Blog utopia continued
The philosopher spends the night in jail for driving without insurance and resisting arrest, which he will contest in court later because it was really a small existential misunderstanding. His head is bandaged.
Philosopher: Well, my spouse was right. As I was bleeding on the pavement from the head wound the officer of the law inflicted, I realized one item that I hadn’t mentioned before: doctors, scientists, and, let’s say, priests and philosophers. I don’t really want to mention priests at all, but this group will answer the big questions as well as produce medicine and interesting discoveries for the benefit of all humanity. This group will belong to a class of citizens whose work will be to produce discoveries; they will be free of toil. The small taxes that the citizens pay will support this class of citizens whose job it will be to produce meaningful, helpful research for the betterment of society. These betterments will not be patented; there will be no patents because there will be no government. The results of research, care, or technological discoveries will be published free for all and will be open source. This will ensure that society progresses forward towards greater health, but without the error of financial interests in the research projects. There will be no pharmaceutical advertisements on the television; rather, developments in medicine will be communicated to the people such that each person can harvest and prepare one’s own medicine at home. We won’t buy Tylenol in plastic packaging, but we will harvest willow bark, extract active ingredients, and create a powerful pain-killing treatment at home. Our economy will not rely on plastic as a medium for sale; there will be no selling of consumer products: each house will make what it needs. On rare occasions, one will travel to a temple or an acropolis dedicated to a particular branch of medicine, philosophy, or technology to receive further care. For example, an eye surgery or a lung transplant would not occur back on the old homestead. Each acropolis will have different contributions; society will look to a particular acropolis for answers to questions or new applications of science. We will travel to these centers of knowledge when we have pressing need for the solutions that a particular acropolis offers.
A moment of silence.
Drunk: Did they bring you in for talking too much?
Philosopher: No, I was on a pleasant evening drive with my wife.
Drunk: I was in here last week; a couple weeks in a row, actually; very entertaining.
Philosopher: Entertainment! That is a great point: entertainment. How will the citizens of my utopia remain entertained? Will they produce theater together? Or will they watch entertainments on the peer-to-peer network? Perhaps artists will be among the class of citizens who reside in the temples and some temples will dedicate themselves to the expression of human emotions.
Drunk: I don’t know about that, but I need to pee.
Philosopher: I beg your pardon.
The philosopher stands up and steps to the side so that the drunk can pee in the toilet.
Philosopher: I thought that was a sink, not a toilet.
Drunk: A little of both, I guess. Ah! That’s got to be pure beer going down the drain there.
The end.