By Jennifer Roback Morse Published on January 27, 2025, at The Stream
If you are one of those people who say our society is so corrupt that we should burn it all down and start over, you got your wish. Parts of California have recently burned down, and the fires still aren’t out.
If you were correct in your social analysis, this should be your time to shine. You should have a plan for making everything better than ever: more just, more fair, more inclusive, more sustainable, more peaceful, and more conducive to mental health for all. We are all waiting, with bated breath.
Just kidding. No serious person actually believes that the Burn It All Down people have a plan. These people are not the solution to any real problem. In fact, they created this latest problem.
Let’s give this problem a name: Fantasy Ideology. The purpose of a Fantasy Ideology is NOT to solve a problem. It is to help the partisans accumulate more power.
The process works like this.
Creating a Dystopia, in Five Easy Steps
Step 1. Sell the public on the utopian ideal of completely eliminating an Intolerable Problem. (Climate change. Systematic racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Injustice to transgender people. COVID. Take your pick, the possibilities are endless.) Catastrophize the Intolerable Problem. Demand nothing less than its complete elimination.
