Karl Popper Part Two
Link to Downloadable PDF Utopia and Violence by Karl Popper
In other posts I discuss utopian problems and utopian solutions. These show the beginning of my thinking about utopian conceptions. Since then my thinking has flowered and fruited into a very powerful set of ideas. I now see utopianism as a vital feature of ordinary theism.
In this view, The Wars of Religion are violent conflicts based in competing utopian ideologies, rooted in ordinary theism. At no point did any of the collective parties to these conflicts have limited concrete goals. The goal might be framed in concrete terms. For example, “Our goal is to make England Catholic again.” sounds concrete but in practice such an endeavor can only be open ended. As for the opposite side of that effort, England never did eliminate Catholicism. All of the herculean efforts of that era were utopian in nature.
This post is likely to be left incomplete, but before I leave off writing I should quickly say the utopian character of ordinary theism is based in the God of Scripture being communicated in story as a character able to function in human dramas. Omnipotence and every other attribute is bestowed onto the God character by the writers. All-knowing one moment and then surprised by the sins of humanity the next, God is capable of anything the writers can think up.
This narrative flexibility leads to utopian thinking. God can do anything, and so can we if we set out to do God’s will. Looking at the thoughts people act on, especially kings and commanders with religiously motivated political aims a narrative theme develops. There are sequels, in the form of follow on battles. There is revision, as history gets rewritten to suit those in power, and all of the thinking is animated by dramatic intention. The conflict which novel writers have to work into the story line is ‘built in’ when utopian ideologies clash.
The God of ordinary theism is never satisfied, and neither are those who see God’s will as their motivation.
These ideas are incomplete but I thought I should get that down.