"It must never be forgotten that social reality is created. Different times and different places have had vastly different realities. The ancient Athenians, for example, despised the merely wealthy. The only way to earn their respect was by excellence in the service of the community; not surprisingly, most citizens devoted themselves to public service, not private acquisition.
Our current reality of [capitalist] selfishness is largely the product of a self-fulfilling prophecy: people have believed the worldviews of Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, and their ilk into existence, and this actuality can be dissolved by a willed suspension of belief.
To propose a radically different, but not inherently unworkable, set of values is therefore not utopian after all, but a highly practical — indeed, indispensable — prerequisite to meaningful social and political change. Indeed, no greater — or more successful — utopians than the founding fathers of the American republic ever walked the face of the earth, and what they did can be done again."
- William Ophuls, from "Notes for a Buddhist Politics." Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, edited by Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft.
