By LEONARDO BOFF*
No society, anthropologists and sociologists assure us, lives without having a utopia, that is, a strong idea, an inspiring dream that gives meaning to people's lives, to society and to history.
Today we live in dystopian times, lacking utopian inspirations. The great utopias of the past have not fulfilled their promises: from the Enlightenment, to provide education for everyone; from capitalism, that everyone can become rich; from socialism, that everyone is equal; from communism, that a classless society; from postmodernity, that there are no universal narratives, everyone chooses their own. The fact is that no society, as anthropologists and sociologists assure us, exists without a utopia, that is, a strong idea, an inspiring dream that gives meaning to people's lives, to society and to history.
The Irish writer Oscar Wilde said it well: “A map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth looking at, because it ignores the only territory where humanity always lands, then sets off for an even better land.”
But the utopian dream never dies, because it is the essence of the human being, the principle hope (Ernst Bloch) of always being on the way. It is complete but imperfect, as it always seeks to improve its humanity. There is a lot of truth in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's utopia back in 1930, the irruption up ahead, of noosphere in which the heart and mind of humanity would reach a happy convergence. Also the utopia that circulates at the grassroots: “the soul has no borders, no life is foreign”. Or the one that even TV has circulated: “my homeland is the Earth”, a true utopia.
Three viable utopias have been proposed, that of Earth Charter (2000) with his ethics of care for all beings and that of Pope Francis with his integral ecology, “How to take care of the Common Home” (2015) in which he affirms the relationship of everyone with everyone, “with the sun and the moon, with the cedar and the sparrow” (n.86) and the “universal brotherhood” between humans and with all beings in nature (Brothers All 2015) because they were all generated by Mother Earth and have the same basic genetic code. The third is ecosocialism, which retakes the original dream of socialism, far from Soviet bureaucratic socialism and incorporates the ecological moment. This utopia is still viable in our time.
I would like to present the radical utopia of Robert Müller, a senior UN official for 40 years and the first rector of the University of Peace in Costa Rica. It takes us back to the biblical utopia of the “new heaven and the new Earth”. He designed a New Genesis (cf. The birth of a global civilization, Aquarius, Sao Paulo 1993 p,170-171):
“And God saw that all the nations of the earth, black and white, rich and poor, North and South, East and West, of all creeds, were sending their emissaries to a great crystal building on the banks of the Rising Sun River on the island of Manhattan, to study together, to think together, and to care together for the world and all its peoples. And God said, “This is good.” And that was the first day of the New Age of Earth.
And God saw that the soldiers of peace separated the combatants of warring nations, that differences were resolved by negotiation and reason rather than by weapons, and that the leaders of the nations met and exchanged ideas and united their hearts, their minds, their souls and their strengths for the benefit of all mankind. And God said, “This is good.” And that was the second day of Planet Peace.
And God saw that human beings loved the whole of Creation, the stars and the sun, the day and the night, the air and the oceans, the land and the waters, the fish and the birds, the flowers and the plants, and all their human brothers and sisters. And God said, “This is good.” And that was the third day of Planet Happiness.
And God saw that human beings were eliminating hunger, disease, ignorance and suffering throughout the globe, providing every human person with a decent, conscious and happy life, reducing the greed, strength and wealth of a few. And God said, “This is good.” And that was the fourth day of the Planet of Justice.
And God saw that human beings were living in harmony with their planet and in peace with one another, managing their resources wisely, avoiding waste, restraining excess, replacing hatred with love, greed with contentment, arrogance with humility, division with cooperation, and suspicion with understanding. And God said, “This is good.” And that was the fifth day of the Golden Planet.
And God saw that the nations were destroying their weapons, their bombs, their missiles, their warships and planes, deactivating their bases and demobilizing their armies, keeping only peace police to protect the good from the bad and the normal from the insane. And God said: “This is good.” And that was the sixth day of the Planet of Reason.
And God saw that human beings were restoring God and the human person as the Alpha and the Omega, reducing institutions, beliefs, politics, governments, and all human entities to simple servants of God and the people. And God saw them adopt as their supreme law: “You shall love the God of the Universe with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your beautiful and miraculous planet and treat it with infinite care. You shall love your human brothers and sisters as you love yourself. There are no commandments greater than these.” And God said, “This is good.” And that was the seventh day of God’s Planet.
If on the gate of hell in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy it was written: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter" on the gate of the New Genesis of the planetary world it will be written in all the languages of the Earth: "Never abandon hope, ye who enter"
I am not sure that this dream of Robart Muller is, for now, feasible with the kind of human beings we have become. But by reinventing the human being — that is our challenge if we want to survive — this dream could become reality.
For we never tire of dreaming that, one day, we will be able to experience this promising and viable utopia: My homeland is the Earth.
*Leonardo Boff is an ecologist, philosopher and writer. Author, among other books, of Caring for our common home: clues to delay the end of the world (Vozes). [https://amzn.to/3zR83dw]
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