sudden change forces us to question our perception of reality and consider new possibilities that may have previously seemed unthinkable.

learning about other political and economic systems opened my mind to the possibility that the reality in which I lived was not the only one available.

This is why utopian visions of how to build a different future often follow moments of great social upheaval. Ordinary people find themselves unmoored from the realities they once believed to be fixed and immutable—the “order of things” is disturbed.

By studying the history of social dreams, we can reject the bad bits and keep the good: challenging ourselves to explore alternatives for how we live,

Doubters can mount a stiff resistance, but in every generation from Aristophanes on down, the dreamers persist.

In that plastic moment of rapid social change, where all the old rules seemed negotiable,

Historically, moments of political uncertainty often give birth to utopian dreaming, which is one reason why it is enjoying such a renaissance today.

Dreamers Have Always Had Haters

where we reside, how we raise and educate our children, our personal relationship to things, and the quality of our connections to friends, families, and partners impact us as much as tax policies, the price of energy, or the way we organize formal employment.