This book has set out not just why we need to change, but also some of the practical measures we could take now to secure our future. Given that all of this is achievable and affordable right now we have to confront the question: what is stopping us? There is also an unsettling second question, driven more than anything by the climate crisis; how long do we have? Have we passed the point where the struggle for a better society will be replaced by the simple struggle for survival? In short, is it too late for utopia?

Rebuilding our self-confidence

The first step in rebuilding a vibrant debate about the future is to stop being afraid to dream like our grandparents. We have become a generation which, despite technological change, has become frightened of possibilities. We may be socially more liberal, but our political ‘bandwidth’ has narrowed dramatically. This is a problem in two ways. We no longer have access to the wisdom and inspiration of the utopian tradition so we no longer understand what it is to think holistically and collectively about the future. Second, we have been persuaded to forget that such ideals led, despite many problems, to real, practical and positive change. The history of the utopian tradition has been more or less erased and with it a vital legacy of hope and achievement.

Whether our current politicians like it or not the necessity of action is going to be forced on us by our failures to respond to issues like climate change and poverty. At the time of writing we see how the British government, who have driven deep cuts in the resources of local government and the Environmental Agency, are being forced to think again because of unprecedented severe weather and flooding on our West coast. This provides a thought-provoking example of where an abstract ideological view that government is somehow bad collides with the hard practical consequences of global environmental change. In such circumstances we will not only have to recreate the structures necessary for effective management of the nation, but consider new and powerful mechanisms for shaping change.

New education

It is not simply a reconnection with the utopian principles of previous generations that we need.