"the very idea of universal fulfilment presupposes that human beings as such seek the same essential goals, identical for all, at all times, everywhere. for unless this is so, utopia cannot be utopia, for then the perfect society will not perfectly satisfy everyone."
"what is common to all these worlds, whether they are conceived of as an earthly paradise or something beyond the grave, is that they display a staic perfection in which human nature is finally fully realized, and all is still and immutable and eternal."
"heraclitus was right, things cannot stand still."
"no more rigorous moralist than emmanuel kant ever lived, but even he said, in a moment of illumination, 'out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.' to force people into the neat uniforms demanded by dogmatically believed-in schemes is almost always the road to inhumanity."
isaiah berlin from "the crooked timber of humanity"
being human is a messy business...we all have universal material needs and a few universal desires as well...we also have a multitude of differences and conflicts, many of them driven by those "dogmatically believed-in schemes." lenin, hitler, pol pot, stalin, ante pavlic, slobo, mao, abortion clinic bombers, the weatherman faction... all leap to mind...they all had the answer and they all were secure in the knowledge that they could do whatever it took to achieve those "final ends"...all fundamentalist in their beliefs...all sure of their ground...convinced of the rigtheousness of their cause and of their singular fitness to lead the masses to those utopias whether they liked it or not...this has a lot to do with my unrelenting loathing of clerics, politiicans, and insufferable know-it-alls who have the answers i'm looking for if i'd just shut up and do what they want me to...no-one has all the answers and most of us have very few if any...teleologies may hold comfort and reassurance...but they are so useful in manipulating people into working towards an unseen agenda that they're dangerous...especially if you happen to be the "other"....the outsider inhibiting the attainment of the final end...or just someone open to heterodox beliefs or sensitive to those common needs and desires that make us all part of the same species...i know i don't have all the answers...in fact i have mostly questions...and it's why i will question anyone who has "the answer." the dialectic grinds on...that precludes utopia.
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