Once upon a time about 230 years ago, there was a country made up of many diverse tribes, clans, groups, and individuals. They were ruled by a king that lived very far away. This king didn’t seem to care about these many peoples in this land so far away. Whether he did or not, his advisers were businessmen and royalty to whom caring was secondary to acquisition. They saw this faraway land as a place for them to get many goodies that would make them even more rich and powerful. The people of the faraway land didn’t know the king or his advisers. They did know that they were paying a lot of money to them. They didn’t mind because there was so much land, opportunity, and wealth that there was plenty for all.
But, over time the king’s group started demanding more and making the faraway land’s people into a slave class. Well, that certainly wasn’t what these diverse peoples wanted for themselves and their families. So they got together and asked the king to be more reasonable and fair. The king, with the advice of the royalty and the businessmen said, “No way”.
The people of the faraway land decided to have some of their wisest people get together and discuss forming their own country with their own king who would listen to them and be fair. Well, sure enough, the wise people gathered and they talked and argued and shared many ideas. They finally declared independence from the king and there was war. Some of the diverse people disagreed with the idea of fighting the king. There were a lot of upset folks.
The war was long and difficult but the people of the faraway land won. Then they had the problems of who would be king and how would everyone decide how to do things. Who would build the roads? Who would be in charge of making laws so that everyone would know what behavior was okay and what was not? Who would be the ones to enforce the rules?
Everyone was clear that when a lot of people get together there are lots of different ways to think and act. They also knew that if there weren’t some rules, then there would be problems. Some people would do whatever they wanted to because they would say they were free to do so. Others would not do some things because they would believe they had the right to do so or not. Still others would demand that everyone act the same and almost everybody knows that won’t work.
So, right off from the start, the faraway people were stuck. Someone suggested getting the wise people together again. That seemed a good idea. So, the wise people got together and finally came up with a document that defined some rules to live by that all the diverse peoples could accept. They decided to have a leader instead of a king, representatives who talked to the people and gave guidance to the leader, and judges who helped decide on things when people disagreed. Some did not agree with all the rules and others had differing points of views about the rules but they pretty much agreed to go along and get along.
The people wanted a new name for their land. They felt that there were resources and land for all. They had decided that all people were created equal and had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They felt that this new land and its many different peoples had much talent, wisdom, understanding, and care enough for all. They believed that when people get together and do things as a group of free individuals—free to say and think what they will – that any situation can be fixed and that such a people would surely flourish.
Because they believed in this new country of so much, they took to calling it – Utopia, the land of positive incremental changes. Since there were plenty of opportunities and lots of land, there were no great problems for a while. (I should probably add here that the Utopians took advantages in many ways of native peoples that already inhabited these new lands. That’s a subject for another story and it should be told because the Utopians made the same mistakes again in different situations in the next 200 years.)
Well, because there was rapid growth and fantastic opportunity, the people flourished. There were some, however, who were worried – Would there be enough land, resources, money? They worried so much that they scared themselves and others. Because they were scared of these dire possibilities they started hoarding and trying to control things. I’m sure that you can see the connection here to self-fulfilling prophecy. They believed in scarcity so much that they created it. They even took to calling themselves Pootopians – they believed that whatever bad can happen, will happen, so we better get ready. Pootopians believed that things would get excrementally worse.
The pootopians kept hoarding, collecting, controlling, and worrying. The more of that they did the more conditions worsened. At various times in the next 150 years or so, various Utopians banded together and were able to break up some of the hoarding by influencing the government to protect the rest of the people from the pootopians. Many of these efforts were successful. Still, the pootopians managed to learn how to control parts of the government. They influenced the passage of new laws that enabled some to take advantage of others without it being generally known. These seemed non-threatening to many people at first.
In the meantime, people went back to achieving their own brands of prosperity. New groups of people joined the Utopians because they not only saw opportunity but a country where the highest principles and ideals were valued. (I must again add here that even though the ideals were valued they were not always practiced. This subject is probably for another story too and it should also be told.)
Fortunately the ideals were practiced often enough to assure people of the Utopians friendliness and integrity. It was clear to many that improvement still could be had in many areas because they believed in positive incremental changes. There came a time in Utopia when the pootopians started questioning the rights of others to voice their opinions. They would accuse some people of disloyalty. Many people were hurt by these accusations and others feared for their own rights and the future of Utopian.
There were, however, journalists and writers who challenged the pootopians. They reminded the people of Utopia of their commitment to their ideals and the people remembered and revolted – peacefully but firmly. The pootopians were temporarily silenced.
About 10 years later, the Utopians went to war against a group they said was invading the more peaceful part of their own country. In other words they tried to help in a family fight rather than starting peace talks. Well, the pootopians came out in full force. They were in favor of this war. It made them feel safe even though the people in the other country didn’t want them to be there. The Utopians, or at least part of them, objected and caused great unrest in the country. They felt that people should treat others with respect and talk rather than fight. These rad Utopians believed in the effectiveness of the group wisdom, caring, respect, and love. Commonsense told them that if people really cared they would find ways to reach agreement.
The pootopians kept saying that the bad guys were evil and didn’t care. Because of that the pootopians got even more upset. They also got scared of the rads. The rads were mostly young, they let their hair grow long, and they dressed in many colors. They were led by the Hip Woman. She told them that there was no scarcity of resources and love. She told them that they could bring about positive change by remembering that and that people have rights and responsibilities. She told them to be firm and to use their energies together and they would be rewarded with peace.
The pootopians had gotten control of parts of government and were saying that the young people were bad guys too. They questioned the patriotism of the young people. They even managed to call out the Utopian Guard to shoot some of the young people. But the young people did not give up. They managed to get the government to stop the war after many deaths and much destruction. The pootopians went underground and since they weren’t very good at thinking, formed what were called “think tanks”. (They formed about 400 of them so you would think they would get good at money management and playing well with others.)
