The Sword and Laser discussion

Reading a lot of comments from people suggesting Bester was implying that peepers would make or were currently making society a Utopia. That got me thinking because in my opinion there was nothing utopian about their society.

Everyone in power is corrupt and wallows in decadence (example the big party which was basically a high class orgy.) even peepers can be corrupt and manipulative.

There are also hints of the poorer population having an extremely hard time with high rates of homelessness and hunger, as evidenced by the "charity" Reich sets up. So well Powell obviously thought they were well on their way to Utopia the actual world he lived in was corrupt and broken in many many ways.

But what do you think?

They had not reach utopia yet because the peepers were still a minority. I suppose in a world of everyone being able to read and feel everybody else's thoughts you might have human beings being more empathetic. Peepers overall in the guild seem to be more empathetic and stick more to a code of ethics.

For example they cannot hold the 'neurotic' idea like Reich does that they are the only people that are really human.

The statistics for class three were 100,000. 2 was 10,000 and 1st were 1,000. That's a minority assuming a pretty large world population plus colonies.

While I agree with the idea that if everyone was a peeper certain negative traits would fall away due to not being able to lie and hide like people do, there would still be problems.

At Powell's party one guy treats his girl badly becuase she is at the lowest level. The guild is also highly controlling in taxes, who you can marry, and the way the ostracize people for braking the rules. (Can't think of the characters name right now.) Powell himself has dishonest Abe that other peepers don't seem to always pick up on.

I agree with Beth and Jacob - I don't think having more peepers would make the world any better - the Esper guild is far too controlling of its members for their way of life to be considered a utopia. Sure, it might mean the human race gains some sort mutual respect for their fellow humankind - frankly, I'm not even sure about that, considering the classism going on between guild members - but they would also be losing quite a lot. The ability to feel secure in your their thoughts, the ability to plan a surprise, the ability to lie.