This ties into something I’ve been thinking about (reading

‘s substack). I’m not, by temperament, a utopian thinker, but I’ve appreciated being nudged in that direction.

It makes me think about how I would define a utopia, and so far I’d come up with something like:

A society in which there is broad general agreement on the overall social structure and that is mostly stable, fair, and humane, and tolerant.

That definition would allow for something like the half-earth socialism plan (if it was generally agreed upon) but also something more glamorous and wealthy.

But the word “mostly” is doing a lot of work there. If it falls too short in any of those aspects it is no longer a utopia, but perfection in those aspects strains the imagination.

So part of the appeal of a midtopia is that it allows more room for believably falling short of the aspirations and the way in which, even an extremely attractive world will still likely have some elements that are unstable, unfair, inhumane, or intolerant.