>Why do you assume that Yoshie means sanitized and uncomplicated? I did
>not read her post this way at all.
Sanitized because her New Atlantis is undeservedly free of those emotions that confound us all, a partial list of which I gave. Uncomplicated because she doesn't account for how they might arise in our intimate relationships (which are not necessarily the same as the sexual relationships Yoshie mentions). Both sanitized and uncomplicated because she assumes everything will be blessed if only our economic relations are made perfect, a remarkably reductive view of humanity, I think.
>And the idea of bending utopia to humanity sounds pretty undialectical to me.
I think I agree with you, if we are talking about material needs, where we are, at least partially, at the mercy of nature, resources, etc. But if we are talking about psychological and emotional matters, then I don't see any reason to compromise on what we need in the creation of an ideal state; it would be dishonest to call it "utopia" if we did.
Eric