My Utopia

I wrote this when I was still smarting from the rejection that I felt as a depressive -- it certainly shows, and some of it is now a good reminder to me to be careful of how I treat people who I find difficult.

No hustle hassles

Time-space constraint obligations would never be tight -- you'd never have to rush anywhere.

This implies that you can live your everyday life in a fairly small geographical area.

No cliques

There would be no cliques (groups from which someone is excluded).

It would always be acceptable to talk things through with someone whose presence you found awkward, perhaps with other people present, to come to some genuine agreement. Where the awkwardness is due to one person having been hurt in the past (e.g. people being creepy and sycophantic because they're desparate for company) the hurt would be talked through with them lovingly and sympathetically by their community, resulting in the hurt being healed (or at least made bearable) and also resulting in everybody else being understand of strange behaviour resulting from past hurts.

Those who feel a need to be in an in-group (requiring some people to be out of the clique) would likewise have their problems talked through sympathetically, so if they need to feel ``special'' to feel worthwhile, it can be arranged not to be at the emotional or social expense of other individuals.

You take what responsibility you can

This means that people are expected, for example, to be sensitive about occupying under-supplied resources (bathrooms, the kitchen sink, etc) and to watch for other people wanting to use them. It would always be considered reasonable to point out that you are waiting for something. Exceptions would only be made for those with mental handicap sufficient for them not to be able to understand the idea of considering others' needs for a resouce. Those who simply can't be bothered, or who have no sense of wanting to get on with things, would be educated about these matters, or asked to explain to the whole community why they feel they should not need to take anyone else's needs into account.

[Thoughts] John C. G. Sturdy

Last modified: Sun Jun 10 18:17:20 GMT Daylight Time 2007