Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

by Rutger Bregman

I’d like to offer two final pieces of advice for everybody who is ready to put the ideas proposed in these pages into action. First, realize that there are more people out there like you. Lots and lots of people. I’ve met countless readers who told me that while they believe absolutely in the ideas from this book, they see the world as a corrupt and greedy place. My answer to them was this: turn off the TV, look around you, and organize. Most people really do have their hearts in the right place. And second, my advice is to cultivate a thicker skin. Don’t let anyone tell you what’s what. If we want to change the world, we need to be unrealistic, unreasonable, and impossible. Remember: those who called for the abolition of slavery, for suffrage for women, and for same-sex marriage were also once branded lunatics. Until history proved them right.