as the "other" and different is unthinkable apart from man's
split mental structure of which it is a product. The representation of the
other presupposes the splitting of time and space. This dualism is also an
indispensable prerequisite for any eschatology. In the latter case, that which
takes place is a transcendental splitting of time into temporal and timeless
time, and of space into the cosmic universe and the Kingdom of God. In
the case of the utopia, the splitting is a this-worldly one; the other time is
conceived as existing in historical time, and the other time is conceived as
1. My analysis of these characteristics leads me to a position considerably different
from that of my predecessors in the field. Since I have already discussed these differences
at some length in the preceding chapter, I will not deal further with this matter than
is strict~y necessary. If the reader would like to make his own comparisons, I suggest
the following passages: Hertzler, op. cit., p. 257 ff. (this is a broad and sympathetic, if
somewhat superficial analysis); Freyer, op. cit., p. 22 ff. (a penetrating but one-sided and
somewhat dangerous analysis); Quabbe, op. cit., p. 4 ff. (an objective but incomplete
analysis), and finally Ruyer, op. cit., p. 41 ff. (a philosophical, anti-pathetical and
subjective analysis).
We quote here from Hertzler, who was not diqtssed in the previous chapter because
he refrains from any systematic definition of the utopia (p. 257-66):

440 THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

existing in historical time, and the other space as existing in geographical

space.
This dualism is an omnipresent but insufficient condition of the utopia.
A similar dualism exists in almost all expressions of human culture. Man
has many means of entry into the other world, ranging from erotic ecstasy
through mysticism and madness to the day-dream. Religion, every branch
of art, and even science, all open their own doors on the unknown. But
the utopia, in addition to being dualistic, is also demiurgic. It purposefully
creates the other world as it could and should be. Out of the realm of
pluralistic possibilities which the splitting process opens up, the utopist chooses
one kind of world for his own, and if he were omnipotent he would create
this world in actual fact. His act of creation is not a diversion but a mission.
Not only does he draw the starkest contrast possible between present reality
and his normative idea, but his idea is a temporal (and changing) mirror
of the eternal idea, his imaginary construction a reflection of the ideal world
as the utopist at that moment conceives it.

B. Revolutionary
The representation of the other is achieved through the construction of
a counter image. This is the effective consequence of splitting time and space.
The counter image represents a total tum-about of human society, and this
mental process of splitting implies a radical breach, a complete caesura, in
the existing state of the world. The complete reversal in thought contains the
seeds of a reversal in deed.
"I. Three classes of people with the social outlook: those with backlook, the look
about you, and the forelook. Utopians of third class.
2. Characteristics of the Utopians:
a. Filled with divine discontent
b. Critics of their age
c. Intellectual originality and constructive imagination
d. Faith
e. Genius
3 The Utopians seeking a perfect state here and those expecting it hereafter are
the same thing.
4 Characteristics of Utopias:
a. Result of social stress and tension
b. Inventions
c. Merely relative."
On the basis of this descriptive rather than systematic survey Hertzler comes to
the following conclusion (p. 268): " ... the very essence of the various Utopias was
the delineation of the means whereby the writer's vision of social perfection is to be
realized. This spirit ofhope expressing itself in definite proposals and stimulating action,
we have called 'Utopianism' ... ".
Freyer is the thinker who goes furthest in the direction of systematization, formulating his personal insights as "The Laws of Utopian Thinking".

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA 441

The utopia is ex hypothesi revolutionary. Its revolutionary character is

not per se to be equated with viol~nce, as has been said before. This, in spite
of the fact that utopism played a role of some importance in the French
Revolution and that neither Morris nor Wells could envisage any other
possibility for the ultimate realization of their visions. 1 But the revolutionary potency of the utopia lies primarily in its spiritual power, the power of
a new idea. Its essence is to be found in its contribution to the preliminary
work of preparing for an intellectual and spiritual revolution in the minds
of men. The intellectual conception of the other must precede any factual
social change. 2
The utopia is always directed towards drastic reformation, thus differing
completely from projects of gradual social r9form. It is progressive, but
reaches far beyond the limited scope of any progressive movement. It
encompasses social policy, but is more radical in intention and design than
any plan of practical policy, within whatever political framework. The
radicalism of the utopia is an intellectual, imaginative radicalism, a careful
thinking through of radical ideas. With the courage of free and uncensored
thinking, the utopist pursues his thought-experiment to the last implication
and ultimate consequence (insofar as he can foresee this intellectually). He
journeys to the borderline of the unreal and the impossible, and evep. sometimes crosses that border, taking the last step from the sublime to the
ridiculous (or the reverse movement). 3 He often knowingly exposes himself to the world's ridicule, and is content to be judged for what he is:
a utopist.
C. Dialectic
The dualistic thinking, by means of counter-images, concerning the
totally ''other" is by nature dialectical. This dialecticism is contained in the
reversal of axioms and in the idea of a breach in time with an accompanying
revolution in the course of world events. This utopian dialectic is often
incorrectly thought to be limited to the Hegelian or Marxist variety, a
threefold movement ending in an enduring synthesis. The utopia is therefore criticized for its static character, inherent in the concept of a synthetic
I. See The English Revolution qf the Twentieth Century, A Prospective History (1894), by
the English socialist Henry Lazarus. This Utopia has not been included in our analysis.
Dupont, op. cit., p. 570 ff., discusses this further.
2. See Ruyer, op. cit., p. 21: "La decomposition et recomposition spirituelle de l'utopie
sert de transition entre la decomposition de fait et la recomposition de fait.".
3 See Quabbe, op. cit., p. 88: "Wenn er zum Hi:ichsten gesteigert is, schiittelt man
den Kopf und lachelt; aber es ist ja die Frage, ob man die erhabene Lacherlichkeit
Don Quixotes tiefer stellt, oder die lacherliche Erhabenheit des spauischen Granden,
der den Ungliicklichen in seinem Zirkus springen Hisst und das komisch frndet":

