Rust Never Sleeps

            I wish I had read Dr. Cauthen’s article earlier in the semester; a free writing assignment asking students to describe their ideas of Utopia would have produced some interesting papers and lively class discussion.  My reflection on this past semester triggered a flare-up of impostor syndrome, as I regretted not demanding more critical thinking from my students.  As the subordinate, I’m not sure how I would have done this (Friday workshops are my only sphere of influence.), but I should have tried harder.  I should have gotten in their faces about not utilizing the resources at their disposal.  The prof I work with focused on grammar drills and various forms of composition, and the students never had to dig very deep to write their papers.  I wonder if their ideal societies would have been private/moral or public/political.

             Given the state of political discourse in this country, social anarchism is looking pretty good and the philosophy is not entirely at odds with my religious beliefs.  When I’m feeling optimistic, Utopia is a society in which power is only used for the common good, and no gender, race, class, or culture is privileged over another.  Christians – well, some of them – believe this will happen in the future through God’s grace.  My point here is not to proselytize, though.

When I think about what I could do as an individual to make this happen, I’m overwhelmed by the task.  The prospect of joining with a sufficient number of like-minded people to get this done is daunting as well.  Modern society would have to be overhauled!  We couldn’t have any big cities because that would concentrate power.  We would have to become vegans because raising livestock uses too much land and other scarce resources.  We would need to have either a worldwide currency or operate on the barter system.  Who would decide how goods and services are valued?  Capitalism depends on economic inequality, so that would have to go.  Have you ever tried to get consensus with even ten people?  Try it with thousands or millions!  It only took a paragraph for me to go from believing to doubting.

My students would have benefitted from this type of mental exercise, and it could have pushed them to be engaged in the political process.  I’m hardly one to chastise them for being complacent, though.  I vote, and I write my elected representatives once in a while, but that isn’t much.  I wonder what it would take for my private morality to go public.