Coast of Utopia

Tom Stoppard

I didn't mean any meaning!

No, not at all! Kolya's life was what it was. Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but we think there is something wrong with this picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and willfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is the proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us. (pause) What happened to you, Michael? Were you betrayed?

Lost objects from another life are restored to you in the belly of a carp.

Wir haben der welt eau de cologne und Goethe geschenkt.

But there is no such place and Utopia is its name. So until we stop killing our way towards it, we won't be grown up as human beings. Our meaning is in how we live in an imperfect world, in our time. We have no other.

I could write amazing things in a dressing gown like that.

Then what is the shadow on the wall of the cave?
That is philosophy.

Of course I am an egoist! How strange people are! taking pride in humility...in servitude...and the whole system of obedience designed to keep us quiet and as little different from each other as possible...Why should we damp down everything in us which is our uniqueness, the tiny furnace which needs to be constantly fed with self-esteem to keep us warm and vital and worth loving! Egoism isn't the enemy of love! It's what love feeds on. That's why without you I'd be destroyed.

Ty nye patseloóyesh minyá?

The Beggar remains.

Don't have much to say to this one. I think the last quote pretty much sums it up and if it doesn't perhaps the second to last does. Good luck, go start a revolution.