442

443

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE GHANGING UTOPIA

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

end-state. This view rests on a doubtful interpretation of Plato's Politeia,

or an undoubtedly correct interpretation of Fichte' s closed commercial
state. This kind of elimination of the dynamic stream of historical events.
is characteristic of mythology and eschatology, but is completely in conflict
with the essence of the true utopia.
The utopia is always historically relative. It carries within itself the seeds
of its own elimination through progress in time. It is the enemy of all
absolutism, and the vision which it holds up of the best possible future
which can be conceived at any given time is by definition a vision subject
to change. The utopist is as much a child of his time as he is an advance
scout. He can go beyond the prevailing spirit and even turn upon the conceptions of the time, only because he is a part of them, related to them with
all the intimacy of the Jjmbilical cord. But he knows better than any man
that the future is perpetually becoming present and that the forward-moving
present requires ceaselessly new social criticism and new reconstructions of
the social order. The utopias change both in form and content with the
course of history. As human circumstances change, so does the nature of
the imagined overturning change. And yet through all changes, the idea
of some kind of overturning of the social order persists. The utopia aims at
a "Geschichtswende" (turning-point in history), but not at a "Geschichtsiiberwindung" (victory over history).
Not only does the utopia continually adapt itself to changes in the times,
and even manage to stay ahead of these changes (as its task indeed requires),
but it is continually renewing the image of the future. Utopian thought is
marked by synchronization and metamorphosis. It synchronizes with the everchanging present and metamorphizes the future. But no matter how far it
looks forward into the future, the utopia still bears the stamp of its own
time. It runs in a kind of a progressive relay race, making its dash into the
future and then returning tQ the present to pass on the torch to the next
waiting utopia, which in turn makes its dash into the future. But
the relay stations are never the same, for both present and future
are ever moving forward, in continuous interaction, and lure the runner
ever farther into the unknown.

the idealism is directed to the earthly social order, its values are primarily
social-humanitarian.
1 Social idealism seeks .an acceptable solution to the persisting conflic~
between irreconcileable quantities, which may be variously labelled as:
general welfare versus individual happiness, collective regulation versus
individual freedom, efficiency versus justice, or state versus society. Every
human collectivity limps between two evils. Either it seeks economic wealth
or political greatness at the expense of mass misery, trapping the highest
human values in the meshes of the struggle for existence, or it seeks to
realize high religious or humanistic values without establishing an adequate
economic base. More likely, it falls into the unhappy compromise of a
perpetual struggle between conflicting interests.
Again and again in history the utopia offers its ideal solution for this
continuing problem of the best ordering of society, a solution that only
changes faces with the times. It offers a harmonious future social equilibrium
by providing for an optimum of general welfare and yet at the same time
ensuring sound interpersonal relationships, based on tolerance, cooperation,
eqrtality and justice. It challenges man, who is neither beast nor angel, to
build a society which represents a step forward in the rational and moral
development of mankind on this earth and in this time ~
The utopist, who believes fervently in his own solution and is therefore
able to awaken an equally enthusiastic faith in the minds of others, is
convinced that at the least his utopia will result in more thoughtful
consideration, deeper insight and incitement to action, ?or however "unreal" his ideas may appear, he considers himself the true realist, and the
future often agrees with him more than his contemporaries do. While his
idealism lies in the here-and-now, his realism is placed in the "other" world
he visualizes. The utopia marches through history along both roads.

D. Idealistic
As has been said, the utopia does not represent an arbitrary choice of an
other possible world, but a deliberate choice, out of many possibilities,
of an ideal world. The utopist' s idealism is grounded in a specific world
outlook, and this value-philosophy of man and society forms the motoric
power of all utopian thinking about the future. The motor works at higher
speeds in periods of tension and social crises.(For utopian idealism refuses
to accept the needs and sufferings of the present time as inevitable. Since

1.

