I’ve been spending a couple of afternoons reading Marxism, or more specifically reading Marcuse and Kolakowski, because in the course of writing an article about how the utopian genre has changed over time, I’ve reached the phase (post world wars) where people start saying utopia is dead or has ended. Some of the people arguing... Continue Reading →
Seasteading: a ’policy-high’
The Grandson of Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman, has written a book called Seasteading in collaboration with a guy called Joe Quirk. My point is the subtitle: “How floating nations will restore the environment, enrich the poor, cure the sick, and liberate humanity from politicians.” This is a serious case of what I (during a meeting... Continue Reading →
SuperShe
Off the coast of Finland lies an island called SuperShe. It was purchased in 2017 by Kristina Roth, who had recently sold off her $45 million company, Matisia Consultants, to “seek out something even more fulfilling” (Bloom 2018). Or as she put it more bluntly to a room of Latvian tech students during her speech... Continue Reading →
Is Mars the ultimate ‘Room of One’s Own’?
In 1928, Virginia Woolf was asked to give two lectures on the topic of Women and Fiction at two women’s colleges in Cambridge. Her digressions over the title she had been given to lecture on resulted in her book “A Room of One’s Own” (Woolf 1929). Why is it, she pondered, that she was asked... Continue Reading →
Ruritania
In 2017, Queen Anastasia, the sovereign Monarc of Ruritania, hosted the biannual convent of MicroNations in Atlanta, Georgia. Ruritania is a micronation hidden an unknown place in Europe. “Most of my citizens never even meet me” she tells the interviewer from Vice News. “They send in the application, I approve it. We also get a... Continue Reading →
Lake Wanaka
In January 2017 news spread across the world media that Peter Thiel, multi billionaire and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, had - two years prior - purchased a 477 aches property on Lake Wanaka in New Zealand. Furthermore, he had done so without needing the approval of Oversees Investments Office – it turned out he was... Continue Reading →
The Republic of Minerva and the South Pacific Forum
Minerva Reef is situated in the Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Tonga. In early 1972 it housed for a short period of time the Republic of Minerva, a liberalist micro nation founded by an American real estate millionaire, Michael Oliver (Strauss 1999: 155). His organization, the Ocean Life Research Foundation, had raised approximately $200 million... Continue Reading →
The State of NSK and the Nigerian connection
When the webpage of the Principality of New Utopia was last updated in May 2017, Bertrand Thibert figured as its Foreign Minister (PNT 2017). Bertrand Thibert, a specialist in cyber security, also holds a passport to the NSK State. The NSK or the Slovinian art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst, established a State in 1992 (NSK... Continue Reading →
The Principality of New Utopia
Not far from the Mexican mainland, The Principality of New Utopia has claimed the Misteriosa Bank for its territory. The Misteriosa Bank is a submerged reef an average of 20 meters – in some places less than one meter – below the current sea level. It lies in international waters and is situated on the... Continue Reading →
Pueblo-Hospitales: Implementation is not the point
In 1530 the 42 year old judge Vasco de Quiroga arrived in Mexico City with More’s Utopia. This was three years after the Spanish Crown had established the new colony the ‘Vice-Royalty of New Spain and Mexico City’ in 1927 (Rivas 2018). Quiroga was dispatched to the Vice-Royalty by the Spanish Crown in order to... Continue Reading →
Mars: A Room of My Own 