We are used to the idea of utopia as an imagined place. It’s often a community located in an alternative, fictional reality; on earth, or in another universe. A made-up world, where the plot twist is often that although this place seems like paradise, it is really built on lies and horror. The stories we tell ourselves are full of cautionary tales that not only is building paradise an impossibility – even attempting to build it is dangerous and hubristic. Aim high, and you will fall further.
If it’s not a projection into a made-up world, utopia is an idealised vision of the future, a manifestation of a political or religious project, a blueprint for how we should all live our lives – and one day, if you would only join the party, or the church, perhaps we all will. These, like the literary utopias, are usually abstract intellectual exercises, rather than concrete attempts to forge a new community. But what if you actually tried to build utopia? How do you go from a fevered dream, an aspirational blueprint, to concrete reality?
The Village Against The World
Reader, Issue 7 of 197X is here! In Raia we venture into the isolated lands of a dying people, trapped between the borders of two empires and forgotten as the world moves on. What is there left to do for a people that are lingering dead? What do you do after the revolution is not going to work and has moved past you? What can you accomplish before becoming a footnote in the histories written by those responsible for your genocide?
Part I starts with one of the members of System 4 gone missing while operating in Spain. This is a very tense and delicate operation, as Spain is both NATO supreme command and a "de-fascisting" fascist country allegedly transitioning into a constitutional monarchy deeply hostile to everything the cybernetic socialists stand for. Still, the call has been made and our heroes answer, ending up in a quite unexpected place...
Get your copy of that issue here!: https://cgapodcast.com/main-feed/71-raia-i