Utopian Novel

A utopian novel is almost an oxymoron, because a novel requires conflict, and a proper utopian society would have none. Earth is supposedly a rather idyllic place in the Star Trek universe, which is why they spend all their time out there among the stars, where there are obviously monsters and villains all over the place. “Earth,” commander Sisko said, “is the problem.” Because they had no war, or poverty, or crime, and were well behind the front lines in the wars against Cardassians, ,Romulans, the Jem Hadar and the Borg. So they have a utopian society on Earth, but outer space is dystopian as hell.
Some people say that we just can’t have a utopian society, because everybody wants different things. Well, sure. Any proper utopia would have lots of different lifestyles available within it, There would have to be urban utopias and rural utopias and small town utopias and wild utopias and island utopias and so on and so forth. And a utopian, world wide transportation system linking them all. Yeah, the naysayers say, but (because the naysayers will always say ‘yeah, but,’ it’s the thing that the naysayers say) even within those parameters not everybody wants the same things.
True. If you and I walk into a diner, I may have a donut and you may have pancakes. It doesn’t mean we can’t both be in a nearly perfect place.
Some people like big cities. Almost nobody likes garbage in the streets, covered with rats, almost nobody likes unwashed people sleeping in public, almost nobody likes traffic jams. Cities should be designed accordingly.
Nobody likes war. Nobody likes starvation. Nobody likes homelessness. These are things we have the technology to eliminate, and we should. A utopian world would not make a great novel, or an entertaining film. But, it would be a great place to live.