BY PETER HARRIS
In his book Arcadia, Dominic Wightman reintroduces us to the genre of utopian writing which has been eclipsed in the popular imagination by dystopias such as those of George Orwell’s Oceania and Suzanne Collins’ Panem. This genre has a long and established pedigree, going back to ancient times with Plato’s Republic and the early modern era with Thomas More’ s Utopia. It is therefore appropriate that Wightman calls his utopia Arcadia as that was a paradise in the classical and Renaissance imagination. It is also Wightman’s correct recognition that building or finding a way to utopia is a universal, historical human desire. As a genre, it has two branches: the fictional and the discursive. Wightman’s text fits into both as it explores what utopia means and narrates how humanity can get there. It is a breathtakingly comprehensive identification of the problems and challenges that beset us globally and a brilliant exploration of how utopia might be constructed out of those problems. It is a sign of how complex our world is that Wightman’s utopian world is one that does not happen on a local or national scale but is an ideal world of global proportions. His perfect society is one that you will wish to live in. It is a Gospel of optimism that is reachable. What then is Arcadia according to Wightman?
It is a place where historically unique and perennial problems have been either solved or brought under control. Freedom, peace and prosperity are at its heart. Who would argue against that trinity of virtues? Humans are free from as well as free to do. Most importantly, it is the freedom from AI’s control and the freedom that it brings when subordinated to human needs. In Arcadia, AI has an on-off switch! There is no Terminator-style dystopia a la Yuval Noah Harari in these pages. AI instead ensures at least a good standard of living for all and extends life often to the maximum of 125 years. War has ended and has been replaced by sport and league tables between nations that measure their relative successes, such as the Happiness Index. Globalisation is not the subsuming of nation states into a cosmopolitan morass but the ability of nation states to work together to resolve global problems. One such problem is climate change which though traditionally has been blamed on polluting technology, has been halted using technology. In terms of the economy, Radiant Capitalism is the philosophy of production and exchange. The unemployed can fall back on their AI produced allowance whilst risk takers and philanthropic capitalists move the economy forward in humane ways. Education is provided according to each child’s needs and each child can dip into the AI-generated knowledge stream. Crime is dealt with through AI-led rehabilitation, though the anti-social have orange jackets to wear as they go work off their community sentences. Arcadia has no religious extremism and is secular, although Christianity is the dominant religion as it best fits within the secular framework. The pantomime of political conflict has ended with both Left and Right realising that a centrist philosophy which possesses the best of both traditions is the most effective governing worldview. However, government is small government and bureaucracies are temporary means of resolving problems. The self-refuting theories of postmodernism have been tossed into the rubbish bin of history. Objective truth and empirical evidence are what Arcadians think with. All this contrasts with the dystopia that Arcadia has deposed called Panoptia which was characterised by constant, blanket surveillance and social credit systems.
Someone might argue that the notion that there could be such a world as Arcadia in which all of earth’s citizens participate is thoroughly naïve. However, if one takes the time to read this text and follow its line of argument filled with dazzling solutions to what seem intractable problems, it is possible to see that none of this is beyond humanity’s grasp. Wightman’s book is refreshingly optimistic in an age when apocalyptic thinking, whether due to war, pandemics or the environment, is so prevalent. It is a humanistic book because it believes in the goodness of humanity without being snarky about God. It is a bold and clever book. So, for goodness’ sake, go and buy it. It will do you a world of good.
Arcadia by Dominic Wightman is published by Hayek Publishing and is available for purchase here.
Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020).