E. Essence-Pessimism and Influence-Optimism

If we give each of the above roads its own name, we could label them
as essence-pessimism and influence-optimism. The typically dualistic mental
structure both of the utopist and his utopia find their best expression in a
mapping of these two roads ..:rhe utopia demonstrates to man how he is
continually demolishing his world and how he can reconstruct it:>The utopist does not scrape his old canvas clean in order to paint his ide~l p~ct~re,
but h6lds up the existing soiled and defiled canvas of human c1vilizat10n
for all the world to see, and then paints on a new canvas depicting a better
future world. He shows both the present ruins and the new life which can
spring forth from themL rhe true utopia can be recognized by its delicately
achieved balance between the two contrasting pictures and its finely-drawn
synthesis on a new and higher plane, providing a new thesis for mankind.

444

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

The utopian architect, then, must constantly shift the direction of his
gaze. His model of the present is posing on one stage, his model of the future
on another, and he perpetually turns from one to the other. The double
function of his completed work, that of social criticism and social reconstruction, provides the criterion of the worth of the utopia as such.
The first function, that of essence-pessimism, is primarily negative. It springs
out of rebellion against the existing order and gives expression to "divine
discontent", attacking every form of quietism and essence-optimism: Left
alone, the world will not move toward the good. It declares itself against
determinism in all its guises, from theodicy to social Darwinism, and particularly attacks political tyranny as an arbitrary exercise of pseudo-divine
power. It will tolerate no advance decisions concerning the fate of society,
not e:ven when this form of imprisonment is decked out in utopian garb.
It is utopia's second function, that of influence-optimism, which ensures its
place among positive images of the future. In stating the possibility of a
better order than the existing one, it replaces determinism with the point
of view that historical development is not yet determined. It does this without
being led astray in discussions of causality and free will. It does not preach
a new kind of determinism; there is a regrettable misunderstanding concerning the relationship between utopism and prophecy. In retrospect, when
his anticipations have been fullilled, it often appears that the utopist was
trulyprophetic.But the utopist does not aspire to have his act of envisioning
a desirable future as a possible future considered as a prophecy, nor does he
feel that his model must necessarily be actualized in the future. It is not his
intention to create by prophecy. This would be nothing more than a new
form of essence-optimism, or yet another kind of superhuman power. If
his ideas do later become reality, it is not because he had foreknowledge
of the future, but because his image of the future evokes the intended
response from his contemporaries or from succee~g generations, and
thanks to this response he has indeed a creative influence on the future. His
image has fertilized idealism and activated realism. It is because men have
made use of their freedom in an "open society" in precisely (or approximately) the way which the utopia had pointed out as possible and desirable.
The utopist does not predict, but suggests-and these suggestions may be
followed in whole or in part, in the near future or much later in time.
Of course the utopist hopes that his ideas will gain a following on the
strength of the possibilities which they open up. He does not casually
present one more possibility in the face of chaos or absurdity, but earnestly
offers the most desirable possibility as he sees it (More's "de optimo rei
publicae statu"). He does more than break open the closed society; he

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

445

endeavours to arouse man, not only to action, but to purposeful action directed toward the better society he depicts.
His positivism does not leave man helplessly standing at a door opening
towards a vista of many possibilities, his activism does not leave him only to
struggle for just another reality. Utopia's influence-optimism assigns to the
human conscience the task of choosing among various possibilities for
society, and choosing that possibility which will most closely approximate
the ideal (or complex of ideals) as any given group of men see it. The utopia
is not only creative, but normatively selective. It is the pole-star in the
constellation of human values.
F. Human Dignity and Self-Determination
The utopia aims at the development of human dignity through man's
own efforts. It is both product and instrument of another image of man.
It is intimately connected with the emancipation of human thought. An
independent development of thinking concerning the course of history and
the institutions of the social order could not take place until thought had
freed itself, at the cost of a tremendous effort, from the shackles of theocracy and cosmology-a process initiated by Socrates and Plato. Thought
had further .to free itself from scientific naturalism and metaphysics and
finally from tyranny and despotism; in short, from all forces at work to
subject man and society to the influence of supra-mundane power. For a
long time progress in human thought was blocked by an identification of
the existing reality with the best possible reality. Once man dares to think
otherwise and feels free to experiment in thought wi* an imagined other
and better, then a purposeful striving for change becomes meaningful, with
an accompanying differentiation between the real and the rational, between
mechanistic causality and beneficent action, between the necessary and the
desirable, and between present and future.
The concept of human dignity postulates that man makes his own history,
that he orders his own society according to rational and moral principles,
and that he purposefully decides his own future, in such a way that man
and society can reach their highest level of ful@ment. The role of the utopia
in the unfolding of this idea of human dignity in the face of a hostile history
must not be underestimated.
He who undermines the utopia, however much he may be a supporter
of human self-determination of destiny (like Popper), seriously damages
this concept. He who binds utopian thinking by naturalistic laws (like
Freyer) brings in the concept of causal determinism and superhuman power
by the backdoor to limit the development of the utopia; with the help of
a closed utopia, he recreates a closed society.

