ABSTRACT
The book concludes by illustrating how Utopia can ameliorate universal human psychological problems. The universal conflict between dreams and reality has roots in present-day hierarchy, since hierarchy makes people constantly aware of the gap between their own life and the lives of others. But as hierarchy ends, the toxic yearning for that which individuals lack will cease, and greater satisfaction will result. After a consideration of how the conflict between individual free will and communitarianism can be resolved by Utopia, the book concludes by describing how Utopia will sustain the feelings of excitement that novelty brings, while also blunting the anxieties it can produce. Utopia will do this by institutionalizing continuous contact between the old and new, the familiar and unfamiliar. Changing the nature of society will create communities that welcome newcomers, and it will promote the excitement of learning about them that is centrally pleasurable to everyone. And, above all, it will lay the foundation for the very human capacity to feel compassion, as people begin to understand, with excitement rather than anxiety, those people and situations that have previously been unfamiliar to them.
