{"id":74869,"date":"2020-05-18T17:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T14:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74869"},"modified":"2020-05-18T17:43:51","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T14:43:51","slug":"the-utopian-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-utopian-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Utopian Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"74869","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64460,"related_cahpter":"483","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The garden of God will not be built by human statecraft\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

There is perhaps no idea so tempting as that of a utopia \u2014 a social paradise. The story of Eden with which the human drama of the Bible begins is hypnotic, and awareness of the loss represented by the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden seems to haunt us wherever we go. In a world in which we encounter so much pain and frustration, there is always, at the back of the mind, a faint conviction, perhaps in spite of our more sober thoughts, that not only is this not how things should be, but that perhaps things really were once different. Even more seductive is the idea that we could make it so that things are different once again \u2014 that we could regain Eden.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the midst of a series of prophecies against the nations, Ezekiel indicates that such societies as Egypt and Assyria were convinced that they had achieved this elusive perfection \u2014 \u201c[Assyria] exceeded in stature all the trees of the field its branches multiplied and its boughs grew long\u2026and in its shadow lived all the great nations\u201d (31:5-6). Lest we miss the allusion, the prophet spells things out explicitly: \u201cNo tree in the garden of God was its peer in beauty. I made it beautiful In the profusion of its branches; and all the trees of Eden envied it in the garden of God\u201d (31:8-9) Assyrians, so Ezekiel says, believed themselves to have made their way back to paradise. What is notable is that in this prophecy, no mention is made of some of the characteristics we might associate with a utopian society \u2014 abundant peace, the elimination of want, the spread of enlightenment and the knowledge of God. The Assyrian \u2018utopia\u2019 is one in which political power and physical beauty are the dominant notes; it is a majestic society, perhaps even one in which a high degree of culture exists, but ultimately its achievements are empty and its Edenic pretensions are condemned.<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrogance of which the Assyrians were guilty \u2014 the thought of regaining Eden \u2014 is as ever-present as our awareness of the brokenness of our present world. In many countries, leaders with more admirable motivations than the Assyrians have raised up regimes which really did aim to solve the (seemingly intractable) problems of the human condition, but which proved just as cruel and bloody as the kingdom of Sennacherib. The vision of utopia may be a necessary ideal, luring us along in the necessary work of improving our societies. But the conviction that, through merely human effort, we have ever actually achieved the goal can only be dangerous \u2014 the garden of God will not be built by human statecraft. <\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Utopian Illusion","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The garden of God will not be built by human statecraft\u00a0","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":74870,"id":74870,"title":"ez31-utopia","filename":"ez31-utopia.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-utopian-illusion\/ez31-utopia\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez31-utopia","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74869,"date":"2020-05-18 14:34:37","modified":"2020-05-18 14:34:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1152,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1440,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-1200x900.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez31-utopia-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74869"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74873,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74869\/revisions\/74873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}