[Zentric]

I’m writing in praise of Ecotopia, a politics-fiction novel written 30 years ago by Ernest Callenbach, in response to the machine -- rampant political corruption, consumerism, militarism, and predation of our natural environment. To be sure, this book is not art or beautiful prose, nor is it an exciting read per se, except that the author envisions a futuristic steady-state society that is humane, spiritually-fulfilling and, above all, plausible! And since it is all these things, such a society, or a form of it, should be actively investigated and possibly pursued.

You should read the book. But in the meantime, here is a synopsis: Responding to society’s increasing ills, and the absence of any national effort to do anything about them, Washington State, Oregon and Northern California secede from the United States, calling their new country Ecotopia. Ecotopia goes green in a major way. They ban nearly all types of consumption that are not renewable or biodegradable. For instance: fossil-fueled internal combustion transportation or power generation, or rayon or polyester – all banned.

Self sufficiency and learning how to live off the land is encouraged. People become more open – spiritually, conversationally and sexually. The “nuclear family” to a large extent disassembles, giving way to “families” consisting of larger groups. People’s interests become more intellectual – as they develop a much keener interest in “the truth” – either when they speak it or when they hear it from their newscasters.

The poor and sick are expertly cared for. Drugs are used sparingly, since the Ecotopians have discovered that touch and compassion are substantially more effective for the mind and body than prescription drugs could ever be. On the other hand, the cultivation and the use of marijuana are encouraged, and the nonviolent, pre-Ecotopian drug offenders are released from prison.

Upon secession, half of the jobs are wiped out. So the government mandates a 20-hour work week - and, thus, full employment. Because their true needs (e.g., food, shelter and community) are few, the Ecotopians learn to relax and enjoy their extra time off. The epidemic of mental stress and illness is abated – and so, accordingly, is the rationale for the field of psychology, as an example.

Several years after secession, after adding geothermal and hydroelectric power plants (while, at the same time, undamming the particular rivers whose natural habitat was too badly threatened), they possess a power grid that can meet the basic needs of society – including a high speed maglev train that takes skiers out to the slopes or hikers to the desert, or power the electric cars that transport the citizens between the ring of sub-communities that comprise a larger city. And the waters of the lakes and streams begin to sparkle again with purity.

Inheritance tax is nearly 100%. Eminent domain is used to dispossess the wealthy from their prime real estate, to be turned over for public use. Women are given full reproductive control – whether through birth control or abortion – where, while being immersed inside a culture that looked after the needs of the individual, the population actually declines slightly, from year to year.

Employment in Ecotopia is substantially a cooperative between worker and owner, where hardships and profits are greatly shared. Government tax revenues are largely generated from the profits of factory production, where it is almost impossible for the owners or anyone to get obscenely rich from this because production of goods is primarily mandated by the government, meaning there is, almost by definition, aggressive competition between rival factories who produce roughly the same items – and there is little advertising on TV that can too-aggressively hype one factory’s product over another’s.

Education for children is outdoors-oriented – where the kids learn much about life by gardening, building shelters and tools, and observing the processes of the natural world, and their civics lessons come from mutual cooperation (and respect) while undertaking their class projects. Since Ecotopia, by design, is a country where people live closer to the earth, and the kids are taught to understand their place among the natural processes, there is a natural synchronicity between student, students, teacher and classroom.

I’m just a guy who read his book, but here are the flaws I perceive with Callenbach’s vision, back in 1975:

Currency exchange and wealth preservation: U.S. and Ecotopia were enemies, and did not trade with one another. On the other hand, Ecotopia did trade with a few Asian countries, and on that basis, the Ecotopian currency could have been subject to game-playing by Wall Street arbitragers, causing either surpluses or shortages of some commodities, or possibly destabilizing the Ecotopian economy as a whole.

Beyond this, since their currency was exchangeable for Japanese yen, if the wealthy Ecotopians wanted to leave a more substantial chunk of their wealth to their children instead of to the larger Ecotopian community in general, what would stop them from either stockpiling large amounts of the Ecotopian currency, or converting into gold, yen or American dollars so that their offspring-inheritors could go on a reckless spending spree in Ecotopia, or around the globe if they so desired? Callenbach, from what I can tell, did not address this.

Wealth of resources keeps aggression in check: The one-time greatness of the American society might be attributable to the vastness of our open space and natural resources, which are now substantially depleted. With an abundance of space and resources, our aggression can effectively be taken out on the environment. Although, these days, we can see how the environment is pushing back. With Ecotopia, on the other hand, it seems that their society addressed this all too-human aggressiveness with casual sex, brief fits of rage, war “games” and massages with happy endings.

Back then, Callenbach wouldn’t have a need even to speculate on how great a role a disease like AIDS could play in an almost “free love” modern-day Ecotopia. If such a society were to exist today, how would it adjust to this new reality? I will hazard to guess that a hidden tattoo (maybe between the webbings of the toes?) on the afflicted individual, where the so-afflicted inflicted would then be directed to live in a special community ready to provide him with support, could be part of the answer.

Would the powers that be allow an Ecotopia or multiple Ecotopias to exist?

Yes, I think they would, since such regions could provide the rich with their vegetables and where present society’s “social misfits” and criminal pot-smokers could be transplanted, greatly relieving present society of an economic burden. and such a society would consume far less, and even grow new, resources, and form an example for the rest of civilization to later follow. Perhaps a UN mandate is possible? A constitutional amendment? Or maybe even a Kyoto-type protocol to this effect.

Would Ecotopias need anything from larger society?

Yes, a few things. They would need some protections from ill-informed, hostile and aggressive people or powers who would collectively try to do them in. They would probably also want freedom from patent encroachments as they seek to manufacture goods that are easy to make, fix and are sparing on resources. In exchange for this consideration, Ecotopia might freely share their new inventions with larger society, and might even “forgive” it for its continued global warming, light, noise and air pollution.

Would an Ecotopian community (or state) in your neighborhood be a problem?

Not necessarily. Say you, like me, live in Washington State, and you learn that the state legislature has just voted to make us an Ecotopia. Me – I like the idea and I’m thrilled to stick around for the transition and renounce my car and polyester and rayon disco shirts. You – on the other hand – have long since lamented the death of disco and decide you need to move out of the state – essentially trading places with someone from Oregon who is gung-ho for Ecotopia. Everybody sticks around or moves at his own pace. You want my disco shirts and I sell them to you. You find a job in Idaho and you move there.

Remember, the United States, as well as many other countries around the globe, are trying to effectively manage a long emergency. If you are a Washingtonian who loves Jesusland – well, then Jesusland loves you. You should move there to seek salvation and to live among others who will be more sympathetic to your beliefs.

Moving to or from a modern-day Ecotopia should be easy – if you were living inside its geographical space to begin with, then you’re an Ecotopian by default. If today, a quarter-million people want to leave it, while another quarter-million want to enter it, then you have something of a happy balance. The Ecotopian states and the permissive national governments would work to balance the incentives for coming or going - today, tomorrow and 10 years from now.

Building out our Ecotopias would permit our governmental powers to effectively fess-up that the world is facing a resource crunch and is doing something constructive about it. So there is no need to panic. If tomorrow, somehow, we perfect nuclear fusion, we learn how to transform our landfills into loamy topsoil, and convert the atmospheric carbon dioxide into elemental carbon and oxygen, then we can call off the emergency and close down the Ecotopias by calling them “crass” and “barbaric,” telling all the hippies to go out and get real jobs. But until that day, I think we’ll need and need to love our hippies.

Can anyone or anything out there beat Callenbach's Ecotopian vision?

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')an anyone or anything out there beat Callenbach's Ecotopian vision?

[MicroHydro]

Yes the US of A would gladly part with vital strategic military assets like Beale AFB, Boeing, and the Trident base in Puget Sound - NOT!

What was Callenbach smoking? Oh, he told us...

[Zentric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'T')here is no way to have "Self sufficiency and learning how to live off the land is encouraged." and geothermal plants with maglev trains without encouraging scientific and technical exploration.
A society which strives to to educate kids in nature, to use and make tools etc but frawns upo genetic engineering and semiconductior technology dooms technological progress and will eventually leading regress back to stone age tribal stuff .

[EnergySpin]

Smoking too much weed kills the grey cells in the brain and leads to apathy (i.e. no ant colony wathcing no mag lev trains lol)
The problem with this particular utopia is that the link $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'n')atural world-to-natural science-to-mechanical engineering

[Zentric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', 'S')moking too much weed kills the grey cells in the brain and leads to apathy (i.e. no ant colony wathcing no mag lev trains lol)
The problem with this particular utopia is that the link $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'n')atural world-to-natural science-to-mechanical engineering

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd if a young Ecotopian wants a scholarship to be an engineer, I imagine he'll be cracking the books for more than 20 hours a week. You know, I don't think I read anywhere in the book how they imprison people who show exceptional ambition. In fact, I know I read something in it to the contrary. Such devotion to a cause - either personal or social - is not out of character with the human condition or with Ecotopia.