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Full Idea
There can hardly be any new utopias. To the extent that we can imagine a utopia, it must already have been realised. A utopia cannot, by definition, include boredom, but the 'utopia' we are living in is boring.
Gist of Idea
We have achieved a sort of utopia, and it is boring, so that is the end of utopias
Source
Lars Svendsen (A Philosophy of Boredom [2005], Ch.4)
Book Ref
Svendsen,Lars: 'A Philosophy of Boredom' [Reaktion Books 2005], p.137
A Reaction
Compare Idea 8989. Lots of people (including me) think that we have achieved a kind of liberal, democratic, individualistic 'utopia', but the community needs of people are not being met, so we still have a way to go.
Related Idea
Idea 8989 The benefits of social freedom outweigh the loneliness, doubt and alienation it brings [Scruton]
| 9297 | You can't understand love in terms of 'if and only if...' [Svendsen] |
| 9298 | We can be unaware that we are bored [Svendsen] |
| 9301 | Boredom is so radical that suicide could not overcome it; only never having existed would do it [Svendsen] |
| 9303 | The concept of 'alienation' seems no longer applicable [Svendsen] |
| 9304 | Death appears to be more frightening the less one has lived [Svendsen] |
| 9302 | We are bored because everything comes to us fully encoded, and we want personal meaning [Svendsen] |
| 9307 | Modern Western culture suddenly appeared in Jena in the 1790s [Svendsen] |
| 9310 | The profoundest boredom is boredom with boredom [Svendsen] |
| 9309 | Emotions have intentional objects, while a mood is objectless [Svendsen] |
| 9308 | If subjective and objective begin to merge, then so do primary and secondary qualities [Svendsen] |
| 9311 | We have achieved a sort of utopia, and it is boring, so that is the end of utopias [Svendsen] |