#they’re asymptotes dude it was never going to work

[max1461]

Ok, a lot of people seem to have... massively misinterpreted my post about the convenience of value systems. There are a couple of people in the notes talking about how this is why they're in favor of the prison system and I just. No dude, no. I think a lot of people looked at the first couple of paragraphs where I'm critiquing anarchists, went "oh yeah, I disagree with anarchists too!" and then didn't really read the last bit, which is the core of the point I was trying to make.

Like, to be clear: I am a utopian. I want to build a society in which there is no hierarchy, no domination, no pain, no suffering, no struggle, no hardship of any type. In which everyone has not just safety and comfort, but luxury and the opportunity for genuine fulfillment. Is that ever going to happen? No, it isn't. As I've mentioned before, utopia probably isn't even logically possible, given that people have competing desires etc. But here's the thing, I just think we should try anyway. I think we have a responsibility to try anyway. We won't ever reach it, but perhaps we can asymptotically approach it, and that's a hell of a lot better than nothing.

And the point of the post was not "the system is fine" or "anarchy could never work" or whatever. The point was that if we want to actually be able to asymptotically approach utopia, we have to be realistic and give up wishful thinking. We have to acknowledge that the universe is not built for human wellbeing, and if we want a better society we have to fight for it. We have to wrangle it out of reality's hands, as it were.

The point was not that we shouldn't be utopians. It's that we have to be pragmatic utopians, not naive ones.

#society #navel gazing #for posterity