The Importance of Utopia

Much of what we take for granted today was, at some point in the past, considered impossible—whether due to the lack of technological development or societal dogmas and ensuing dictates. From electricity and vaccines to Social Security and the concept of marriage for love, history is made of utopias turned into reality.

What was impossible yesterday is the reality of today, and it is so because we dared to dream. We dared to wish for a better and fairer world.

Despite all the developments brought about by our visionary dreaming, we are now faced with problems that seem difficult or even impossible to solve.

The inequalities that mark our economies and societies are becoming increasingly extreme, pushing more and more people into despair. The poverty of some generates the exaggerated wealth of others. This phenomenon highlights the need to rethink the dogmas we accept as a society regarding concepts such as work, property, wealth, and redistribution.

The climate crisis challenges us to reimagine modern life in a more sustainable way, whether through technological developments like electric vehicles, clean energy policies (or at least non-carbon-based energy), and reforestation, or through changes in consumption and eating habits.

Regarding human rights, we live in a paradox: on the one hand, we have accumulated, over the 20th century and the early 21st century, significant gains in areas like women's rights and the LGBTQ community. On the other hand, we are now overshadowed as a society by a growing reactionary movement that does everything to challenge and discredit these achievements, aiming to undo the progress made.

This same reactionary movement threatens the pillar of our modern societies: liberal democracy. From left to right, we live in an era of populism and polarization where facts and reason are replaced by perceptions and emotions, with the "other" vilified, thus reducing the space for dialogue necessary to find the solutions we need. This creates a divided and fractious society.

If this concerning phenomenon is primarily promoted by far-right forces such as France's Rassemblement National, Germany's AfD, or Reform UK, we also see elements of the radical left beginning to play this game. An example is Germany's BSW (a party stemming from Die Linke, founded and named after its populist figurehead Sarah Wagenknecht) and its support for the vilest xenophobia. Not to mention the similarities between Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico.

In the face of these challenges, one might easily despair of shaping the future. Resistance might seem limited to merely mitigating the harm these forces wish to inflict. However, as the Biden presidency and the subsequent return of Trump demonstrate, this is not enough to counter the reactionary movement that undermines our civilizational achievements.

For all these reasons, we need utopia more than ever. Utopia is the tool that guides us through chaos and suffering toward the path we want as a society. A society without utopia is a society without direction, a society without a foreseeable future.

Some may argue that utopia is fanciful and should not be taken seriously in any of its forms. To this, I respond with a direct comparison between the global life expectancy in 1950 and that in 2020, which, according to Statista, rose from 49 years to 72.91 years, or with the emergence of technologies (particularly in information technology) that make our world today more interconnected and practical than in 1994.

To them, I ask: what would have become of us as a society during the COVID-19 pandemic if we had not embraced the utopia of returning to the life we had before being forced into lockdowns and social distancing—at a time when we did not even know if or when we would have a vaccine to restore normalcy? The vaccine and the normalcy it offered were the utopias we clung to until they transitioned from utopia to undeniable reality.

Reflecting on how challenging 2024 was and on the difficulties of 2025, let us remember the power of utopia. Let us dare to dream and demand. Let utopia guide the coming year. For in the face of the challenging year ahead, it will be our most powerful weapon. Gandhi said we must be the change we want to see. Let us be that change in the year to come. To the limitations of reality, we must counterpose the boundless power of human potential.