A Utopia Free of Ideology

When I told my philosophy professors that I was writing a book partly about utopia, they panicked. Here’s how the conversation went:

Professors: Events of the 20th century prove that utopian thinking is disastrous.

Me: But that’s because they were all based on ideology.

Professors: All utopias must be based on ideology.

Me: What if utopia was the natural outcome of questioning society’s current ideology that human beings are lacking and flawed?

Professors: People *are* lacking and flawed. Look at the evidence of the 20th century!

In my opinion, this push-button circular response shows the power of societal conditioning. These extremely intelligent people couldn’t think outside of society’s conventions. They thought we are inevitably trapped by ideology (communism, capitalism, religion, etc.) even if we question ideology.

I completed that book. (It's titled *Happiness is the Starting Place.*) The basic idea is that our essential problems are caused by the belief that human beings are lacking and flawed. If we question that belief, then we will tune back into our innate happiness and goodwill, and that will solve all our essential problems. It will be a natural utopia that arises from within, not from an ideology.

What do you think? Is ideology inevitable? If so, then can utopia work? I think the professors were right in this regard. It's impossible to get everyone to agree with the same ideology. So it must be organic.