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446

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

G. Rational and Irrational

The final and not the least important aspect of the utopia as a positive
image of the future is the image. The split nature of the utopia is particularly noticeable in its image, which is at once rational and irrational, which
flows out of a free search of the intellect, and out of a free search for wisdom.
The art of the utopist consists in fusing these materials into a seamless whole.
The intellectual requirement of a careful and systematic axiomatic recon. struction using the tools of scientific method is inexorable, and yet this
scientific approach must be applied to imaginary material which is presented
as if it were actually functioning but can become reality only as a result of
this fictional portrayal. More than in the traditional practice of science, then,
a continuous blending of intellect with other faculties rooted in the emotions
is required. Intuition and fantasy, combined with ethical and aesthetic
promptings of the spirit, humour and insight into the nature of man, unite
with all the devices of which the inventive human mind is capable to
contribute to bringing forth the integrated utopian image with its characteristic stamp. The genius of the utopist, his visionary and vibrating sensitivity
comes to literary expression precisely in this power to unite the concrete
and the abstract. And it is at the point of literary expression that the transition in emphasis takes place, as the utopian essence slips into the background and the utopian influence begins operating in time and on the
future.
2.

The Lesson of Three Thousand Years

We have been describing the utopia as an ideal-type. The utopia is basically

always an ideal-type of a new social order, placed in a setting of another
world-in-miniature. It is portrayed as a working model, and the figures go
through their performance on a stage for the "enlightenment and edification
of the mass audience, in the best tradition of modem audio-visual education!
But in the course of the centuries the utopia displays an endless variation
of contents and forms, means and ends, imagined times and places, scientific
applications and techniques, social problems and real or imagined discoveries of various kinds.
We have been attempting to give a picture of the unchanging essence
of the utopia which lies at the core of all these changing external manifes-
tations, the "ruhender Pol in der Erscheinungen Flucht". 1 We have tried
r. Emilie Schomann has included an extensive bibliography in her highly specialized
dissertation, "Franzosische Utopisten des rS.Jahrhundert.s und ihr Frauenideal", Berlin,
19rr. She names 129 utopias with a few descriptive details. She does not include SaintSimon and Proudhon, or novelists such as Cyrano de Bergerac. The bibliography
extends to the beginning of the twentieth century.

447

to separate the general from the particular and to construct a meaningful

basic utopian structure; in other words, an ideal-type of the ideal-typical
utopia.
We are interested in those elements of the utopia which are impervious
to the eroding action of time. Utopias come and go, but the utopian seed
remains, in spite of the fact that utopias as such, like all good things, are
subject to degeneration and misuse for lesser goals. I would like now to
apply the ideal-type to two phenomena which are closely related to and
yet clearly differentiated from the utopia. The one precedes and the other
follows it. The one concerns the task which confronts utopian thought, the
other concerns the manner in which the utopia fulfils this task, judged
retrospectively by the traces it leaves in ensuing ages.
A. Statement of the Task: Challenge and Response
I.

THE

ETERNAL QUESTIONER

The first task of the utopia consists in holding up two mirrors : one to
reflect its contemporary generation, that each succeeding generation may
see its own time, and one to reflect a counter-image of a possible and
desirable future. He who dares to look into this contrasting mirror will
not be told ''who is the fairest of them all", but he will discover the fairest
society of them all. And somewhere just out of sight stands the Prince
Charming, ready to step out of the mirror and kiss into an awakening the
bewitched Snow-White, the ideal aspirations which lie dormant in the
existing society. Roused from her long stupor by this kiss oflove, she can
move forward to a new and better life.
But the utopia is more than a fairy-tale expression of an eternal-human
longing predestined never to be fulfilled. Rather, it demands and compels
fulfilment. It is a knock at the door of Everyman, and even the ears of the
deaf shall be opened by its insistent "why?". It is the incarnation of the
questing Socratic spirit, the divine gadfly ever hovering over man and
stinging him into wakefulness. "If you kill me", Socrates warned the tribunal and the people, ''you will remain sleeping for the rest of your lives,
unless God sends you another gadfly". The other gadfly, which took over
For a more comprehensive survey of Anglo-Saxon literature see Dupont, op. cit.,
who includes 75 utopias, with Well's works counted as one, as opposed to only 21
English utopias mentioned by Schomann. Ross, op. cit., mentions 285 utopias, counting
Well's works separately. He also includes some general philosophical, economic and
political systems that are embodied in published works, such as the Communist
Manifesto, writings by Bakoenin and Kropotkin, and by Mussolini and Hitler. If we
deduct these 35 works included in his enumeration, 250 remain, and the list is still
incomplete.

