“Ever expanding human poverty and the ongoing pillaging of the planet are justified in the name of a utopia to be guaranteed by Market Forces, when they are unregulated and allowed to operate freely; a utopia in which, in Milton Friedman’s words, ‘each man can vote for the colour of the tie he wants.’ In any utopian vision happiness is obligatory. This means that in reality it’s unobtainable. Within their utopian logic compassion is a weakness. Utopias despise the present. Utopias substitute Dogma for Hope. Dogmas are engraved; hopes flicker, by contrast, like the flame of a candle.”
John Berger, ‘Some Notes About Song (for Yasmin Hamdan)’















