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Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age
"The choice we have is not between reasonable proposals and an unreasonable utopianism. Utopian thinking does not undermine or discount real reforms. Indeed, it is almost the opposite: practical reforms depend on utopian dreaming."--Russell Jacoby, Picture Imperfect
Utopianism suffers from an image problem: A recent exhibition on utopias in Paris and New York included photographs of Hitler's Mein Kampf and a Nazi concentration camp. Many observers judge utopians and their sympathizers as foolhardy dreamers at best and murderous totalitarians at worst. However, as noted social critic and historian Russell Jacoby argues in this salient, polemical, and innovative work, not only has utopianism been unfairly characterized, a return to an iconoclastic utopian spirit is vital for today's society. Shaped by the works of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, and other predominantly Jewish thinkers, iconoclastic utopianism revives society's dormant political imagination and offers hope for a better future. Writing against the grain of history, Jacoby reexamines the anti-utopian mindset and identifies how utopian thought came to be regarded with such suspicion. He challenges standard readings of such anti-utopian classics as 1984 and Brave New World and offers stinging critiques of the influential liberal and anti-utopian theorists Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Karl Popper. He argues that these thinkers mistakenly equate utopianism with totalitarianism.
The reputation of utopian thought has also suffered from the failures of, what Jacoby terms, the blueprint utopian tradition and its oppressive emphasis on detailing all aspects of society and providing fantastic images of the future. In contrast, the iconoclastic utopians, like those who follow God's prohibition against graven images, resist both the blueprinters' obsession with detail and the modern seduction of images. Jacoby suggests that by learning from the hopeful spirit of iconoclastic utopians and their willingness to accept new possibilities for society, we open ourselves to new and more imaginative ideas of the future.
Utopianism suffers from an image problem: A recent exhibition on utopias in Paris and New York included photographs of Hitler's Mein Kampf and a Nazi concentration camp. Many observers judge utopians and their sympathizers as foolhardy dreamers at best and murderous totalitarians at worst. However, as noted social critic and historian Russell Jacoby argues in this salient, polemical, and innovative work, not only has utopianism been unfairly characterized, a return to an iconoclastic utopian spirit is vital for today's society. Shaped by the works of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, and other predominantly Jewish thinkers, iconoclastic utopianism revives society's dormant political imagination and offers hope for a better future. Writing against the grain of history, Jacoby reexamines the anti-utopian mindset and identifies how utopian thought came to be regarded with such suspicion. He challenges standard readings of such anti-utopian classics as 1984 and Brave New World and offers stinging critiques of the influential liberal and anti-utopian theorists Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Karl Popper. He argues that these thinkers mistakenly equate utopianism with totalitarianism.
The reputation of utopian thought has also suffered from the failures of, what Jacoby terms, the blueprint utopian tradition and its oppressive emphasis on detailing all aspects of society and providing fantastic images of the future. In contrast, the iconoclastic utopians, like those who follow God's prohibition against graven images, resist both the blueprinters' obsession with detail and the modern seduction of images. Jacoby suggests that by learning from the hopeful spirit of iconoclastic utopians and their willingness to accept new possibilities for society, we open ourselves to new and more imaginative ideas of the future.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Russell Jacoby
30 books25 followersRussell Jacoby (born April 23, 1945) is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an author and a critic of academic culture. His fields of interest are twentieth-century European and American intellectual and cultural history, specifically the history of intellectuals and education.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 19, 2021
"A CIA study, not usually guilty of hyperbole, concluded 'in terms of the numbers killed the anti-PKI massacres in Indonesia rank as one of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century' (the study added that unlike the Nazi genocide or Stalin's purge, these deaths have gone virtually unnoticed). Or to look at Sub Saharan Africa we find a series of civi l wars, ethnic conglicts and independence struggles, each with tolls abiut a million or more in the postWorld War II years [...] What can be gleaned from this melancholy listing? Perhaps nothing. Or this: the human ocmmunity has much more reason to fear those with an ethnic, religious or nationalist agenda than it has to fear those with utopian designs." (23)
"Without a utopian impulse, politics turns pallid, mechancial, and Sisyphean; it plugs leaks one by one, while the bulkheads give way and the ship founders. To be sure the leaks must be stanched. Yet we may need a new vessel, an idea easily forgotten as the waters rise and the crew and passengers panic." (149)
Russell Jacoby defends the utopian impulse spectacularly in this volume. He does this by 1)identifying the suspicion of utopia presented by prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century (Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper and Hannah Arendt), 2)separating the blueprint utopia from inconoclastic utopianism, 3)defending iconoclastic Jewish utopian thought through an examination of thinkers like Max Horkeheimer, Gustav Landauer and religious thinkers (Gershom Scholem, Maimonedes etc). Jacoby writes perceptively about the failure of many of the models of totalitarianism, the beauty of Jewish utopian intellectual thought, and also the need not for a blueprint, but for the desire for something more, even if we cannot quite state what that thing is ...
