The Death of Utopia?

Abstract

The following thesis will explore the loss of temporality that humanity has suffered due to the subsumption of life within the dominant logic of capital. I will look at how, despite all of the evidence, a specific human system that has obliteration and obsolescence central to its maintenance, sustains itself ideologically as the only game in town. The Anthropocene will be discussed along with how, despite global capitalism approaching terminal crises, economically, socially and environmentally, it remains more indomitable than ever. As a force that shapes modern civilisation we must understand the inescapable destructive nature of capitalism, which can only be avoided by the formulation of a truly radical alternative. It is only when the relations of production change that the utopian journey for a better world can commence. Until that day we will remain in social and ecological conflict, opposed to nature and each other, sound asleep in a burning bed. Our loss of temporal co-ordinates not only suggests that we are trapped within a perpetually reproduced present, but that the utopian imagination could hold the key to transcending such place.