448

449

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

THE UN CHANGING HIS T. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

the task of the eternal questioner, is the utopia. And like the first gadfly, it
has been reviled, ridiculed, and scientifically speaking condemned to death.
The utopia is one gigantic question mark. It often actually uses the dialogue
form, and the hero's role is to ask the wondering questions and receive the
amazing answers from the inhabitants of Nowhere. The utopia does not
pose the ultimate questions, but confines itself to the penultimate questions.
It inquires, tirelessly and unremittingly, after the meaning of human existence (but only as far as life here on earth is concerned), and the meaning
of society. It asks for an unfolding in reality of the understanding of human
dignity and its realization in the relationships between man and man. It
asks of man: what are you making of your life? Why are you not living
as you can and must live if you follow the ideals you are free to choose?
It shows the yawning chasm between the ideal and the real, and tells man
that he is not immobilized on the reality-side of this chasm, but that he can
build a bridge across to his ideal. It points out that the ideals should not be
made to descend to invariant reality, but that a mobile reality should
ascend to the ideals. It designs the changing goals of aspiration and action
and holds up a compass that insistently points true north, a constant reminder that man's task lies ahead.

the rational, and the rational into the real. It stands as godfather at the cradle
of the free-born, free-thinking man. It opposes predestination with the
conviction of human freedom in shaping the course of history.
The historic struggle which characterizes the development of human
civilization was profoundly influenced by the challenge of the utopia.
Several times the utopia helped to bring about a major turning-point in
history, through a change in the image of the world and the image of man.
First a turning from essence-optimism to essence-pessimism, at the same
time accompanied by a turning from essence-pessimism to influence-optimism. Also, to go still further, from indirect influence-optimism to direct
influence-optimism: to the active and autonomous control of the course of
events, both present and future. One essential part of the utopian task is the
spreading of an optimistic vision concerning the possibility of rearranging
the social order according to an ideal model. It radiates with convincing
force the conviction that man is both able and therefore must be ready to
act and creatively and purposefully to improve society and move towards
self-fulfilment on an ever higher level than he has hitherto dreamed o
This fulfilment is not only an opportunity, but a duty.

As eternal questioner the utopist is also the prototype of the revolutionary

and radical spirit. His thorny questions penetrate the crust of bourgeois
self-satisfaction, giving all vested interests the uneasy feeling that their
ramparts are being breached. He threatens to remove the status from the
status quo, and to awaken men's awareness to the fact that the ancient regime
is both untenable and intolerable. He is an omnipresent and unsilenceable
satirist, a bitter critic who pillories the failings of man and society, and
relentlessly pushes man's nose into his implacable responsibility. He also
goes a step further and points the way for a fresh start, for new modes of
thinking.
.
The eternal questioner is also the eternal idealist. He answers a firm "no"
to the exigencies of practical politics. He is the champion of liberty, the
fearless and blameless knight who stands up for the right, the true, the good,
the beautiful. He opens men's eyes to the existing chaos of society, and makes
them aware of all that is bad, false and ugly in the social order. He preaches
repentance, but also salvation, if man but reads the lesson in his questions
aright.
2. LIBERATOR OF THE MIND

The utopia is a milestone in the history of the liberation of man through

the self-liberation of the mind. It takes as its task precisely that which
Hegelian doctrine would have occur automatically: making the real into

SPIRITUAL FATHER OF "THE SOCIAL PROBLEM"

The utopia is of the spirit,for and by the spirit. The utopian chain winds
through the history of human thought. It offers a firm foothold for historical idealism, for ~he a priori of the ideal. The development of the utopian
consciousness, as Mannheim has well demonstrated, is a primary factor in
the course of history. This is not only true in respect to ultimate effects,
but in respect to the conscious challenge of its self-imposed task. By
displaying his vision of the future, the utopist hopes to exercise an influence
on that future. He writes in the expectation that his ideals, norms and values
will inspire his contempories and descendants. His goal is the fructifying of
human thought and the ripening of nascent ideas. He awakens first thought,
then the <;leed.
The utopia addresses itself as auctor intellectualis to man as a rational animal.
It poses its questions to homo sapiens in order to activate the homo faber.
It is not enough for the human spirit to be free. The right use must be
made of this freedom. Certainly man must not give away this hard-won
freedom to those who speak fair words about freedom, but who would
nevertheless bind him fast with a new kind of social determinism (Hegel
and Marx) or a new tyranny of the spirit (Fichte, Freyer). The utopist says
with Goethe: ''Wer immer strebend sich bemiiht, den konnen wir erlosen".
Utopism is the spiritual father of all social idealism, all belief in social
progress and all socialism. It is the moving spirit of all ethics, and the great

450 THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

pioneering forerunner of all modern conceptions concerning social policy,

social organization and social peace. The restless utopian spirit perpetually
leaves behind that which is already achieved and sees that which is in process
of achievement as a point of departure for the other and better. All the art
of social engineering could not place one stone upon another in the social
edifice if the broad outlines of the system as an idea, had not been projected
long before, and if the seeds of the motivating ideals had not early been
sowed in the hearts of men. What once appeared as a totally revolutionary
vision in the utopian image of the future, can later, at the moment of
realization, appear obvious and commonplace.
4 THE LOOK-OUT

