‏‎‏‎utopia has, for four centuries, accompanied that hope of progress and that striving for betterment. it now straggles against a widespread sense that this has been an illusion, or an impossible dream. the utopian idea can never entirely disappear, but utopia as a form of the social imagination has clearly weakened. if it cannot instill its vision in the public consciousness, the consequences of its failure will be serious.‎‏‏‎the complete disappearance of the utopian element from human thought and action brings about a static state of affairs in which man himself becomes no more than a thing. we would then be faced with the greatest paradox, namely, that man who has acheived the highest degree of rational mastery of existence, left without any ideals. with the relinquishments of utopias, man would lose his will and ability to understand history.‎‏‎‏