"Without a utopian impulse, politics turns pallid, mechancial, and Sisyphean; it plugs leaks one by one, while the bulkheads give way and the ship founders. To be sure the leaks must be stanched. Yet we may need a new vessel, an idea easily forgotten as the waters rise and the crew and passengers panic." (149)
Russell Jacoby defends the utopian impulse spectacularly in this volume. He does this by 1)identifying the suspicion of utopia presented by prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century (Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper and Hannah Arendt), 2)separating the blueprint utopia from inconoclastic utopianism, 3)defending iconoclastic Jewish utopian thought through an examination of thinkers like Max Horkeheimer, Gustav Landauer and religious thinkers (Gershom Scholem, Maimonedes etc). Jacoby writes perceptively about the failure of many of the models of totalitarianism, the beauty of Jewish utopian intellectual thought, and also the need not for a blueprint, but for the desire for something more, even if we cannot quite state what that thing is ...
February 12, 2017
Jacoby's argument about the importance of Jewish "iconoclastic" utopianism. Excellent.
May 17, 2022
The title of this book is misleading. IT should be "A history of Jewish utopia and anti-utopian thought" because that's what the book is about. The first part goes over the (classic) liberal anti-utopian arguments and it is absolutely great. As the author points out, when equating utopianism with totalitarianism, the likes of Russell, Berlin and Arendt were just being anti-Marxist. But one can be utopian and not Marxist.
The rest of the book is an overview ofJewish classical thought, with focus on the representation of god. What does have to do with utopia? Probably nothing. This second part of the book is terribly off-topic and much less interesting.
All in all, a disappointment. Whoever edited this should have told the author that it was not ok to devote half of the book to very tangential material, but here you go: probably there was no editor.
The rest of the book is an overview ofJewish classical thought, with focus on the representation of god. What does have to do with utopia? Probably nothing. This second part of the book is terribly off-topic and much less interesting.
All in all, a disappointment. Whoever edited this should have told the author that it was not ok to devote half of the book to very tangential material, but here you go: probably there was no editor.
January 31, 2009
Jacoby draws a distinction between utopians who create blueprints for the future society, and a smaller group, which he dubs "iconoclastic utopians," who don't describe what utopia will look like, but long for a better future and "listen for" it. He associates these iconoclastic utopians with Judaism, which forbids idol worship, images of God, and even saying God's name. Since God can't be visualized, neither can utopia. Jacoby agrees with the prevalent view that "blueprint" utopians have been discredited by history, but he makes a case for reviving iconoclastic utopianism.
I find this interesting, but he repeats his main points relentlessly, and some of them are frustratingly vague. What does it mean to "listen for" the future? I wished it were a little more rigorous. I like his prose style, though--it's really lucid.
I find this interesting, but he repeats his main points relentlessly, and some of them are frustratingly vague. What does it mean to "listen for" the future? I wished it were a little more rigorous. I like his prose style, though--it's really lucid.
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November 7, 2008I found Jacoby's pessimism a little self-serving in this book . . . at times it felt like he was whining.
And his argument that utopian thought has declined seems untenable, given the recent emergence of movements like the Zapatistas and the anti-globalization movement (1998-2001), which have galvanized literary millions upon millions of people and are explicitly utopian. Indeed, it seems to me that utopianism is alive and well and that what has declined is only his particular variant (European, Jewish).
And his argument that utopian thought has declined seems untenable, given the recent emergence of movements like the Zapatistas and the anti-globalization movement (1998-2001), which have galvanized literary millions upon millions of people and are explicitly utopian. Indeed, it seems to me that utopianism is alive and well and that what has declined is only his particular variant (European, Jewish).
February 29, 2008
Good book on the pro-utopian thinking side; spends significant time on Jewish utopian philosophers. Good to get your toes wet. I actually taught a chapter of this to undergrads and though they had some trouble with some of the deceptively simple ideas they got most of it.
October 23, 2010
Assigned it to undergrads (4 times; they were honors students, though). A good introduction to thinking about the future in a less incremental-continuation-of-the-future way than most students take. I like it, but it's a little denser & drier at times (thus three stars instead of more).
June 3, 2015
Much easier to read than most of the philosophy books I've been subjected to. A bit confused about the author's laser focus on Jewish utopian thought. Surely there are additional examples in other cultures?
July 27, 2011
I like it. I like it. I like it. if we cannot see our future but only can hear it, are we psycho-patient??? that must be hallucination.... pf
December 13, 2011
Clear. Short. Interesting. Definitely something I'd recommend reading.
December 25, 2012
Beautiful and easy prose. A historical account of Jewish Utopianism More or less! Brief so not all inclusive!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews