Work, Love, and Learning in Utopia: Equality Reimagined

Description

Work, Love, and Learning in Utopia breathes new life into the age-old human preoccupation with how to create a happier society. With a fascinating mix of research from cross-cultural psychology, macro history, and evolutionary biology, the book gives new credibility to the advocacy of radical equality. The author, a psychological anthropologist, argues that the negative emotions of sadness, anger, and fear evolved in tandem with hierarchy, while happiness evolved separately and in connection to prosociality and compassion. The book covers a wide range of human concerns, from economics and education, to media and communication, to gender and sexuality. It breaks new boundaries with its scope, arguing that equality of love is as important and possible as is economic equality. Its argument is provocative yet practical, and each chapter ends with concrete proposals that invite dialogue with any student of policy. Written in an easily accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone who has ever puzzled over how our social world could be remade. In particular, it will be very useful to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Cover Half Title Endrosements Title Page Copyright Page Table of contents Note to the reader Acknowledgments 1 New Hope for Utopian Equality, Based Upon Research from the Social Sciences and Biology The cultural and biological underpinnings of Utopia What emotions are there? The evolutionary background: Joy More evolution: The history of hierarchy Hierarchy among humans: An antagonist to joy Contention 1: Human hierarchy, like animal hierarchy, is based on negative emotions Contention 2: Hierarchy among humans does not produce happiness Contention 3: Hierarchy interferes with joy; it “crowds out” joy Final thoughts On hierarchy and human nature Yes we can: Humans can cooperate, share, and live peacefully Cooperative hunter-gatherers/foragers Contemporary forager societies Humans and hierarchy Egalitarianism among contemporary non-state societies Other evidence of the human propensity to cooperate The primate evidence The significance of the chimp evidence My proposal What is interactive joy? How Utopia fosters interactive joy by its challenge to hierarchy How Utopia fosters interactive joy proactively Bibliography 2 Equality of Gender, Sexuality, and Love Gender hierarchy Ending gender A new kind of sexuality How to implement egalitarian sexuality Bibliography 3 Inclusive communities and new solidarities Social dynamics that preclude greater group unity: How romantic and affinal tensions challenge... Overcoming natal/affinal tensions Social dynamics precluding greater group unity: How hierarchy within and between groups... Invidious groupism Examples of inclusive groups Recommendations for ending invidious groupism Social dynamics precluding greater group unity: What makes us feel we really belong? Bibliography 4 Work in Utopia A response to objections Objection 1: The welfare objection Objection 2: The scarcity objection Objection 3: The no one wants to farm objection Objection 4: The fairness objection Objection 5: The technology objection Objection 6: The ownership objection Rethinking work “We must work to make a living”: This present truth will inevitably change The past and views of work A history of work A personal justification for work as pleasure Eliminating hierarchy through the basic guarantee and freely chosen work The abolition of meritocracy More evidence that hierarchy corrupts, rather than confirms, merit My plan: The details Bibliography 5 Communicating with sincerity and compassion The negative effects of shame The divisive dynamics of shame The insidious tragedy of “going through the motions” Shame and its dichotomies Solutions Equality, hierarchy, and good and bad communication Solutions Bibliography 6 The intrinsic pleasures and purposes of learning The problem with education Hierarchy and education The consequences of how schooling arose School today, debased as a means to an end, but not a pleasurable end in itself School as simulation Education in Utopia The specifics of learning in Utopia Bibliography 7 Politics in egalitarian society Instituting Utopia: Who belongs? Basic egalitarian principles The Utopian constitution Basic constitutional rights Utopia’s judiciary Administration in Utopia Utopian universalism: No more nation-states and no more war Bibliography 8 Utopia’s solutions to universal psychological dilemmas The real versus the ideal Free will and happiness Means and ends Hierarchy and invidiousness versus belonging and empathy New and old Final thoughts Bibliography Index