Why have utopias disappeared?

Is it still possible to dream of a better society? When Thomas More described his utopian civilization in 1516, he did so in a historical context where humanism was taking precedence over medieval religious dictates. These days, it's much easier to name fictional dystopias than utopias. It seems that authors are becoming increasingly pessimistic about mankind's ability to move towards a better world.

This could be a sad observation, yet dystopias are important because they highlight current problems by magnifying them. Inequality, violence, the corporate stranglehold on society: writers can use them to remind people to fight back.

Moreover, many of these dystopias are hidden utopias, in the sense that a hero will eventually bring down the threat hanging over everyone in the course of a story or saga. This, in turn, leads to the idea that a savior will eventually chase away the problems, whereas social movements are slower, made up of various moves and sometimes backtracking.

In fact, we should be more wary of anti-utopians, those who keep saying that the world must stay as it is, or else everything will go to hell. Because utopias and dystopias encourage action; anti-utopias ask us to stop acting. If the contemporary world has its massive share of difficulties, we shouldn't forget that past utopias are today almost banal realities.

Human beings are able to fly, many fatal diseases have disappeared, we can communicate instantaneously, slavery has been abolished in a huge part of the world, and so on. In short, now is the time, more than ever, to dare to dream beyond so as not to remain in this stagnant phase.

Running time: 25:58