Tomm Carr
1 min readNov 9, 2022

"Don’t you feel like there is something inherently wrong with the world?"

No.

So why should I continue reading? To read about yet another utopian vision that defines a vision of "the universe as it should be" rather than establish goals we can actually reach as long as we are able to work within "the universe as it actually is"?

Do I think the world-as-it-is is perfect? No. But I will be the first to admit that I have absolutely no idea what a perfect world would look like or what life would be like in such a world.

I do understand that we humans find meaning in life by overcoming challenges. Those of us, particularly men, who do reach a point where there are no more challenges to overcome have shortened life spans.

So if your vision of nirvana is free of life's challenges, then I'm afraid it's just another dystopian vision in disguise.

There are things like poverty and hunger and illness that exist. But concepts like "rid the world of poverty" are more like ideals than actual goals. We can get better but we will never reach perfection. Ideals, like compasses, provide direction. We may be able to get ever closer, but it helps to always keep in mind that we can never actually achieve it.

If you ever achieve an ideal, you don't really have an ideal, you have a goal. Don't conflate the two.

This allows us to avoid the trap of rejecting the good in preference to our vision of the perfect.

Tomm Carr

A retired software engineer who hates retirement with a passion. My hobbies are writing, economics, philosophy and futurism.