Utopia?

The final chapter takes up the charge that the program envisaged is a utopian fantasy. Could the Deweyan society be achieved? If it were achieved, could it be sustained? Both questions are addressed. The seven characteristic features of the Deweyan society depend on a systematic change: once a society has reached a stage of economic comfort, it can increase the time spent away from the workplace instead of striving for ever greater productivity. The crucial move in bringing about the Deweyan society is to declare that enough is enough. The bulk of the subsequent discussion attempts to demonstrate that forgoing productivity needn’t spell economic (or social) doom. It concludes with some clarifications of the thesis that markets are essential to economic health, and with a defense of John Stuart Mill’s claim that the “stationary state” is not something to be feared, but, quite possibly, an enormous improvement on the way people currently live.