Francis Golffing
NOTES TOWARDS A UTO PIA
The following thoughts arose largely
in
connection with
a Jomt attempt of myself and another person to frame, together
and separately, by a process of discussion, disagreement-leading-to–
partial-or-complete-agreement, separate note-taking and comparing
of notes, etc., some basic notions towards a Utopia. Questions are
posed very much as they arose in my own thought during a month
of intensive exploration, and are dealt with
pro tern,
as one must,
at the beginning of such an undertaking, deal with them, since
they crowd much too fast to be handled in correct, orderly fashion,
and since it seems that each must be treated at once, somehow, to
allow the process to sweep forward with momentum. Thus what
is primarily involved is a framing of exact questions, with an
almost incidental jotting down of answers to be developed later,
or perhaps in some cases to be superseded by other answers lead–
ing to new questions, or to changes in the original ones. My own
excitement in the exploration leads me to hope that these notes
may meet an answering excitement in other minds, since signs
of preoccupation with the field of utopia are by no means wanting
and the encouragement of all serious efforts in the field is, I
believe, a great desideratum.
1.
Why
Utopias are necessary
1. Man's life moves in an inexorable cycle of motive and act.
This cannot be changed, being part of the human condition.
T here have been sporadic protests against the cycle-some admir–
able, others childish, all of them futile . The pedigree of the line
of reasoning which advocates the "gratuitous act" as the only
way out of this cycle has yet to be established. Its most recent
proponents are Rimbaud, ' J arry, Gide, the Dadaists. The gratu-
