It’s hard to be excited about the future right now’ reads the Media Release. It’s a difficult statement to disagree with. What was described as a horror year plagued by drought and fire has culminated in a global pandemic with no end in sight. The future looks decidedly bleak but thankfully there are beacons of optimism beaming through the chaos. Jess Scully is one of them.
Residents of the City of Sydney will already know Jess as the Deputy Lord Mayor and founder of the Vivid Ideas festival. Her new book, Glimpses of Utopia is a wide-ranging survey that prompts us not only to rethink the status quo, but to redefine the terms under which we live. Jess urges us to look for new systems that are fairer, kinder to people and to the planet, and that are more representative of the priorities of people on the ground.
Glimpses of Utopia is arresting from the very first sentence: ‘What if the future we need is vastly different to the future we’ve been told we want?’ It’s the first of many questions Jess poses that challenge the prevailing systems that govern every aspect of our lives.
Jess starts at the top by addressing the problems in what we call ‘representative government’ and argues that it is not representative at all. She cites an analysis of our democratically elected officials that came up with a kind of ‘average’. He is male, white, of English ancestry, wealthy, has a law degree and is statistically most likely to be named ‘Andrew’. That’s not representative of the Australian population argues Jess, and just one of the problems within what we broadly describe as the ‘political class’.
It’s a top down system of government that’s outdated, ineffective and incapable of dealing the myriad of problems we face. It’s hamstrung by the way the political process is funded, says Jess. Our ‘representatives’ are ‘beholden to the internal machinations of their parties and the priorities of their donors’.
That proposition isn’t new, but Glimpses of Utopia doesn’t just call out the problems. The book is true to its subtitle, Real ideas for a fairer world. Jess advocates for a bottom up model and begins with one of the key priorities of government: budgets. She champions a system that hands over decision-making to the people. It’s known as ‘participatory budgeting’ and brings the community into the process. It connects people with the choices and the priorities requiring consideration under a range of competing interests. And it’s already happening.
It’s impossible within these few paragraphs to communicate the scope and veracity of the ideas, analysis and all the real-world projects covered in Glimpses of Utopia. It examines current systems of democracy, finance, investment and taxation, but includes discussions on leadership, the environment, the future of work, climate change and, importantly, the pathways to addressing these challenges. There are viable alternatives already out there working towards a more sustainable, equitable and better future.
If this review makes Glimpses of Utopia sound dry, academic or delusional, it certainly isn’t. It’s an optimistic, evidence-based vision for the future that reads more like a real-world drama where we all write the ending.
Reviewed by Gregory Dobbs
0 Comments