The pootopian “think tanks” got lots of money from big business and power grabbers -- these were the most worried of all the pootopians. People weren’t really sure about why the pootopians were so worried and scared. Some thought it was because they weren’t treated right as children. Others thought it was because they were just naturally greedy. (I suspect it’s because they believed what they said and didn’t really look at what was happening.)
The pootopians still couldn’t see that getting together with the wisest representatives of all the people was the best way to solve problems. Instead they started using their money and power to get the wisest representatives defeated in elections by what they called “our yes men and women”. (Most of us know that if people only tell you what you want to hear, you’re going to get stranger.)
At this same time, the pootopians also started buying all the news outlets and replacing the real journalists with more “yes men and women” mouthpieces. These folks tended to be a lot prettier than the old journalists. Even though some of them may have been trying to be journalists, they were limited by their bosses in what they could say and do. Some of the new journalists were really scared pootopians.
One of those new journalists was a radio host guy who was overweight and loud. He was so loud that he eventually got hearing problems but some people think it was because he took too much medication. Another one was a TV guy who railed and railed so much in such a way that was silly but he got paid a lot. These guys and others like them kept saying the same stuff over and over again. They did that because pootopians believed it was the way to convince people. In other words, to them the truth happens if you say things loudly and over and over again and again.
There were three other ways to convince or educate people, as far as the pootopians were concerned. One was to scare them, another was to give them only two choices, and the other was to silence discussion. Now, every one with any sense knew that there were very few situations in life that have only two choices. Two choices almost always led to more conflicts. That’s why when the original faraway people decided to have their own country they had a whole bunch of wise people get together. That’s why the wise people had elections where more than two people voted. They knew that you could have some situations where there were only two choices and it was why you should have lots of discussions and lots of people involved. When you did that, conflicts were settled even though it sometimes took a while.
About the same time that the news people were changing, Utopia got a new leader that was a pootopian. He seemed a nice man and most folks saw him as a kindly “uncle” type of person. He ran up huge credit card bills and let the other pootopians have their way with the money and resources of Utopia. Bankers and big businessmen took over running the country. Strangely, even with bankers and businessmen running the country, most Utopians were getting poorer. The “uncle” guy finally left and another Utopian took over as leader. He was good for most of the people in many areas of life but he had to put up with a lot of pootopian advisers and leaders. Sure enough, things kept getting excrementally worse.
The Utopian leaders, because they were mostly pootopians, passed lots of new rules that led to businesses going to other countries. The companies wanted to go for cheaper labor and government benefits. When they went, they were allowed to stop paying for their part of the maintenance of Utopia. Certain companies were allowed to get extra help from the government. Some Utopians called this welfare but the pootopians said it was an “investment”. The businesses would provide jobs and the money would trickle down to the people. That didn’t happen and things got excrementally worse. There were lots of other things like that going on and people got really discouraged. It seemed to them that nothing they could do would make any difference.
You remember self-fulfilling prophesy? – you predict or decide something and then act in ways that make it happen. Well, that’s what happened to the Utopians. They were despairing and frustrated and they felt that it didn’t matter who their leaders were. The ones who voted just voted for whoever was there. The ones who were there were financially supported by pootopians so things got excrementally worse for the people.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, the pootopians engineered the election of a radical pootopian. This leader was totally scared. He believed that evil was everywhere. He also believed that he had a direct line to the Supreme Being and that he knew what was best for everyone.
This leader wanted everyone to think and act the same – his way. He listened only to the more radical pootopians. Of course they were also the most scared ones. They were inconsolable. No one could convince them that the world was not as scary as they believed it to be. They did not seem to know that if you were competent and connected with other competent people, you could solve problems. They refused to honor commitments to other countries and they began to bully people. They offered one choice which when you think about it isn’t a choice. Do it this way or else you are un-Utopian and a traitor. Things got really quite worse excrement-wise.
About this time, evidently many Utopians were upset enough to consider voting. Many of them started showing up to cast their votes for favorites who were real Utopians. In fact, there were so many Utopians leaders and voters showing up that people were confused. Who should I vote for? Which of them will do the best job?
Other Utopians were so excited about the possibilities that things could go back to positive incremental changes. Still others had grown so disillusioned that they suspected a trick. They believed that one or more of the Utopians running for leader was a secret pootopian. Who can blame them? So many leaders and representatives had turned out that way before. Many of the past leaders had abandoned the people and the ideals of the original wise representatives. Who could they trust?
It finally came down to 3 choices. There was a woman who was smart, able, and sincere. She encouraged people because she was tough and experienced. There was a relatively young man who reminded people of the Hip Woman’s philosophy. People liked him because he spoke of hope and everyone knows that hope is central to humans. The third was the closest to the pootopians. He favored strength, war, big business but he was also respected for his courage. In the past he had been the voice of dissent in the pootopian faction. Still, many worried that he had abandoned the people to make more pootopians like him.
So, the question is yet to be answered. Which of these leaders will win? Or is that the real question? Isn’t the real question about the people of Utopia? What values and ideals do they want to believe in? Have they become so cynical and discouraged that they only care about toys and entertainment? Or, will they finally take up the ideals that the original wise representatives agreed on? Do the Utopians believe in cooperation, understanding, justice, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Do the Utopians believe that people of good will can band together and accomplish great things? Or: Do the Utopians believe that no matter what you do, “things will get excrementally worse so you better get yours while you can”?
It doesn’t seem like such a tough choice, unless you’re scared. Are you scared?