Author's Note
I really do enjoy life in America, and I must say that I have been privileged to live a pretty good life. I have never known hunger, and I have never had to sleep out on the sidewalk in want of a roof over my head. I have taken vacations and stayed in fairly nice hotels, and I have had the pleasure of dining in some good restaurants.
On the other hand, I have lived much of my adult life in search of the American Dream. I have considered one scheme after another that, if bought to fruition, might bring my ship into port and then I could live like the privileged few. I could walk in to a restaurant, the one that I really wanted to dine at, and order the meal that I really wanted to eat, without feeling nauseated over the extra few dollars cost. Then I could get my hair cut without waiting an extra week so that I could justify the expense with less guilt. Then I could by my wife a dozen roses without my children going shoeless.
I have seen others struggle all their lives only to become cynical and jaded; embittered and jealous of those who work less and earn more. And all the while, I have had to live with the guilt that even a poor American has vastly greater comforts and resources than a typical Cambodian or most Ethiopians.
There has to be a
better way, I have told myself. There has to be a way that we can all
have a good life; a life without hunger and cold, pain and disease, Haves
and Have-nots. Surely God did not create us to suffer and grow bitter
or to strive futilely pushing against an immovable wall.
For years I have listened to John Lennon singing Imagine:
Imagine there's no
countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
Imagine no possession
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of Man
As I listened to these words, they always seemed so abstract. It was as if Lennon knew that such a world was possible, but he had already become jaded enough that he didn't want to waste his breath going into the details. And so, we just wrote a dreamy song about it and left the explaining to someone else with more energy.
And so, I invented my world, the world that I would like to live in. My world is comfortable and clean. My world has food and joy for all. My citizens are surrounded by art, education, and culture. We are all Haves and there are no Have-nots.
My most fundamental beliefs are 1) that all the people of the world can live in peace and comfort; 2) that Mankind can continue to advance socially and technically, and achieve greater accomplishments by making better use of material and labor resources that are now misspent on futile endeavors such as war, capitalism, and the pursuit of power; and 3) that the Earth can be maintained in an ecologically healthy condition through the development of a culture of sustainable human living and population limitation.
I have read other accounts of utopian worlds; More's Utopia, New Atlantis, The Isle of Pines, and negative utopias such as Orwell's 1984, WE, and Brave New World. I wanted to write a book that would be a plan and a description of a working utopia that raises Mankind to a higher level, rather than one that uses power, fear, and drugs to keep the population quiet.
I am not a sociologist, ecologist, psychologist, philosopher, or economist. I am not a novelist either. But, I am a person who respects life, liberties, and the pursuit of happiness, and wishes just the same for everyone else. And so, my theories may lack detail. My plans may be superficial. Why didn't I write a grand novel about a world in a parallel universe, so that more readers would be taken in by its magic? Well, perhaps I too am a bit jaded, and only wish to take a short popular song to the next level. I think I will save my breath and leave the details for the next guy.