A review by sidharthvardhan
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

5.0

“revolution begins in the thinking mind.”

Urras is very much like Earth of cold-war times – it has a state very much like United States ( A-Io) with a capitalist economy and another very much like the Soviet Union (represented by Thu), with an authoritarian socialism. There are also opposition left-wing parties in A-Io, one of which is closely linked to the rival society Thu, as were communist parties in the US. There is also a region very much like Southeast Asia - a third major, though underdeveloped, area called Benbili—when a revolution supported by Thu breaks out there, A-Io invades, generating a proxy war. The author takes her digs at both capitalism and socialism.

However some time before novel began, a revolution was started and as a result some anarchists traveled to and settled in a different world called Anarres, These anarchists come to create what might be thought of as Utopia, an idealist dream or future of the world– no property, no religion, no marriage, no necessity to work, no laws, no social hierarchies, no exams, no competition, no government, no taxes, no family.

One of the worst things that can happen to a revolution, as we know from animal farm, is that it might succeed. Revolutions strive for perfect societies – and even if perfect societies are once created, they soon get corrupted. A revolution should thus ideally be a never ending process to avoid such corruption.

“the will to dominance is as central in human beings as the impulse to mutual aid is, and has to be trained in each individual, in each new generation.”

And by corrupt, we here mean that society comes to claim too much from the individual:

“With the myth of the State out of the way, the real mutuality and reciprocity of society and individual became clear. Sacrifice might be demanded of the individual, but never compromise”

This happens in Anarres too. A society that was born of a change, a revolution now resists them. While common traditional tools of control are no longer present, yet pressure of social expectations is enough to control behavior of people. Any behavior even slightly undesirable to society is termed as ‘egoizing’ and seen down upon. Those who can't be controlled that way are institutionalized for mental problems.

The protagonist Shevek, a physicist, has life and problems very much like intellectuals of our own times - he is made to do a work he can’t enjoy, has to deal with a bureaucracy that he can’t understand, and literally no one understands his subject, his senior, although you can’t technically called him his seniors, want to have credit for his work etc. What makes it worse for him is that he can't complaint without being accused of egoising. In the end, he decided there is something wrong within his own society and in reality only perfect society can be one that rebels against itself and doesn't resist change. He wants to start a revolution. However his task is rather more difficult because what he is rebelling against is not laws or governments rather a way of thinking:

“An archist can break a law and hope to get away unpunished, but you can’t ‘break’ a custom; it’s the framework of your life with other people.”

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More quotes:

“the strongest, in the existence of any social species, are those who are most social.”

“A scientist can pretend that his work isn’t himself, it’s merely the impersonal truth. An artist can’t hide behind the truth. He can’t hide anywhere”

“Those who build walls are their own prisoners.”

“where there’s property there’s theft”

“They preserved autonomy of conscience even at the cost of becoming eccentric. “

“To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws."

“Suffering is dysfunctional, except as a bodily warning against danger. Psychologically and socially it’s merely destructive.”

“Wasn’t it immoral to do work you didn’t enjoy?”