Whither, Utopia

by Erik Deckers

Twenty years after nearly all the conservatives in the world died, the liberals have their ideal utopia. And they're screwing it up.

Education and the arts receive more money than they need, everyone gets along, and all differences are celebrated and embraced. So why are people unhappy?

Sara Cooper-Wright, a student at Appleseed College in Appleseed, Ohio, is fed up with the current system of school-approved protests for class credit. She wants to rebel, to act out, to do something that will make people sit up and take notice. So she does the unthinkable and starts the Students for a Conservative Future.

Mayor Sheila Windsong and her deputy mayor, Enrique Medina, don't see Sara's little group as a threat until Will Gant, a history professor and political moderate, decides to run for mayor. They see Will and Sara as a threat and will do anything they can to quash his plans and continue their rampant reign of corruption.

If you're a fan of political satire and bureaucratic boobery, or ever wondered how a utopian future could ever go wrong, this book is for you. If you loved Catch-22, The Woody, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or The Short Reign of Pippin IV, then you'll love Whither, Utopia.

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 3, 2025

About the author

Erik Deckers is a professional blogger and ghostwriter. He is the author of Mackinac Island Nation, his first humor novel, and is the co-author of Branding Yourself, No Bullshit Social Media, and The Owned Media Doctrine.

Erik has been blogging since 1997, and a newspaper humor columnist since 1994. He has written several radio and stage plays, and numerous business articles. Erik was the Spring 2016 writer-in-residence at the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, FL, and now serves on their board of directors.

Reviews

[D J Rout]

This isn't as good as Mackinac Island Nation but that may be because the story of a small island suddenly finding itself independent of the United States appeals to me in a kind of The Guns of the South way.

The corrupt mayor of an Ohio township takes bribes and imprisons her opponents in this story set in the USA of 2053. The novel starts off with diescribng an America where some of 2023's trends are exaggerated. With the convservatives wiped out by a worldwide virus and their unwillingness to take precautions against it, the small-L liberals have gained control. Appleseed, OH, is a university town where all the annoying things about gender politics, inclusivity, neurodivergence and other buzzwords have gained control.

A sensible university professor, Will Gant, who teaches some kind of sociology-type course, decides to run for Mayor .

Anyway, there are lots of observations made about the present-day by exaggerating what is happening now to what it will be like in 2053. But some of the mainstays of American dystopian fiction still remain. The government may lip service to the 4th amendment, as it does snow, but the 1st one still protects a free press which has the power to show The Truth when the story calls for it. Basic things like elections still remain in 2053, and the elected officials still have real power, except against Bug Business. The FBI still investigates and prosecutes crime. But it seems to me that the author isn't intending an Orwellian dystopia—America is still America.

There's a cute addendum which has 'book club questions' for the alert reader, which proved that I wasn't that alert. No spoilers.

The writing style is light and humorous and, while he gives Canada short shrift for some reason that undermines the setup—why is Canada so badly affected by the virus, which mostly kills the stupid people?—this 'if this goes on' tale is amusing if you really like taking America down to task.