Welcome to Utopia. Prepare to Die.

18 February, 13

"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them." (Henry David Thoreau)

Today in our English class we asked a question:

What would your perfect world look like?

In every class our students need to read, write, speak and listen in English. Last week, we watched an episode of "Duck Dynasty". That's another blog post.

Today's purpose was to get our students to write something in future tense. We ended up having some great discussions around each person's response to the question about the future. It provided some insights into what is important from a Spanish viewpoint.

Pared to its essence, most responses fit into a few different categories:

1. Nobody will have to pay for anything.
2. Everybody will live at peace with everybody else.
3. The environment will be clean and free of harmful human practices.

I asked each person when their Utopia would come to pass, and all of them told me it would never happen. I started thinking, however, about the reasons for their responses. 

• What would an American say?
• A Russian?
• A Christian/Atheist/Muslim?
• Republican/Democrat?
• Capitalist or Socialist or Communist?

The basic premise of the responses was, in my opinion, a life of ease, without the worries of the daily grind or the stress caused by conflict. 

In our Spanish class, yesterday, we talked about Spain's history under Franco, and we discussed security and liberty. Our new Canadian student opined that there is only liberty in security, to which I replied that a prisoner in solitary confinement has absolute security and no freedom, while a person on the African savanna can enjoy absolute freedom without any security, constantly in danger from hungry lions. I didn't see a connection between the two words, where he did. 

In "The Matrix", the computer originally designed a world of universal happiness for the slave population, as the "machine" milked energy from each person. The computer discovered, however, that, absent conflict and work, people ended up dying prematurely. It was an interesting statement about society.

"The first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster."

―Agent Smith to Morpheus 

Are we really "happy" when we have everything we want? 

The most famous response to that question is Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon, who really did have everything. He was the smartest, richest, most powerful man on the planet, which allowed him to turn his life into a grand experiment to discover true happiness. His conclusion?

"Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is utterly meaningless!" (Ecc. 1:2)

I never liked this particular book of the Bible. The very concept of a meaningless existence chafed against my own self-importance. Maybe your life is meaningless, but not mine. I have since studied it more deeply and have understood it better, but it still sticks in my craw.

Henry David Thoreau added his two bits:

"Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

So why are we here, and why do we matter? We do matter. We are more than matter, more than Carl Sagan's space dust. 

We have purpose. Of that I am certain. The unknown for many of us is, "What is my purpose?" 

The Westminster Confession states our purpose is "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." 

That is still a little too broad for me. I want to know what to do tomorrow morning. Maybe I should ask the Matrix.

For now, I am going to my buddy's house to watch Barcelona play Manchester City. Tomorrow morning, I am going to Spanish class. It's not Utopia, but it's pretty darn close.