Why a Utopia cannot exist.

     The word "utopia" as we said in class represents not only a perfect society, but a society that can never exist. Why is this? People should be able to get along perfectly, right? Well, think about it logically--has there ever been a time within history or even the society that we live in today in which people do not quarrel? The answer is an overwhelming "NO!" A perfect example of this is our government and the shut down that it is still in today. People, no matter how hard we try or how good we think we can be, are not perfect which therefore means that the perfect society cannot exist. Thomas More knew this full well when he was writing this book as well. He knew that it could not exist being that he was a lawyer as well as a Christian. Lawyers deal with people that mess up (that is why there would be no need for them in his utopian society), and a big part of Christianity is that humans are sinful. We cannot be perfect, and that is one reason why we need religion in the first place. More knew that perfection was impossible, yet people still crave it. So one of his goals through this book was not for people to strive for perfection within society, but rather to strive for harmony within society. Strive for the unachievable, and maybe we will reach the achievable.

Thomas Moore and his Utopia... is it different from the one he wrote about?

     Thomas More proposed very radical ideas in his book Utopia, and one very interesting idea is that of the freedom of religion. Citizens were not required to become a part of any religion; they were not required to pay tithes to the local church. Commitment to any religion was not required at all. This is interesting coming from the work of More though; he was an extremely devout Christian like we talked about in class. (I will never forget the grotesqueness of the horse hair that he piously wore under everything.) That being said, most devout Christians believe that everyone should also be a Christian and that everyone should be as committed as they were. Christians today still reach out to places all over the world. However, More decided to let people choose whether or not they wanted to be a Christian in his Utopian society. This is ultimately because the freedom of choice also allows people to see who are truly devout in their faith and those that are not. If it is required to go to church, anyone can pretend to know more about their faith because they hear about it every weekend. But if it is not required, people can no longer pretend as well as they used to. The freedom of religion allows for God to be the judge of someone's heart, not man. This is ultimately what I believe More longs for in the end.

Utopia: Undoubtedly the Opposite Place I Admire

Am I the only one sincerely missing Book I of Utopia right now? Dr. MB really hit the nail on the head when she said Book II was all  about Utopia. Sixty pages full of tantalizing information about the glorious island. What more could a girl ask for?
As I was writing my pro/con list on Utopia, I found my cons to far outnumber my pros. Maybe that's because this island seems to be a place where people go to be transformed into a fully functioning part of a very insane society.
Of the few pros I gathered, I really enjoy that the people live in a way that allows everyone to be fed. No one goes hungry, which is a very lovely way of life. I also appreciate that there are "different forms of religion throughout the island" (More 84). Before I got to the religion section of the book, I assumed everyone practiced the same religion because everyone was also treated equally and that just made sense to me. However, I was happy to learn that people could practice a different religion if they wanted to.
Now, on to the bucket-full of cons I came across. THEY HAVE SLAVES. SLAVES. I don't care what crime someone committed, forcing them into slavery is kind of ridiculous. And the fact that some slaves were treated close to citizens and others were treated like the slaves they were just annoyed me more. They have people who live in Utopia more than happy to do the work that needs to be done. Do they really need slaves to get their work done?
I also hate that there is no privacy. The doors to the houses "open easily and swing shut automatically, letting anyone enter who wants to" (42). Oh, that sounds great. Let's have the whole neighborhood walk into my house while I'm sobbing uncontrollably because I detest the island I live on. Just perfect.
Speaking of houses, they change the houses every ten years.Of course, this is to make sure private property does not become a thing (42), but where is the sense of home? I know that Raphael later says that anywhere one goes in Utopia is their home, but I like having the knowledge that no matter what I'm doing, I'm always going to have a stable place to go to when I need it. How can you have that when you're forced to move so often?
I would also like to take a moment to express my disdain that women are taught "lighter crafts" because they are the "weaker sex" (45). While I appreciate not having to do heavy-lifting when men are around, I resent the fact that people think I'm not capable of it at all.* Typical sexist people in a typical sexist era.

 

www.singularitynyc.com 

 

Overall, I semi-enjoyed reading about Utopia. I started powering-down halfway through, but that might have more to do with going to sleep at one in the morning and waking up at seven. While Utopia definitely has its strong points, I would never want to live there. I enjoy being myself too much to live in a place that tries too hard to make everyone the same.

 

*I have very poor upper body strength, so men may have to do the heavy-lifting for me on every occasion. However, this does not diminish my point.