CREEDE HINSHAW: Asgardia, the gem of the nations?

Do you want to be a citizen of a new nation? Go to the website of the emerging nation of Asgardia, an invention of a Russian scientist named Igor Ashurbeyli. He is creating what he claims will be a utopia in outer space named after the mythical heavenly abode of the Norse gods.

I spent a little bit of time on this “nation’s” website, where I mostly found things that made me quite skeptical. Maybe I’d be more thrilled at age 15, 25 or 35, but utopian ideas for communal living have been around for centuries, many of them religious in nature and none of them successful for very long.

The history books are filled with those who were convinced they could create a universal, loving, equitable and just society if they could just withdraw from the rest of flawed humanity. The failure rate is 100 percent.

From what I can tell Asgardia is an updated version of such a pipe dream. The nation is going to exist in outer space circling around the earth. The hopeful citizens, who are from 40 or so nations around the world, are voting on a constitution for their new nation. The founder is applying to the United Nations for recognition as a real country. Eventually they hope to issue passports.

I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on this site unless you tend towards the escapist. And before you invest any time or money it might be fair to ask why hasn’t such a society existed before now? Why have so many pilgrims failed? What makes these dreamers think they can succeed in eliminating greed, hatred, laziness, anger and war?

Making this plan even more outlandish is that it’s going to take place on a space station. Perhaps those eager would be citizens should spend a few hours on the Sci Fi Channel watching how these grandiose ideas eventually turned sour. It would be a good dose of reality.

But at least these seekers have a desire for a better world. That’s admirable. I suppose they must think that it would be easier to start all over again up there than to try to straighten things out down here.

The largest two groups applying for citizenship are people from Turkey and China. To be sure, people in those countries might have good reason to want to start over again. The third largest group come from the United States. One is tempted to wonder if some of them are the folk who vowed to leave the country if Donald Trump was elected president.

On the basis of past performance, I would never place any money on the success of this venture. Those of us in faith communities should know that – as tough as it gets sometime – the best way to make this world a better place is to practice the highest ideals of one’s faith and respect each other here where we live.

Email Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].