David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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My utopia’s different from your utopia — and that’s just fine

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What’s the difference between an unrealistic utopian plan and a visionary but achievable plan? It’s simple. Your plans are unrealistic and utopian. My plans are visionary but realistic.

I’m kidding, but isn’t that the feeling some of us have at times? I’m certainly been guilty of it. I have ideas and plans that some would call crazy and utopian, but which seem to be worth pursuing from my point of view. Yet I see ideas from other people that strike me as utopian and unrealistic. So I’m acknowledging my biases right up front.

I don’t have any problem with people defining their own version of utopia. (I certainly know what mine definition of it is.) There’s a thin line between visionary and utopian, even if you accept the idea that there’s a difference between the two words. The thing that does bother me, though, is when people don’t understand that there are tradeoffs to be made. In the real world, when you gain one thing, you frequently give up another.

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When it comes to ideas, should we prefer complexity or simplicity?

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Take a look at this photo. Is it a picture of complexity or simplicity? Or is it something entirely different — an ordered complexity that creates simple beauty?

It’s become a truism today that complexity is bad and that we should strive for simplicity. I agree. Kinda. Sorta. I’m here to offer a qualified and narrow argument in favor of complexity. Of course, the people who hate complexity don’t read things such as this anyway, so I figure I know who’s still reading.

In almost every discussion, the complicated and nuanced position is at a disadvantage. The simplistic and emotional appeal is almost always going to win most people over. I know because I tried both in politics. The only thing that works is dumbing things down, because very, very few people are willing to take the time to understand a complex idea well enough that it seems simple to them.

In the first election I ever managed — when I still didn’t have a clue what I was doing — we consciously decided that we were going to talk about issues and not personalities and trivialities. We ran a full-page newspaper ad with more words on it than you’ve ever seen from a campaign in your life. We issued white papers recommending policies based on ideas from think tanks. We talked about what the issues really were — and we got something like 3 percent of the vote. A couple of years later, we took the same candidate and ran again (for a different office, but in the same city). This time, we didn’t mention ideas. We didn’t mention policies. We didn’t mention philosophy. We just talked about what a great guy the candidate was. We won.

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‘Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood… Make big plans’

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When I think about the post-statist future, I’m excited about what I see. I see free cities and free societies — organized in a variety of different ways — competing for “customers” and incubating a kind of creativity that the world has never known.

As I think about what I see in my mind’s eye — and what I’d like to build and where I’d like to live and the people I want there with me — I’m reminded of a quote from 19th century Chicago architect Daniel Burnham:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”

That perfectly captures what we need to be doing today. We need to be dreaming big. We need to be taking big risks and making big plans. We need to lay the foundations for something that our children and grandchildren will keep building. There’s a New World waiting for us — if we’ll break out of our statist mindset and find ways to make that future happen. The idea of building that life and living that life excite me. The idea of leaving a legacy for our children to build on excites me even more. Building the post-statist world is the sort of opportunity that’s worth devoting time and effort to. We shouldn’t let anyone — even our own fears and doubts — stop us. Who else is excited enough about it to help make it happen?

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