Ruthi Engelke McDonald

Utopian Ideals in the Community

If Utopian fiction is a literature of ideas (Obj 1) and if utopias should be regarded “as literary and historical experiments essential to Western Civilization and education,” (Obj 3) then is the goal to take the ideals presented both in literary and historical utopias into the current society in order to illicit change in the norm? I think that it is. We don't look at fictional Utopias in order to completely replicate the environment. It’s impossible. One of the conventions of a Utopia is that it must be in some way separated from “normal” or usual society in order to exist in the first place. Most Utopias are formed when a millennial event occurs to break a group of people off and isolate them. The actual communities that we have surveyed have had to separate themselves from the larger community. The citizens at Twin Oaks made a choice to live in a communal way, but the outside society is still there. The actions of the community do affect the larger society and vice versa. In the same way the monks that I looked into at Plum Village and Magnolia Grove monasteries live in the same way: apart but open to the larger community. Places like this where a group of people have chosen to live in a way that is very different from the surrounding larger community often open themselves up for tours, workshops, or even retreats. This allows people to experience their way of living temporarily and then take what they learn back into their home lives. This time I wanted to see in what ways Utopian ideals are showing up in communities?

          In my last research post, I looked at a visit from a New Orleans high school group who had spent a week in retreat at the Magnolia Grove Sangha. They practiced periods of mindfulness and lived in the quiet, steady life of the Sangha, eating in silence and committing to silence from after the evening meal to morning. The students learned to stop and be mindful, by using the bell to remind them. The teacher’s letter told of many of the students and how they had reacted differently to conflict after living with the monks for a week. The students were calmer, more centered, and less likely to react negatively to situations. This in turn had an effect on the school environment that they returned to.

          U.S. Senator Tim Ryan wrote a book, A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit, after attending such a retreat. He now speaks on a regular basis to schools and other groups. He has taken what he learned and not only practices it himself, but advocates for citizens to use it to help them feel more happiness and gratitude, allowing them to work together better. In a CBS interview Ryan spoke of the use of meditation to calm and quiet the brain as a “quiet revolution.” He promotes a bill on including a program call Social Emotional Learning (SEL) which teaches meditation as a way to focus and control emotions. He would like to see mindfulness training in medical schools, teacher training programs, and in work with veterans.

          Another politician who incorporates Utopian type ideals into government is NYC’s Mike Bloomberg, who launched a city Bike share program in May 2013 much like the one in practice in Ecotopia. The concept of the bike sharing program is that members have keys that give them access to the bikes. Bike stations are available every few blocks  in Manhattan and Brooklyn. "Citi Bike isn't just a bike network, it's New York City's first new public transit system in more than 75 years," said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. "Bikes are convenient, safe and affordable transit for growing numbers of New Yorkers and Citi Bike will change how we get around the city for years to come." The project is funded through a $41 million dollar sponsorship from Citi Bank. In this case the members pay to gain access to the bikes, but the Yellow Bike Project in Austin started out as a free sharing. The YBP collected bikes, painted them yellow, and left them out for folks to use. The difficulty here was that no one had any sense of ownership at all and thus showed no responsibility for the bikes. They now promote bike usage and collect bikes to give to people, but do not leave the bikes for anyone to take who wants them anymore. Houston just started a bike sharing program as well. Using bikes downtown makes sense for environmental and traffic elimination reasons in addition to being a healthy option for individuals. The bikes are conveniently available for the use of members or pass holders, but are also secured and the responsibility of the user. One thing that I have noticed about Utopias is that people need to take responsibility for their own actions, as well as show allegiance to the group.

          Seattle is creating an edible forest on parkland that would be open and available to anyone. The mission statement says that their main “goal is to design plant and grow an edible urban forest garden that inspires our community to gather together, grow our own food and rehabilitate our local ecosystem.” The goals of the organization, which “are similar to the current Food Action Initiative supported by Seattle City Council members and include: Improve Public Health, Reduce climate impact, and improve the security of our food supply,” sound very utopian in nature. This venture has not come into fruition yet, so it is hard to tell if this concept will work, but human nature does not always seek for the highest good. This can be the tricky place for Utopian ideals; they work for some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

          Utopian ideals can affect children’s education, transportation options, and food supply in larger communities like New York, Houston, and Seattle. Working intentional communities and Utopian literature give society something to strive toward and give us ideas to bring into our own communities, even if a true Utopia is unattainable.

http://beaconfoodforest.weebly.com/

http://www.greenhoustontx.gov/pressrelease20120502.html

http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=E6DB78E2-C29C-7CA2-F04DFED7819C3E20

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-citi-bike-bike-share-program-successful-article-1.1374368

http://www.timryanforcongress.com/homepage-slideshow/cbs-news-meditation-in-congress

http://www.yellowbikeproject.org