Man models himself on earth,
Earth on heaven,
Heaven on the way. And the way on that which is naturally so.
Lao Tzu
Utopias can be the products of ordering the past, planning the future, and controlling nature—both man’s and his environment’s. But they may also be perceived as the inevitable outcome of a divinely ordained apocalypse or of the immutable laws of nature and history. God or Hegel’s Weltgeist (world spirit), evolution or the class struggle, racial war or genetic destiny may all be cited as potential agents in humanity’s journey to utopia.
Apocalypse by divine decree and by human action are the two divergent paths to the end of history. The former entrusts the future to the metaphysical, the latter is determined to establish rational control over the universe. Both are at the very root of civilization across a vast array of cultures and societies, and both retain great relevance today, at a time of religious revival and a simultaneous faith in science. Whatever the specific path they have chosen, various religious and secular, ancient and modern, European and extra-European utopian notions have constructed a notion of inevitability. It is this idea that is the basis of both apocalyptic theology and planned society, geared as they are either to keep the anticipated catastrophe at bay or to exploit it for political purposes. It is thus also at the center of any discourse on the relationship between creativity and destruction, hope and despair, and is crucial to understanding how societies have come to terms with uncertainty and fear. At the same time, apocalypse is often seen as bearing utopian consequences; it is thus both an end and a beginning, feared and anticipated, accompanied by social violence and creative change. Precisely when secularized and incorporated into modern ideologies, apocalyptic reasoning and fantasies have fueled a paroxysm of unprecedented destruction.
Human agency is of course a crucial feature both in planning utopia and in contemplating its place within God’s scheme or the logic of history. The modern era has become especially preoccupied with the idea of remaking man and society, nature and the environment, according to precisely laid out plans that, at the same time, would remain in accordance with natural and inevitable progression. Hence, too, the perceived need to eradicate resistance to such plans, which by definition is regressive, reactionary, degenerate, or abnormal. For the link between healing and killing, creating and destroying life is derived from a modern utopianism that postulates the need to tamper with nature or change the course of history, while simultaneously asserting compliance with their laws. All that is called for is merely an acceleration of such inevitable natural processes as selection, evolution, and mutation, or of such inevitable social developments as the disappearance of one class and the hegemony of another. In other words, such utopias will either seek to ensure the survival of the fittest, or push toward the end of history, both of which are certain to happen yet also seem to be threatened by unnatural intervention or a lack of understanding. Those who do not fit into nature’s plan, or the unfolding of history—as interpreted by man—must be eliminated as so much genetic waste, or will be discarded, thrown into the dustbin of history or ground to dust by the wheels of the revolution. In this context conventional moral arguments are seen as fundamentally immoral, for they obstruct the higher morality expressed in the course of nature or history and thus prevent humanity from reaching utopia by implementing plans based on objective biological determinants or the science of history. The destruction of those who stand in the way is therefore a moral imperative and individual existence must be subordinated to the good of humanity as a whole.
It should be pointed out that notions of social engineering, economic planning, and inevitable historical processes have played some role in many parts of the world throughout the twentieth century. If communist regimes hoped to realize the proletarian paradise by means of planned economies and the destruction of feudal leftovers and capitalist ventures, liberal capitalism set out on a pursuit of universal happiness by combining trust in the “invisible hand” of market forces with state intervention at times of domestic social turmoil and international conflict. While imperialism legitimized itself by asserting both the West’s “natural” superiority and its beneficial impact on indigenous populations, decolonization was also presented as a natural, inevitable process, yet one in which new nations were cast by persecuting minorities, suppressing public opinion, and seeking to reach a more “civilized” condition through molding and controlling social, political, and economic forces. Moreover, the clash between the defenders of natural procreation, whether religious or nationalist, and the promoters of family planning and demographic control, has been at the root of a variety of crucial discussions over the nature of and divisions within humanity. The utopian urge in human civilization can thus be seen in debates over the definition of life and the right to end or prevent it; in arguments for and against state intervention in the privacy of the individual; in struggles over relations between the genders and between poor and rich countries or classes; and in disputes on the role of religion or science in our perception of humanity and the option of remaking it in accordance with theological or ideological schemes. Indeed, assertions about the inevitable forces of nature or history, whose relentless logic induces either domination and submission or rebellion and planned intervention, combine with the modern predilection toward biological and psychological imperatives. Explaining individual and collective behavior by reference to innate or essential predispositions also leads to projects of genetic engineering that would remake humanity according to particular behavioral, moral, and aesthetic criteria, so as to better “fit” it into a predetermined plan or ideal. In this technological and moral utopia, humanity’s environment must also be reordered, whether so as to return it to its perceived natural, primeval state, or to better serve the interests of civilization.