I believe in Utopia: different for each person, yet differences would be marginal from individual to individual, while congruences would include a huge, attainable set.  Utopia should be achievable by successive approximation (or thesis/antithesis/synthesis or ...).

A big question along the way is whether the US socio-econo-political environment is malleable enough to accommodate such approximations.  If not the US, is there any other country that could accommodate?  The alternative is to figure out something else and start from scratch.  And there isn't anywhere on the earth that one can just go and set up a new country, so something will have to give (or we will have to colonize space quickly).

The militia movements in the low population density areas of the US, the intolerance problems like the church burnings, the callousness of business towards environment and people, the politics of greed in almost all US political arenas, the government deficit spending that is setting the US economy up for catastrophe (not to mention social security, medicaid, the banks)---All of these and more have me quaking in my boots. It seems to me that it would be prudent to explore what everyone wants so that we can figure out what the attainable congruent set I mentioned above is.  This would provide a goal to aim for.  Then it might be easier to figure out what tweaking or overhauling needs to be done on what institutions to get from point A to point B.

At the rate humankind is going, something will give within the next hundred years and we need something --- a framework, a complete concept, "the answer" --- to grab on to to put us back together (or better yet, implement before everything gives).  I have no true knowledge, but have heard a rumor of some very dark forces at work that might end up taking control and imposing who knows what.  And that is even more scary.