Utopia in the 20th Century
What effect did the technological revolutions
of the 20th century have on Utopianism?
What were 20th century utopians greatest contributions
to the progress and longevity of utopia?
How do these utopias differ from their predecessors?
The early 20th century embodied social change. The western industrial revolution brought large-scale production and labor modifications as people moved out of “cottage” industries and into standardized factory settings. Machines began to fulfill many of the roles that had previously required skilled human labor. As people continually were replaced in the mechanization process, society began to express a concern for their place in this new world. What role would humanity play? Under what conditions would society live? Several social movements were born out of these questions some focusing on preserving previous lifestyles, some focused on preserving human rights in the face of such drastic change while others still sought to end privatized industrialization and replace it with an entirely new social order.
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But fortunately, between me and the wild green ocean was the glass of the Wall. O, mighty, divinely delimited wisdom of walls, boundaries! It is perhaps the most magnificent of all inventions. Man ceased to be a wild animal only when he built the first wall. Man ceased to be a wild man only when he built the Green Wall, only when, by means of that Wall, we isolated our perfect machine world from the irrational, ugly world of trees, birds, and animals… --Yevgeny Zamyatin We |
Many of these movements were utopian in nature. The technological and social changes that marked the early 20th century affected societies in such a way that there was a felt need to produce some dialogue about the social, ethical, political, and structural implications of these advancements. There was a growing concern in this period for the preservation of the characteristics of humanity. Technology was seen as the herald of a new age to some and a threat to humanity by others.
A literary combination of these conflicting social reactions manifested itself in an offspring genre of utopianism. Seeing the possible social benefits of a technical revolution, along with the negative possibilities, including the superseding of the human factor by standardization and organized production, dystopian authors presented the opposite of the historical utopia. These texts were not set in isolated or parochial areas as their predecessors had. Instead, authors like H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and Yevgeny Zamyatin produce representations of humanity’s possible technophile futures. Zamyatin and Huxley's worlds differed substantially from Wells' but not in function. These technological global-societies worked, would work, could work today but they all came at a price. Zamyatin and Huxley's price was perhaps too high while Wells' society was so different, some strange, so foreign to anything we could possible conceive of in our culturally and historically structured thinking process that he ultimately deemed a positive future lie elsewhere, not on Earth. Technology proved a catalyst for thinking about what our future would look like. While the future was not necessarily related to utopianism, the future visions of these authors created the opposite of the type of society humanity had creatively and morally been striving toward; this new society became dystopia. The bleak, nightmarish, highly organized, collective, technology based societies spoke to the dangers of giving the technical revolution free reign over the progress of humanity.
Dystopian literature became a successful genre in popular culture. Future prediction, descriptive world scenery, and social modifications made these texts enjoyable and adventurous as well as educationally speculative. While the entirety of the 20th century housed many other examples of utopian ideals: early socialist movements to eradicate immorality and create social justice, the civil rights’ and woman’s liberation movements, the counter culture’s “back to the land” movements, and earth-friendly “greentopia”, and ultimately the information revolution and the internet which enhanced learning, sharing, and community possibilities infinitely, dystopia remains, thematically and relevantly, the most important contribution of the 20th century to utopian theory. Current utopian texts are predominantly dystopian and those which contain purist utopian elements are more “no-place” than More’s had been, not only not possible in the existing realities but so far in the future or so physically secluded that they represent more of an idea than any probable reality. The dystopias of the 21st century often focus on the human experience in the nightmarish societies, oppressive constructions, and technological states that these early authors predicted.
A literary combination of these conflicting social reactions manifested itself in an offspring genre of utopianism. Seeing the possible social benefits of a technical revolution, along with the negative possibilities, including the superseding of the human factor by standardization and organized production, dystopian authors presented the opposite of the historical utopia. These texts were not set in isolated or parochial areas as their predecessors had. Instead, authors like H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and Yevgeny Zamyatin produce representations of humanity’s possible technophile futures. Zamyatin and Huxley's worlds differed substantially from Wells' but not in function. These technological global-societies worked, would work, could work today but they all came at a price. Zamyatin and Huxley's price was perhaps too high while Wells' society was so different, some strange, so foreign to anything we could possible conceive of in our culturally and historically structured thinking process that he ultimately deemed a positive future lie elsewhere, not on Earth. Technology proved a catalyst for thinking about what our future would look like. While the future was not necessarily related to utopianism, the future visions of these authors created the opposite of the type of society humanity had creatively and morally been striving toward; this new society became dystopia. The bleak, nightmarish, highly organized, collective, technology based societies spoke to the dangers of giving the technical revolution free reign over the progress of humanity.
Dystopian literature became a successful genre in popular culture. Future prediction, descriptive world scenery, and social modifications made these texts enjoyable and adventurous as well as educationally speculative. While the entirety of the 20th century housed many other examples of utopian ideals: early socialist movements to eradicate immorality and create social justice, the civil rights’ and woman’s liberation movements, the counter culture’s “back to the land” movements, and earth-friendly “greentopia”, and ultimately the information revolution and the internet which enhanced learning, sharing, and community possibilities infinitely, dystopia remains, thematically and relevantly, the most important contribution of the 20th century to utopian theory. Current utopian texts are predominantly dystopian and those which contain purist utopian elements are more “no-place” than More’s had been, not only not possible in the existing realities but so far in the future or so physically secluded that they represent more of an idea than any probable reality. The dystopias of the 21st century often focus on the human experience in the nightmarish societies, oppressive constructions, and technological states that these early authors predicted.