Eutopia and engagement today

Abstract

The contemporary conceptions of universal basic income (by Guy Standing), tax havens extraction (by Gabriel Zucman), and climate emergency (by Christiana Figueres) are briefly presented in the form of exposition in Massive Attack’s Eutopia EP. These conceptions address the most concerning issues of today’s world, while the concept of eutopia, proposed by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja and Mark Donne, represents “a place of well-being, as a practical aspiration,” a realistic utopia in which those issues are resolved. The present paper discusses the conceptions presented in Eutopia, assessing the possibility of the materialisation of eutopia. As suggested by Massive Attack, the ideas of Eutopia can be traced back to More’s Utopia, being rooted in a humanistic endeavour of improving humanity, inspiring engagement and search for a better and just society. Apart from discussing Eutopia, the paper explores Another Now, the political science-fiction novel by Yanis Varoufakis. Varoufakis’ critique of capitalism and the alternative he proposes in the novel Another Now argue along the same line as Eutopia, encouraging engagement in today’s world.

Keywords

• thomas more’s utopia
• engagement
• massive attack’s eutopia
• yanis varoufakis’ another now