Whats your vision of a perfect society?

[Mrs Magpie]

My perfect society would be one where I had absolute power but ruled benignly. I'd start on public transport and benches for the elderly. Then I'd give Vibes FM a frequency far far away from Radio 4 so that I can listen to The Archers without interference from people singing slightly off-key.

 

[lancer]

I heard about that book. Must have a look.

Is that the same William Morris of textile fame of the arts and crafts movement?

Yes, he was also a brilliant designer, who lived in Walthamstow area. His house is a museum now, I think.

 

[gorski]

Collier's Wood has Merton Abbey Mills, I think, with his "living/still working" heritage, guys...

Very nice in spring/summer, especially Saturday/Sunday market and jazz/blues festival etc. A great little place, highly recommended!

http://www.mertonabbeymills.com/

 

[lancer]

Looks nice, thanks.

 

[Dr Jon]

To me, a perfect society would be one which would ensure the optimum Quality of Life for everyone:

Schools would encourage free thought, communication and the persuit of Wisdom. That we are all One, each a face of the crystal of everything, would be experienced and understood: One's principal duty in life is to be happy and our happiness is ensured by causing the happiness of others. Tolerance and friendship rule. Blind thirst for more and more is quenched by the ocean of enough. People rejoice in their connection to the universe and are encouraged to explore this - it's what the rest of our brains are for! Life on Earth is seen for the hatching pond for consciousness that it is. Average working week (for stuff you absolutely have to do) is 21 hours...

etc...

 

[deeplight]

To me, a perfect society would be one which would ensure the optimum Quality of Life for everyone:

Schools would encourage free thought, communication and the persuit of Wisdom. That we are all One, each a face of the crystal of everything, would be experienced and understood: One's principal duty in life is to be happy and our happiness is ensured by causing the happiness of others. Tolerance and friendship rule. Blind thirst for more and more is quenched by the ocean of enough. People rejoice in their connection to the universe and are encouraged to explore this - it's what the rest of our brains are for! Life on Earth is seen for the hatching pond for consciousness that it is. Average working week (for stuff you absolutely have to do) is 21 hours...

etc...

Amen to that.

Its a serious point that attitudes starts in scools. There needs to be some campaign imo just getting students personally empowered, encouraged and made more aware. If I could get schools to teach one thing and one thing only it would be that everything we do, say and think creates our realitys. It is knowledge for the core of us.

 

[gorski]

True communism galore, then... Ole!!

 

[tbaldwin]

My idea of a better society would be as democratic as possible and authoritarian as neccesary. It would mean totally smashing the present education and legal systems.
Referendums on issues like Crime,Capital Punishment,Migration,The Monarchy,Wage differentials and Representative democracy.
It would mean sharing out wealth and power and most people on u75 would hate the idea of it but grow to love it...er probably.

 

[kyser_soze]

I read the above link but the only stuff in english was about a language system contained in the book. The rest was in german unfortunately.

I'd need to read more about the book to see where you are all coming from with any real clarity.

Whoops, wrong link!!

Sorry it's taken so long to relpy...

A few notes on The Culture

 

[ZWord]

Visions of Utopia are all very well, but I reckon really, any vision that doesn't include how we get from here to there is just a castle in the air, an illusion of a vision.

 

[Azrael23]

To me, a perfect society would be one which would ensure the optimum Quality of Life for everyone:

Schools would encourage free thought, communication and the persuit of Wisdom. That we are all One, each a face of the crystal of everything, would be experienced and understood: One's principal duty in life is to be happy and our happiness is ensured by causing the happiness of others. Tolerance and friendship rule. Blind thirst for more and more is quenched by the ocean of enough. People rejoice in their connection to the universe and are encouraged to explore this - it's what the rest of our brains are for! Life on Earth is seen for the hatching pond for consciousness that it is. Average working week (for stuff you absolutely have to do) is 21 hours...

etc...

I like that choice. Thats all it is of course.

 

[spring-peeper]

*opens thread*

*disregards all other posts and addresses thread title*

Peace, love and harmony!!!

*closes thread and never returns*

 

[In Bloom]

William Morris in News From Nowhere paints a perfect picture!

Including the part where women spend all day in the home cooking and cleaning?

While Morris expresses some interesting ideas in NFN, he was a man of his times and there's some deeply sexist bollocks in there. Personally I'd be very cautious about describing it as "perfect".

E2A: Just read This for an example, the men come into the guest house for breakfast and the women have been preparing it for hours. Then the women actually run about scattering herbs and rose petals about while the men eat, for fucks sake

 

[gorski]

So, puuurrfect, indeed...

 

[Sid's Snake]

A society where no one has ideas of a 'perfect society' and work with what actually is.

 

[ChrisC]

Big question I know, but its good to have some kind of idea of how we'd like things to change.

You dont have to write every little bit down just whats most important to you.

Go on. Im curious, and still forming some views at the moment. So im looking for a little inspiration.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley! Seriously!

 

[Flavour]

You wouldn't expect a human being to be perfect would you? No. As societies are chiefly made up of imperfect people, how can society ever be perfect, unless we have perfect people?

 

[Lava]

humans couldn't handle perfection anyway, didn't you people see the matrix?

 

[Gmart]

Has anyone read Aldous Huxley's Island. That's a wonderful description of Utopia, and a great book to boot