The Springtime of Utopia

We are always in the springtime of Utopia.  That is not to say that it is always springtime in Utopia.  That would be a silly thing to say.  If and when we ever create a Utopia, it will be on planet Earth, because that is the planet we live on, perhaps the only one we can live on, certainly the only one we can live on within 4 or 5 light years, which is a long, long way indeed.  Planet Earth has 4 seasons, maybe 6, maybe more, it all depends on how you define a season, but they all have their own kind of beauty and Utopia is possible within any one of them, or across all of them.
When I say ‘we are always in the springtime of Utopia’ I mean there is never a day when we do not see some aspects of it.  Every day we see examples of the generosity of the human spirit, of love, of sharing, of self-sacrifice.  Every day we see brilliance in the arts, and advances in science.
The idea of a utopian society has been around for a very long time, at least over a hundred years.  Some try to trace it back to Plato, and his book The Republic, which is at least an attempt to describe a perfect society, but it’s one which includes slavery, and accepts as a matter of course that the Republic will always be at war.  It was the times, I suppose.  Both of those things were deeply embedded aspects of society, so much so that Plato couldn’t imagine a world without them.
I guess you could say it was a very early springtime, with patches of snow still  on the ground.