Utopianism and pragmatism are poles apart, and ever conscious of the specter of being dismissed as utopian, I have been very encouraged in the last ten years of seeing aspects of the vision I hold of the future finding a place of establishment within the culture, even if marginally so. It demonstrates that whatever we conceive as limitations to the possible exist in mindset, not in reality; and that the domain of change is firstly mental, not spatio- temporal. Space-time is more than adequate, it turns out, to accomodate our wildest dreams.
My blueprint for the future is parabolically encoded as was Jesus’ teaching of the kingdom of God, and for the same reason: the prevailing mindset, having no vocabulary for envisioned change, renders any attempt at articulation borderline ridiculous. To protect the precious pearls of the content of vision from being trodden over by ‘pigs’, one has to hide one’s meaning in metaphor only understandable by those with the mental readiness and spiritual preparation to apprehend.
So I have been deeply gratified for example, although the phenomena still is only appreciable by a marginal subculture, to see the growing encounters with and experiences of forensic and genealogical prophecy, demonstrating the capacity of human consciousness (however one explains it theologically or cosmologically) unaided by technology, to access and/or interact with the elements of space-time beyond our capacity to conceive or concede possible within existing frameworks of science, still mired down in antiquated philosophical materialism.
Likewise, I am encouraged with the developments now taking place, where an entire city council and State University are not just talking about, but making concrete decisions to move towards a police-less city, which if realized, also leads to a prison-less society. Although still being described as an aspirational objective, it is now made more attainable by the focused thought and strategies being pursued.
I am convinced that both objectives are within reach, but only insofar as a people are prepared to surrender their axioms of jurisprudence – the theories and theologies whiich inform our approach to law and order which anchor us to increasingly recognizably archaic notions of human behaviorism.
I admittedly distinguish these approaches using language vague enough to belie the depth of the supporting analytic thought and detailed understanding that underpin what we may consider utopian, as against what we consider pragmatic – i/e/ differences between a renal (a term I defined in Running Over) vs. penal disposition , a unitive vs. punitive jurisprudence, restorative versus retributive justice.
I expect the scope of the concepts to remain bewildering for some time. Our institutions are entrenched in centuries of practice. But regardless of the jeering and mockery of those responding to the deliberations of the Minneapolis City Council and State University with the incredulity of those who watched Noah building his ark; the recommendations, votes and enactments of these bodies represent the very real possibility of transport to a place as strange to us now as smart phones would have seemed to our great grand parents. Behold, once considered a necessary and morally healthy practice, we no longer beat our wives …. or even kids (well ok, a good portion of us). I am filled with hope.
YeKengalé 