Both before and after Comte it was the utopia which took unto itself
the task of "prevoir pour pouvoir", a task from which the practitioners of
the social sciences shrank back. Not social science, but the utopia is the
spiritual father of modern planning in all its variations from capitalistic to
collectivistic planning, from partial and inadequate to over-extended planning. But the utopia purposes something more than the most perfect
planning. It contemplates neither prophecy nor prognosis. Its anticipation
of the future is imaginary, based on a non-Euclidian axiomatic system and
may therefore, like such systems, unexpectedly assume overwhelming reality. This realization is possible precisely because the future is not determined
in advance and thus cannot, or can only partially be foreseen by man, but
surely can be deeply influenced by his imaginative foreshadowings.
In order to fulftl its double task of critical penetration of its own times
and critical illumination of the future, several things are required of the
utopia. It must always be "up" on the most recent development of the
times, and sensitive to indications of future trends. Utopian thought must
possess eternal youth if it is to have value as an image of the future. New
ideas, new undercurrents and counter-currents of social dynamics are formed
in every age. The true utopia can only maintain its historical-relative
position in the river of time if it thoroughly knows its own age, perpetually
renewing and rejuvenating itself, and adapting itself to the undulatory
movement and synchronizing itself with the continuous course of history.
At the same time that the utopia feels its way into its own time, however1
it must also be able to detach itself from it completely, by the power of its
visionary imagination. Its axiomatic exercise and thought-experiments must
enable it to construct logical and structurally complete social mutations. Its
job is the pre-testing of hypothetical possibilities which are also normative
desirabilities. It offers a model of something which could be, complete with
ideals as it should be. It prepares an ideal-type which can serve as
touchstone for the real, the possible, the rational and the desired course

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA 451

of development. As guiding principle and measuring rod both, the utopia

is not only up-to-date, but in its function as model of the application of
human power to the social field, it is humanly speaking providential.
This aspect of the utopia's function becomes increasingly important with
the passage of time. History reveals again and again how long new ideas
must gestate through time before they become the common property of
a people. The now generally accepted concepts of social security and full
employment first took shape centuries ago in utopian images of the future,
and lived, however honourable at birth, a precarious, much maligned and
ridiculed existence indeed until their recent "coming of age" The solutions
to a significant proportion of today' s social problems were made ready well
in advance by yesterday's images of the future. Today's problems could
never be satisfactorily solved on the basis of improvisation alone. The
problems would become acute and overwhelm us long before public
opinion could be brought to accept hastily devised solutions. The dangerous
ideas of pioneering thinkers need a long period of social ripening which is
best not underestimated, before they become acceptably respectable and
ordinary.
But the future is always storming the gates of the present with a host of
new and more complex problems, and the tempo of these onslaughts is
ever. accelerating. Technological developments in particular make us feel
the forces at work on our own time both more intensively and more extensively, as they continually shrink down all distances and dimensions of
our planet. This makes all the more urgent the need for careful work well
in advance and for theoretical preparation and pre-testing of solutions to
future problems, in order that they may be sufficiently ripened to deal with
the future itself when it invades the present.
The utopia has carried this heavy task upon its shoulders for a long time.
It has applied itself unremittingly to the preparation of possible and desirable answers to the social challenges of the future. Utopian models have
developed the social technology par excellence for dealing at the level of
thought-experiment with the problems of the future. They attempt to
make new solutions, gradually penetrate from the elite to the masses, and
to fmd applications in the changing social reality for old ideals in rejuvenated
modern or even futuristic dress.
T oynbee has rendered us a great service with his fresh and vigorous
statement of the fact that cultures can only survive insofar as they are able
to give a timely and adequate answer to the ever new challenges of ti~e.
Adding only that it is the future which challenges the present, I cons1der
his thesis to be of undeniable worth for our time; it gives a necessary and
urgent warning to our own age, which he claims is already in the throes of

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THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

