In Karl Mannheim (1936), Ideology and Utopia, London, Routledge, 1991,
pp. 173-236
According
to Mannheim, some ideas transcending reality are rather “ideologies” than “utopias”,
and both, given that they are “situationally transcendent”, are “unreal”.
According to Mannheim, ideas that are situationally congruous and adequate are rare
(p. 175). He gives the example of Christian brotherly love, an ideology in a
society based on serfdom since, under those social conditions, could not be
realized.
The definition
Mannhein offers for utopia is as follows: “A state of mind is utopian when it
is incongruous with the state of reality within which it occurs” (p. 173). A
utopian mentality has both to “transcend” reality, or social “existence”, and “tend
to shatter, either partially or wholly, the order of things prevailing at the
time” (p. 174). Some utopias may be seen as absolute, or impossible to realize
under any circumstances, whereas most utopias are relative, that is impossible
in the circumstances of the society where they are conceived, but the hope is they
could be realized in a different social configuration: “Because the concrete
determination of what is utopian proceeds always from a certain stage of
existence, it is possible that the utopias of to-day might become the realities
of to-morrow: ‘Utopias are often only premature truths’ (Lamartine)” (p. 183).
Utopias
reflect human inclinations towards wishful thinking, created by lack of
satisfaction with existing reality.
Utopias can
be imagined by individual as well as social groups, and it is the latter that
are most effective.
Mannheim
identifies historical changes in the configuration of the utopian mentality.
In modern
times he sees the starting point in Chiliasm, or Millennialism which, combined
with the aspirations of the oppressed classes, gave origin to a process that,
even though far remote from proletarian class-consciousness, would eventually
lead to it. The second form of the utopian mentality is the “liberal-humanitarian
idea” (p. 197). The third form is the “conservative idea” (p. 206). The fourth form is the “socialist-communist utopia” (p. 215).
If utopia
died out, a “static state of affairs” would take over, whereby humankind “would
lose its will to shape history and therefore its ability to understand it” (p.
236).
[Roberto
Bertoni]
