Well, Utopia is quite the book. I found it to be very boring, and I barely made it through the reading of book 1 in time, but I thought that the ideas the book touched upon were interesting. Those were pretty much what kept me going throughout. I thought that what Raphael was talking about pertained with a lot of the many issues our society still faces today, especially with how convicts should be dealt with and private property.
It should be known that America has the highest prison population in the world, so I think that what Raphael says about how prisoners should be handled at the dinner with the cardinal and the lawyer is pretty relevant. Raphael states that the current system that they have for handling criminals isn't working. He suggests a bunch of different methods for punishing / rehabilitating criminals that he's learned from all of the different countries he's visited. One country's method that interested me were the Polylerites, who have their criminals repay their victims back and then are put to work for the rest of their lives on projects that help the community and the country as a whole; they can even be pardoned if they behave well enough. Whereas in this world many convicts get out of jail when their sentence is up and have virtually no choice but to live the life they were living before, in the land of the Polylerites criminals are turned into better people by doing something worthwhile.
Another issue that Raphael touches upon is private property. He states that having private property is a contradiction to everyone being "equal," since nothing is shared. He says that in Utopia there isn't public property.
I don't know if I can agree with Raphael on this one. I think that in today's world, there being no private property would be a disaster. There being no private property is a characteristic of a communist society if i'm not mistaken. Not to mention the fact that our world isn't peaceful enough for everything to be shared by everyone. I mean, the shitty way things are going now in this world maybe some change would be nice, but for now I can't really see it working the way Raphael describes Utopia. I, however, do think that our world still has a lot to learn from Thomas More. Do you agree with what Raphael is saying in Book 1? Do you think any of the countries he's visited ideas could work in this day and age?
I was thinking about our prison system during that part as well! Raphael seems to describe a model similar to the Norwegian penal systems where prisoners are treated with respect and taught to live with freedom while being held. The rebound rate is like 1%.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of no private property is so odd to us because we live in a world of consumers. We rarely fix anything anymore; it's cheaper to buy new. Why borrow, when I can have my own and use it whenever I like. Even as a child my parents had to buy toys in 3's otherwise there would be fights. We are programed possessors. It's actually quite sad when you think about it. Everything in today's time is mineMineMINE!
ReplyDeleteThe examples Raphael gives in exchange for Capital Punishment made sense to me as well. It would be an interesting concept trying to tie that in with our own prison system today, while ideal, many people would object to it.
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