breakdown. It is therefore all the more remarkable that he rejects utopian

"futurism", which eontains one of the few potentials for providing our
culture with the right answer at the right time by effecting a gradual process
of spiritual permeation so that when the moment comes there will be
sufficient resonance in the public mind to stem the tide of decay.
In rejecting futurism he is rashly counteracting the possibility of new
answers, of futuristic cultural reconnaissances, of proscopic views of the
utilization of human power in realizing a better social order. In the last
anal~sis, his position is a considered rejection of any answer shaped by
utopian thought. He does not want this way out for our time and our future.
His own exclusive answer is an escape, a forced flight out of history and a
forced landing in theology, with a regression to the solution of supernatural
salvation. He ignores all next-to-last answers to the social challenge, and
concentrates only on the last answer, the miracle of God's personal intervention. But it is the nearby future which is forcing its staggering challenge
upon us. Beyond that lies what is for the human mind a vast terra incognita
of immeasurable importance, in which our children's children will dwejl ...
or not.
Toynbee's eschatological solution is simply the old Greek stage device of
the deus ex machina, which automatically resolves the drama's problem at
the end. Only, a stage-god can be given instructions. God cannot. And so
Toynbee leaves the world drama de facto for what it is. Popper, liberal that
he is, would at least lend a helping hand and do something. One can hardly
quarrel with his social engineering. It is useful, necessary, even indispensable.
But it is not designed for the solution of problems of the future having
world-wide dimensions, problems which confront us with the decisive
question of to be or not to be.
This e~stential question cannot be answered by the muddling through
of practical-minded policy makers who behave according to the law of
inertia and take the line ofleast resistance. Popper is not only turning away
from utopism, but away from the creative minority who must think out
and carry out the design of the future. His social engineers reflect the
mechanistic and mediocre means-orientation of a technocracy which no
longer has need of an aristocracy of the spirit, because life has been reduced
to a day-to-day routine which requires nothing more than extrapolations
of existing trends which will be undisturbed by any sudden shocks or shifts
of any importance.
Popper emphatically defends spiritual freedom-and who would not
agree with him-only then to let it lie inactive. He vigorously defends
human self-determination agains~ Toynbee, but in the end he practically
turns the future over to the blind forces of fate or chance. For he puts nothing

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but a mechanical toy into man's hands, and scornfully tosses aside one of
the most potent instruments for achieving this self-determination, the
utopia, society's great look-out post. It is a pity that Popper himself is not
a utopist. His social criticism is in many respects excellent, but the visionary
and fundamental reconstruction is totally lacking. Would he perhaps call out
to us in the Greek heroic tradition: ''If we must perish, let us perish worthily
as free men"? No indeed, for he is not thinking at all of a threatened downfall of man, except possibly through lack of liberty. His free men have the
wisdom to see through a stone wall; recognizing and following their own
self-interest, they will bring about a ''Wealth of Nations" according to the
laissez-faire interpretation of the doctrines of Adam Smith. This conception
of freedom leads back to the essence-optimism which utopism has rejected,
and acts regressively to put an awakened Sleeping Beauty back to sleep.
Through this renewed polemic against Toynbee and Popper I hope I have
once again given a concrete demonstration of the double task of the utopia:
the awakening and reorientation of the sleeping spirit of the present, and
the visionary foreshadowing of and constructive response to the life-anddeath questions of the nascent spirit of the future.
B. Fulfilment of the Task: Bridging the Gulf between Present
and Future
Among the hundreds of utopias in existence, there are inevitably good
and bad ones, witty and dull ones, profoundly meaningful and utterly trivial
ones, and utopias which have exercised great influence and those which
have exercised almost none. Some have fulfilled their task in an exemplary
fashion, others have be.en more or less remiss. Here we are not concerned
with the analysis of why this specific utopia was effective and that not, but
how the effect of utopias was generally produced. We recapitulate here the
three roles in which the utopia influences the course of history, ideal-typical
style.
I. BUFFER FOR THE FUTURE

The utopia mediates between present and future. Rooted in the changing
present, it forms and is formed by it. Facing towards the coming time, it
is in a sense pre-formed by it and at the same time has a formative influence
on it by virtue of an intellectual and spiritual force. It is on the one hand
an offshoot of the Zeitgeist and an expression of the dominant world image,
thus actual and existential. And it is not difficult to identify the historical
period in which any given utopian image of the future was produced. The
utopias of the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Age of Progress all bear the
stamp of their time.
'

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THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

On the other hand, the utopia reflects the thinking of coming generations.
It administers the heritage of the future. It speculates about and mirrors
future possibilities, and thus also bears the stamp of the future-albeit an
imagined (and better) future. In this sense the utopia foreshadows a future
which is not only desirable but also possible and now even becomes more
or less probable. The future, with its still-open alternatives, reaching out
meets the present through its intermediary, the utopia. It makes use of the
utopia as its unofficial agent in the here-and-now and by imposing itself on
man as a predilected pattern may end up as the only possible pattern.
Through man's present choice of images of the future (or the influence of
these choices) the future itself develops from a possibility to the reality.
Does the future really operate in this way? Can we attempt to control
and direct future developments through our choice of images of the future?
Much could and should be said about the possibilities and desirabilities of
this, for here we may appear to be treading on thin ice. A people does not
consist entirely of idealists and even the idealists are divided among themselves. Most important of all, where do the boundaries of human power lie?
Does the future result from other powers, beyond those operating in the
images of the future, which draw the present to it? Furthermore, what of
the so-called forces of history and historical continuity? Do we have control
over them? In fact, do we have control over our own powers or are we
slaves of the genii we have ourselves evoked?
In any case the utopia, like speculation in futures on the exchange markets,
forms a buffer between the colliding powers of past and future and assists
in deciding the issue between them. It is a cheerful shock-absorber in the
social market of ideas. It submits to being placed between hammer and
anvil of present and future. The more abuse it receives in its ordeal by time,
the more effectively it accomplishes its preparatory work for the future,
which is : causing man to reflect over this future and maturing him to the
point where he can "make the best of it". It puts the embattled and battling
entities of times present and times to come on an equal footing, so each can
look the other squarely in the eye.
2. DRIVING FORCE TOWARD THE FUTURE

