The Utopian World Championship

The New World Disorder a global network of direct democracy and community currency

By T.R.O.Y.

Competition year: 2001
Place: 1
About T.R.O.Y.

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Summary

The free market economy collapsed in the year 2007. Along with it went traditional governments and institutions that were based on it. In the vacuum that reigned grassroots organizations emerged to fill the functions that the nation-state had previously been assigned.

The World Social Forum, along with many other NGOs, gathered up the remains of the United Nations and formed the Global Alliance (GA) - a network of international organizations representing a large chunk of the world and organized along the principle of direct democracy. Some of its central documents are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Agenda 21. Now, with the force of the world behind the GA, these documents are being enforced. Both nuclear weapons and national armies have been banned.

No longer is the United States in control. In fact, the United States no longer exists. It, as well as the vast majority of nation-states, has been replaced by Community Networks -networks of small communities. Thousands of these Community Networks (or Networks for short) have taken the place of what used to be countries. Along with political pluralism and direct democracy came a pluralism of economic democracy.

Where the traditional economy failed to function, systems based on community currencies such as LETS and interest-free exchange began to thrive. Now there have been two additional forms of currencies added. One is the global TERRA system which is an electronic currency with a negative interest rate thus preventing the hoarding of wealth while encouraging cooperation and long term investing. The third form is the Aqua which functions regionally as an eco-centric paper currency. It has its greatest value in the region that produces it and loses value slightly the farther it goes from its point of origin. This encourages local commerce, community development, and environmental sustainability.

"Today's great opportunity is that any community -any community- can, with access to knowledge, develop a technology perfectly appropriate to its needs and moreover, perfectly appropriate to its resources....It has been my observation that when people begin to take a new active part in any segment of their lives, it becomes a self-feeding passion, urging a person on for more and more responsibility, more and more self-reliance, more and more action as a whole person and not merely as a spectator."
-Karl Hess, Community Technology

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Introduction

"There is no alternative."
Margaret Thatcher

"All that is held under power must someday revolt."
Inayat Khan

"Grant me the courage to change the things that I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Serenity Prayer

Ever since St. Thomas More wrote 'Utopia', which can be an allusion to either 'Outopia' (no-place), 'Eutopia' (the good place), or both, the word has often been associated with the unattainable, the impossible dream. And when one considers that More's own vision included both slavery and the death penalty one might be happy to not live in his utopia -or even next door.
The Bolshevik dream of a communist and stateless society that never emerged was another sort of utopian quest yet, despite establishing a certain amount of economic equality, it resulted in a nightmare for many a soul who lived under its yoke. And is not capitalism itself with 'the American Dream' as its ultimate promise also a utopian myth of sorts? For we are told, in a grand quixotic challenge to basic mathematics, that all people have a chance to become a part of the wealthy minority. The truth is that a third of the world earns about 90% of the world's income. That leaves the other two thirds of the people to fight amongst themselves for the remaining 10% and the result is a nightmare that equals its Soviet counterpart in sheer brutality.
People have tried, and are still trying, to create free and egalitarian alternatives. They have demonstrated that a wide variety of community structure is possible. Still others have created half-worlds based upon a single aspect of life. Initiatives such as organic farming, rehabilitation programs, community currencies, worker run co-ops, alternative schooling have all come from people who have helped us see new possibilities that are available to us here and now. Their successes and shortcomings can give us insight as we continue our journey towards a better society for all. Through their example we can see that Utopianism may turn out to be a journey in itself rather than a final destination point. A way to move through rather than a place to move to.

This Essay

"Which or whose Utopia? The kind of those involved,
of course. Many different kinds."
Karl Hess, Community Technology

"We want a world in which there are many worlds,
a world in which our world, and the worlds of others will fit:
a world in which we are heard, but as one of many voices."
Zapatistas

This vision of utopia is not a singular vision but a vision that has space for many visions. It is not a vision of a perfect world, but rather a vision of a possible world. One of many possibilities. It depicts a world that is beautiful and harmonious, yet ugly and chaotic. A world where the answers are not given to us but have to be continually created by us. For the challenges, like the questions, never end.
The links provided within this essay are portals to other worlds. Real worlds in real-time. These worlds that hide amongst words are steps - steps to the world of greater possibilities, to your dreams, to the utopian scenario you're about to read, to anyone's hope for a better world. What determines whether or not these worlds are ever attained or to what degree they are attained depends on one factor: what you are willing to do to make it happen.
T.R.O.Y. 2001