utopianism

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noun uto·pi·an·ism \ yu̇-ˈtō-pē-ə-ˌni-zəm \

Definition of utopianism

1 :a utopian idea or theory

2 often capitalized :the body of ideas, views, or aims of a utopian

Recent Examples of utopianism from the Web

The Erewhon of America's 'pot left,' a 10-by-15 block midtown section, has over the past year become the center of a new utopianism, compounded of drugs and dreams, free love and LSD.

— lily rothman, Time, "Go Inside a 1967 Tour Bus as It Visits San Francisco During the Summer of Love," 20 July 2017
As the founders discuss the possibility, their utopianism surfac es.

— michal lev-ram, Fortune, "How Lyft Could Defeat Uber," 19 July 2017
Some of that Utopianism was hardwired into the show's basic premise, in which money, war, and racial discrimination are things of the distant past.

— annalee newitz, Ars Technica, "New Star Trek series will abandon Gene Roddenberry’s cardinal rule," 27 June 2017
But when Marshall McLuhan, the high priest of Canadian techno-utopianism, coined that term in the early 1960s, a world improved by new media really did seem in the offing.

— jason farago, New York Times, "Expo 2017: Utopia, Rebooted," 22 June 2017
But, in a deeper sense, the mid-century overtaking of utopianism by dystopianism marked the rise of modern conservatism: a rejection of the idea of the liberal state.

— jill lepore, The New Yorker, "A Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction," 5 June 2017
Rather than grounding itself in a vision of racial purity or political utopianism, the most viable strain of this tradition takes its bearings from the semi-imperial cosmopolitanism of the Catholic Church.

— james poulos, Orange County Register, "Younger Le pen’s reactionary politics tap into pan-European sentiment," 1 Apr. 2017
In response, the losing Germans often blamed back stabbers for their defeat and first interpreted such utopianism as Allied guilt — and later as weakness.

— victor davis hanson, The Mercury News, "Hanson: The Yanks over there — 100 years later," 30 Mar. 2017
The back-and-forth of cold Utopianism and hot Volk-worship continues to this day.

— adam gopnik, The New Yorker, "Are Liberals on the Wrong Side of History?," 20 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'utopianism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of utopianism

1649

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