The utopia is not only a patient scapegoat, draining off the frustrations
and aggressions of man versus time. The spiritual seed it tosses into the social
order takes root. The growing plant is at first tended by only a few devotees,
but at harvest time the masses come to reap what one has sown and few
have tended. By the time the utopia itself lies dead and perhaps forgotten,
the fruit of utopian awareness is nourishing the minds of the people.
The utopia infuses new life into a narrowly positivistic social science and
into a slowly changing social thought, by introducing a normative comple-

THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

455

ment. It exercises a relativizing influence on the present through its leap into
the Realm of the Future. Its imaginative and yet practical thinking about
desirable possibilities makes it a co-determining spiritual fertilizing agent in
bringing about the future. Through its challenging and responsive image
of the future, the future itself is as it were retroactively set in operation.
There is a continuous thread woven through history of innumerable
utopias which were never realized as such. They nevertheless found a kind
of realization through their ongoing influence on later utopian thought
concerning the future, and in a carry-over both of the idea and idealism.
The real propulsive force of utopism lies in its idealism, which breaks
through time and into the future.
Utopian idealism compels social ethics to abandon its securely insulated
and isolated static position in the existing order and to answer for the
. golden rule, making something more of it than a paper panacea. l]topia's
active influence-optimism, its eternal questioning. and questing, gives an
impulse to dynamic social-humanitarian action. With youthful elasticity,
the utopia alters as reality alters, although the tension between the ideal and
the real is always maintained. The utopia is the inexhaustible fountain-head
of all the currents of social idealism. Realists that we are, we are often unaware that we too bathe in this same ancient stream, and that, like Monsieur
Jourdain, we have unknowingly spoken the prose of utopism all our lives.
We do not realize that we feed on the spiritual crop of our utopian predecessors, and that we are reaping what they sowed. The imagined tomorrow is
today' s idea.
3. TRIGGER OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

In its pointed social criticism, in its constructive planning, in its unremitting attack on all signs of social decay and in its ever-echoing bugle call to
the free and responsible shaping of man's own destiny, the utopia has been
a powerful lever of progress through the course of time, especially in
respect to the social order. Its unique type of thinking not only acts as a
battering ram against the walls of tomorrow, but it releases and represents
-and this is not the same thing-a forward movement which cannot be
interpreted as anything but progress, at least in its social aspects. Practically
everything which twentieth century man thinks of as different and better
in the realm of social action has originally been a part of or the fruit of
utopian thought experiments.
The utopia itself, it is true, shows traces of decline. Neither is eschatology
the force it was in the Middle Ages, in thinking about the future. There
where images of the future formerly carried on their work, a vacuum now
threatens-but it cannot long remain a vacuum. It will be inflated again,
and the social space will now become filled with social myths, ideologies

456 THE UNCHANGING HIST. TASK OF THE CHANGING UTOPIA

and pseudo-eschatology, all inducing man once more to submit to supernatural power.
We can observe this decline in the utopian images of the future, which
reflects a lost faith in human power and free self-determination in our own
time. The utopia joins its attackers and becomes anti-utopia and negative
utopia, proclaiming and triggering breakdown, reviving essence-pessimism
and cultural fatalism. It is then no longer active, but passive; its previews
become post-mortems. It is no longer criticizing the times, but criticizing
itself and the future. It no longer unites the possible and the desirable in its
portrayal of the future, but now demonstrates either that any possible social
reconstruction is undesirable, or that any desirable reconstruction is impossible .
.<But the present decline of the utopia is not relevant to an assessment of
the role of the utopia when it was still functioning as it should. On the
contrary, we may well ask ourselves if the general decline or complete
disappearance of this type of thinking about the future which has in the
past triggered progress toward a humanly worthy society does not also
encompass a decline in social progress itself, both as an ideal and as a reality,
and possibly a declining prospect for the future of man altogether.
The utopia has always been the ideal embodiment of three qualities indispensable to social progress: the strength to accept that which cannot be
changed, the courage to change that which should be changed, and the
wisdom to distinguish between the two. It has one more significant quality.
It can be used by intelligent and humanitarian men as a tool for reworking
society; it does not become a master-machine which enslaves them> It
reminds mankind that there is no deus ex machina in the social drama.
Constantly hammering home the point that progress is not ensured by
superhuman power or automatic functioning, it stresses the fact that the
future of society rests in human hands. Setting this high goal, it inspires
faith in the power for social good of these hands, activated by the incessant
energy and the aspiring idealism of the human mind.