Through the US city of Berkeley, there is the bon mot that Berkeley is too small to be a city and at the same time too big to go through as a madhouse. The city became known for the student movement in the 1960s – especially the Yippies around the fun guestillero Jerry Rubin and his actions. In this environment, Ernest Callenbach (1929–2012) was socialized, and here he found suggestions in feminist and anarchist discourses, which he processed literarily in »Ecotopia«. But also the shock, which caused the publication of the first report of the Club of Rome – “the limits of growth” – left its mark in this utopia.
In its utopia, which was playing in 1999, part of the United States had declared itself regardless of the rest of the United States – and established a new state called “Ecotopia”. The US journalist William Weston is the first foreign journalist to report this to a fictional New York newspaper about it. In a mixture of newspaper articles, diary records and narrative, he lets the reader participate in the impressions of his 60-day journey through “Ecotopia”.
Initially, the protagonist, whose name reference to science fiction classic is both Edward Bellamy (“Looking Backward”) and Aldous Huxley (“Iceland”), is still a surprise and rejection. At first incomprehension, he initially deals with the relaxed and informal handling of sexuality, the release of cannabis and the socialist organization of the economy, which is reflected in the workers’ self -administration of companies. Not least through an indigenous forest worker in which he falls in love, this alternative lifestyle becomes clear and understandable.
Much appears to be noteworthy and reported. The gender equality is realized and the ruling survival party is led by a woman. The gender play gap has been overcome and the sexes-still thought in the dichotomy man and woman-take on an equal footing and at eye level in economic and social life. Beauty delusion and industry have disappeared in this course.
The government system is a mixture of representative democracy with a variety of direct democratic elements that are shown in the form of citizens. In economic and political life there is a consistent decentralization that is the prerequisite for such a system in general.
However, the ecological transformation of society is still more remarkable: public transport is expanded, the cities are car -free, plastic was banished from the production process, the energy supply has been converted to renewable energies and the recycling rate is 99 percent. Technology as such is not damn, insofar as it is environmentally friendly and human -friendly.
Similar to other contemporary utopian novels such as Ursula K. Le Guins “Planet der Hämsicht”, this utopia is not a complete land of milk and honey without defects, but also shows a number of weaknesses and challenges. There is still – because of the proximity to the United States – there is a male -occupied military, money continues to act as a means of payment, and certain human trucks such as tobacco use are far from overcome. In contrast to classical utopias such as Thomas Morus’ “Utopia”, Callenbach’s approach can therefore be described as a realistic utopia. It is no longer necessary to request the impossible to achieve the possible, but first to fix people with the possible.
Callenbach did not find a publisher for his novel contemporary. Without further ado, he founded his own in order to finally publish this book in 1975, which developed into a long pastry. Inspired by this success, Callenbach published a story about the history and emergence of “Ecotopia” from the spirit of the environmental movement at that time. However, he was not able to build on the success of his predecessor, and the novel was largely under.
The title »Ecotopia« has now become a fixed term thanks to the success of Callenbach’s novel. The American ecologist Murray Bookch picked him up and filled him in his own works with further content. A number of ecological youth camps worldwide is called the novel »Ecotopia«. In this sense, new “Ecotopias” always arise, where the basic ideas are recorded, adapted and further developed.