Utopia

This is an interesting treatment of utopian thought. I have long wanted to read Thomas More, and this article gives me some other ideas for utopian reading. The article's author argues that utopia is above all a set of rules, almost a game. If a utopian regime were ever to become reality, it would be quite unbearable to live under. Here is another article in response, that asks whether utopia is an absolute idea or if it differs from one cultural context to another.

I find the first article's treatment of utopia very interesting. Much of my thinking regarding development schemes, projects, etc. has strong utopian tendencies. In general, the field of economic and agrarian development is sort of utopian. And the worst examples of top-down development indeed exhibit the repressive, unrealistic, people-less aspects of utopian thought.