”A Modern Utopia & the Fabian Society”
Radical: H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
Radical: George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950 Link 1 Link 2
Radical Group: Fabian Society
Utopia is a word derived from the Greek word “outopos” which means “no place”. This was outlined in a book that Sir Thomas More published in 1516. What is more important is the idea that we can create a Utopia here on earth. When the theorists like Kant, Marx, Engels, Nietzsche, and Hegel theorized about the absence of spiritual salvation in the after-life, the despair of no salvation prompted believers in their radical philosophy to create a Utopia here on earth.
Our human nature is built the need for knowledge and the need for enlightenment. We thirst for it. When we were children we looked to the people we loved for knowledge and enlightenment. For many of us our parents were these people. The importance of the family is pivotal in this enlightenment and the direction we lead our lives. Once we passed into adulthood the world was new and the enlightenments were the proverbial guiding light to the direction that we took in our life. It is this fundamental of family values that have been deteriorated by the destruction of morals and values in this country.
With the new radical ideas of Kant, Marx, Engels, Nietzsche, and Hegel, the new Utopia needed to be created. Marx’s father, a devotee to Kant’s anti-Christianity and Voltaire’s deism, were obviously a huge influence on Marx. With the rejection of Christianity and Feudalism, the plausible revolt would be to create a nation of equality. In this place there would be a nation of people of working together with no materialistic motivations. The people would contribute as a collective to society as a whole. This unification would propel the nation into the future.
Sounds like a great place? Well this is Utopia. I would like to keep the Greek etymology by simply stating “no place”. This place could only exist if all people were angels. There could be no corruption or even the suspicion for corruption. This perfect society would have to be engineered in order to have perfection in people. Imagine if there was a paranoid-schizophrenic in the society. He could perpetuate the perception of corruption. Well this would be detrimental to that of the Utopia. So I would ask, what would be proposed by people in power trying to support this perfect Utopia? Maybe Eugenics…?
This revolutionary thought spawned not only societies but nations around the world. The Fabian Society is a group that believes in this Utopia as a result of Socialism. The society was named after the Roman Dictator Fabius Maximus who defeated Hannibal of Carthage in Italy during the Second Punic War in 218-202 BC and was know as the savior of Rome. The society was devoted to restoring the Renaissance ideas (most importantly humanism) and the promulgation this restoration throughout the rest of the world. The Fabian Socialists, as they were known, believed in imperialist foreign policy along with socialist governmental tenants like, a nationalized education system, universal healthcare, the nationalization of land, the abolition of hereditary peerages, and a minimum wage.
The Fabian Society eventually had a huge influence on the creation of the Labour Party. People like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of England are members of this party. What is interesting about this party is its interest in global governance. During Labour Party’s Clement Attlee’s Prime Minister term in the United Kingdom, he would promote the de-colonization of the eastern and western world. With this he withdrew the United Kingdom from colonies all over the world. This move would be done to allow the newly formed United Nations to manage the uncivilized colonies around the world.
With any new revolutionary thought, idea, or theory there is always a stream of creative literature or film that sprouts from it. Hollywood has made millions of the ideas of the Fabian Society’s fundamentals. For the sake of time, I will mention just several works developed from the idea’s of the Fabian Society. H. G. Wells was a member of the Fabian Society who actually left the society due to disagreements with other members on his more radical aspirations for the group.
Wells most dedicated political ideal was that of the World State or a World Government. He was one that worked on the charter for the “League of Nations” to begin his work of the New World Government which some may know now as the New World Order. Well’s believed in the advancement of individuals by merit rather than from their birth rights. With this he did only believe that suffrage should be limited to the elites. Although he claimed that Marx should have never been born his ideas are parallel to Marx’s theories.
H. G. Wells believed in the Eugenics as part of his Utopian ideals. In his discussion about a paper written by Francis Galton, who was one of the founders of eugenics, he stated "I believe .. It is in the sterilization of failure, and not in the selection of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an improvement of the human stock lies." His movie “The Time Machine” is often criticized by the mention of “degenerate man-creatures” which could have been a portrayal of Well’s beliefs in the need for eugenics.
H. G. Wells would also deal with controversy as no coincidence with the sexual affair with Margaret Sanger. Margaret Sanger, who created “Planned Parenthood”, was a huge supporter of Eugenics. She once wrote in a letter to Clarence Gamble this disturbing statement:
The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” -Margaret Sanger, letter to Clarence Gamble, Dec. 10,1939. - Sanger manuscripts, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.
She also wrote this in the Birth Control Review:
“More children from the fit, less from the unfit — that is the chief aim of birth control.” (Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12)
We will discuss Margaret Sanger in a later post. It is however important to mention her here in the broader scale and the motives behind these radical minds.
In closing I will mention that the idea to create heaven on earth in the form of a social Utopia is an impossible task. If you are a religious person and have ever read Genesis 11:1-9 you have been blessed with the story of the Tower of Babel. It is amazing that the act of building a Utopia or a tower to heaven as a failure exists in one of the oldest books known to man. Some in the religious community may say that the attempts to reversing God’s will by creating a unified world after he dispersed us all by creating new languages and nations after the fall of Babel is blasphemous and evil. Some also believe that the devil wishes to create a false-utopia with his own image here on earth as to deny God his kingdom which is a sign of the end of days.
Regardless of your political beliefs or spiritual beliefs, it must be understood the implications of losing our sovereignty to a community of nations. We cannot be so naive to believe that this United Nations or New World Order will be able to eliminate religious wars or promote a peaceful world through one world government. What you can bet is that they will use the tactics of Marxism to make the people subservient to the government’s welfare system. Remember those that don’t wish to govern themselves will be governed by force. What better way to force uncivil countries to be civil then to make them beg for assistance or help. Welcome to the idea of United Nation sanctions.
