I ended up reading many parts of it out loud to my wife, and that led to looping, long discussions that really helped reshape some of our world views about what a real utopia would consist of.īregman discusses three main points that will make a lot of sphincters tighten, including my own. The thing you will find as you read this book is that there will be frequent digressions. Why would anyone need that much wealth? Isn’t it a burden just to decide what to do with all of it?īut I digress. 62 people, at this very moment, are richer than 3.5 billion other people put together. As prickly as they are about having to share their fortune with others, the stark truth is they took that wealth away from the rest of us in a variety of different ways. There never seems to be enough money for these type of people. Of course, any time you even hint at a redistribution of wealth to a obscenely wealthy conservative, they get prickly and defensive. I came away thinking, this Bregman really knows how to get under people’s skin.

The footage and audio was leaked, and though I wasn’t surprised to hear Carlson get upset with a guest, I was shocked to listen to the vehemence and the frankly crazed level of his response. Rutger Bregman, the Dutch historian, first came to my attention when recently he got into a tiff with Tucker Carlson. Progress is the realization of Utopias.”-Oscar Wilde.

And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. ”A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.

Utopia for realists book review