Historically speaking, utopian movements are highly controversial. For instance, Marxist theories use the French Revolution as a model for the progress of class divisions in a society, because of The Communist Manifesto, but in Communist movements, powerful figures often rise to power and exploit the movement, turning it either hyper-radical like the unstable French Revolution or hyper-conservative like in Russia where free speech and resistance were firmly disallowed. But Jacoby says that to stop hoping for a better society is certainly as dangerous and toxic as wildly pursuing utopia without checks.
The question of perfection is philosophical, and the question of society and culture is sociological, so the book straddles that divide, commenting on the formal issues of policy, the divide between liberal and conservative, and also commenting on the real responses that humans should have to their political environment. His book explains that there will always be a severe conservative movement because powerful people who understand the mechanisms of government and economy will have enough money and power to sway policy toward the status quo.
For this reason, there arises an essential need for progressivism in perpetuity, whether or not true utopia is realistic. He argues that it isn't necessarily a question of that philosophical question, but a philosophical balance; by balancing the natural power of establishment and big business with the utopian hopes of a progressive movement, a society can both build on what works and abandon what doesn't work or what is outmoded. He reminds his reader that mass media outlets are strictly businesses competing for attention, and they should not be considered honest or trustworthy in any case.
