Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman. Bloomsbury (London, 2017). Pbk. 316 pages. £8.09.
Let’s start with what this attractively titled book isn’t. It’s not another account of the western tradition of Utopian thinking from More to Morris, nor is it a contribution to the current spate of reflections on the value or otherwise of Utopian ideas. Its author, still in his twenties, is described by his publisher as ‘a best-selling Dutch historian’ and ‘one of Europe’s most prominent young thinkers’. The book comes with glowing endorsements from radical luminaries, including Stephen Pinker and Richard Wilkinson, famous as the co-author of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. And Bregman is well served by Elizabeth Manton in her crisp, reader-friendly American-English translation from the Dutch.
What Bregman does here, with evangelical zeal, is promote some radical programmes for social and economic transformation, in particular the 15-hour working week and universal basic income as the means to eradicate world poverty. Bregman sees these twin revolutionary reforms as the realistic pathway to a new Utopia, hence both his title and sub-title, How We Can Get There. Challenging the common jibe that ‘utopian’ suggests well-meaning but hopelessly unrealistic wishful thinking, he argues that every milestone of civilization, from the end of slavery to the invention of democracy, was once derided as utopian fantasy before it turned out to be achievable. And that’s how it will be, he says, with basic income for all and the elimination of poverty in our lifetime – if we follow his recommended blueprint.
In fact, he assures us, the new Utopia has already been tried and tested. In ‘the largest basic income experiment in the world, ever’ the little town of Dauphin in Canada, back in the 1970s, spent millions of dollars ensuring that every inhabitant was ‘guaranteed a basic income, ensuring that no-one fell below the poverty line… 1000 families in all got a check in the mail each month. A family of four received what would now be around $19,000 a year, no questions asked’ (his italics). This little revolution lasted four years before a new conservative government put a stop to it.
Meanwhile, no less a utopian figure than US President Richard Nixon was presenting bills to Congress aimed at rolling out a modest basic income scheme, describing it as ‘the most significant piece of social legislation in our nation’s history’. The press loved it – particularly the papers addicted to shrinking the state: ‘A bold new blueprint’ said the Los Angeles Times, a ‘crusade for reform’ according to the New York Times. The bill passed in the House by 243 votes to 155, only to fail in the Senate where Republicans complained that it was too ‘extensive, expensive and expansive’, and Democrats argued that it didn’t go far enough. Bregman has an impressive host of such stories, supported by diligent research.
I am not competent enough in economic theory to pass judgment on the practicability of Bregman’s proposed journey ‘beyond the traditional left-right divides’ where ‘no political party… is providing us with answers’. His arguments seem persuasive and beguiling, and it goes without saying that the goal of eliminating poverty in our lifetime screams out for fresh vision and a new politics. But I question the notion that a particular economic or social blueprint, while it may point to a better world, can resolve all our human problems in a perfect Utopia. Bregman’s examples of the end of slavery and the beginning of democracy as ‘utopian’ ideas once considered impractical but now fulfilled aren’t good enough. There are more slaves in today’s world than there were when the Atlantic slave trade was abolished, and modern democracy is feeble and frail. A 15-hour week and universal basic income may make for a happier, healthier, more egalitarian world, but it won’t take us to Utopia because Utopia is a ‘good-place’ which is always a ‘no-place’ just beyond the horizon. If we ever come to believe we have charted our way to its shores we’ll soon find that paradise is an inspiration and aspiration, never a destination.
David Boulton, journalist, broadcaster and author, is a former editor of the investigative series World in Action and head of current affairs at Granada TV, one-time editor of Sea of Faith Magazine and a founder of the Nontheist Friends Network.