HAPPINESS MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE..!
For many years I made quite a good living as a globe-trotting blackjack player – certainly not the “proper job” my mother wanted for me, but a “career” which gave me the opportunity to travel widely whilst winning (and occasionally losing) some money along the way. I wasn’t as successful in this “career” as some of my associates, partly because I enjoyed the travelling more than the money since, in the back of my mind, I was searching for that “perfect place” to live – an island ideally. The Maldives – where I “broke the bank” (admittedly a very modest bank) at the only casino there – is what many people think of as “a paradise”, but did not qualify for me.
And that is the PARADOX OF PARADISE because, as the song goes, “Happiness is – different things to different people”..!
Instead of searching the world for that elusive island paradise, perhaps it would be easier to create our own custom-built “island” utopias..?
The idea of Utopia is routinely sneered at, being regarded as a foolish and unattainable dream of day-dreamers..
Thomas More’s “Utopia” (1516), or “perfect place”, was the first book to describe in detail an ideal society. But his was a caste-obsessed vision where every man must know his place, his clothing must inform of his position in society, and with mandatory death penalties for a whole range of what today would be trivial offences. More’s idea of Utopia is viewed with horror today, but my own ideas of what would constitute a PERFECT PLACE might also be viewed with horror by most people. For example, my advocation that mandatory “community service” be written into the charter, and be made a condition of citizenship. This, and other ideas of mine, might only be shared by a minority, but a small % of a large number is still a large number.
Current Utopian ideals might seem as strange to people 500 years in the future as Thomas More’s ideals are to us. But, in one respect, Thomas More got it right because…
Thomas More imagined Utopia as an island, a MAN-MADE island..!
AN ISLAND NEED NOT BE SURROUNDED BY WATER..!
OA-Cities would be virtual islands, islands surrounded by land rather than sea. Just as sea islands have limited access points (ports or harbours), so would OA-Cities – thus being much safer and securer than borderless OB-Cities which allow unrestricted free entry for anyone and anything. And that, as we are seeing increasingly, is not a good idea when some of those being allowed in have evil intentions.
Perfection, by definition, cannot be improved upon.
There will, and must ALWAYS be room for improvement.
Thus, Utopia must always be “a work in progress”.
One could say that if Utopia existed, it could not possibly be Utopia..!
