Sooner or later, the advocates of socialism were frustrated by its statism, inefficiency, greyness, bureaucratisation, the birth of a “new class” and the failure to meet original expectations. The same has happened to the idealists of neoliberal market economics. The unfettered market has not resulted in a society of universal prosperity, but on the contrary in a neoliberal dystopia that not only causes huge social disparities, deepening poverty and paralysis of human creativity and intellect, but also leads to a militaristic adventurism that threatens the very existence of humanity,” writes Czech anthropologist Professor Budil.
But the problem is that the proponents of utopia never see that it is only a utopia. They see a thousand reasons why the results are actually great, and if the results are terrible, how it’s not actually the utopia’s fault. And that the next time it’s done properly and even more utopian, then it will definitely work. The analytical parts of the brain don’t get the assignment “find out what the truth is.” They’re given the assignment “find a justification for why this particular position is correct.”
Plus the usual problem of superficial fast thinking, where we judge ideas by the appearance of the representatives. After all, utopian ideas are supposed to be promoted by a scruffy anarchist or activist with his face covered and a flag. Utopians can’t be people in expensive suits just getting out of Bentleys, our brains tell us. But in reality, ostentatious wealth is neither moderation nor rationality.
And so we have over and over again attempts to “establish a proper political right” or “restore the right-left rivalry.” Attempts to replicate the liberal reforms of the 1970s-90s in the hope that this time the result will not be a collapse of civilization, but instead a regeneration.
Incidentally, this opens the question of why such a strong utopian vision did not remain with Marxists and other radical socialists. Could it be because their thinking was cognitively more realistic? That they, on the whole, kept a low profile compared to the market utopia?