Utopia is not the standard. Reality is. Every civilisation has sins if you judge it by today’s moral standards. You can build an entire career doing nothing but listing them. That is easy. The harder question and the only one that matters is this: compared to actual, existing alternatives, who has done better? I am not claiming the West is perfect. It is not. No society is. But if you are honest about measurable progress on rights, equality, and self-correction, it is still ahead of every other major system in the world today. So stop asking "is it perfect?" That is a childish question. Ask: "compared to what?"

Nozick presents this thought experiment in “Anarchy, State, and Utopia” to explain his entitlement theory of justice: Picture a society where wealth is distributed in a way everyone agrees is perfectly just. We call it D1. Now Wilt Chamberlain (famous NBA player for the zoomers) makes a simple offer: Drop 25¢ in the box if you want to watch me play. Fans love it and happily pay. By season’s end, Wilt has $250,000. Welcome to D2: Wilt is now far richer and the original “just” pattern is gone. Nozick asks: If D1 was fair and D2 resulted from purely voluntary choices with zero force or fraud, why would D2 be unjust? Evidently, liberty inevitably disrupts any fixed pattern of wealth. To preserve perfect equality (or any rigid distribution), the government would have to keep intervening, blocking voluntary trades, taxing, and redistributing. So true justice isn’t about the final snapshot. Justice is not equal outcomes or any version of “equality” in the sense proposed by egalitarians (leftists). Justice in a free society is about whether people acquired and transferred their holdings legitimately through voluntary means.

Vijay Prashad: The Necessary Furture Dark forces seek to colonise the future to ensure it remains subordinate to accumulation, not dignity. Talk of the future is not utopian fantasy but affirmation this order is intolerable and impermanent.

Much written on this, including by Hayek, who makes the point that socialists win over intellectuals and public opinion by boldly promising utopia. Practical people know utopia isn't possible, and so lose the battle of public opinion, which intellectuals enjoy winning.

.@trvisXX's Days Before Rodeo sold 149,000 vinyls in the Sept. 13-19 tracking week, according to @luminate_data. That sets a new record for the biggest vinyl sales week among rap albums in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991). Travis' own Utopia previously held the record when it sold 93,000 in the Aug. 26, 2023-dated tracking week. Take a look at the top 10 biggest vinyl sales weeks for rap albums below, and tap here for details:

Japanese visual artist @tomoroknst creates intricately detailed, brightly colored compositions dotted with uniquely patterned creatures and humanoid life forms. 🎨✨ "This place is my utopia. Every creature has a sense of solitude, facing their own emotions and imagining a bright future.”