Utopian Societies Impact

A utopia is a place of ideal perfection. However, according to the Merriam-Webster, it is also an impractical scheme for social improvement. Though dating back to the earliest days of U.S. history, utopian communities became a part of American thought by the 1840s. Various groups that were struggling because of urbanization and industrialization, challenged the traditional norms of American society with a desire to create a world without capitalism, immigration, and the tension between communities. However, these attempts failed due to individualism, materialism, the lack of growth, and little balance.

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension.

The term utopia is often coined as an ideal or perfect society. In Sir Thomas More “Utopia” such a society is presented. However, today’s reader can see that this ideal or perfect society is filled with many underlying problems that make it not utopic or even dystopic. To exemplify the society More’s mention puts a strain on the freedom and relationship the citizens have with its country in to question. Such an act is detrimental in creating a utopia because if the citizens are not happy with the freedom and rights they are given how can the society itself be presented as a utopia, it is instead like a prison.

Most new societies that have a Utopian idea most likely stem from a traumatic event where humanity believed it had no other choice but to go to the extreme.

A person’s image of utopia varies depending on their individual life experiences and the expectations of the society in which they live; utopia could be described as an ideal place where equality, comfort, safety, compassion, and freedom are important qualities. In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, the elimination of property and money has all citizens working for the commonwealth and it is “where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution so that no man is poor, none in necessity; and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich” (More 81). More’s Utopia also encourages a balance of power

Throughout history, many utopian societies have been established in hopes of creating a protected and uniform environment. In order to maintain a perfectly equal and errorless environment, some basic human rights are often violated. Many of the utopian principles put in place are based on the fear that the citizens will gain knowledge and notice the absence of their basic human rights. Unfortunately, once the citizens figure out that the government has infringed on their civil liberties they become disillusioned and want to revolt. This ultimately causes dissention and unhappiness throughout the utopia, which defeats the sole intention the leaders had when creating it. To avoid the rebellion, leaders of utopian experiments infringe on

Between the 1820’s and 1860’s, Americans were trying new things and promoting different ideas and ways of thinking. Once such idea is that of a utopian society. A utopian society, simple put, means a perfect society.

     Between the 1820’s and 1860’s, Americans were trying new things and promoting different ideas and ways of thinking. Once such idea is that of a utopian society. A utopian

Garden City, Ville Radieuse, and Octagon City. (io9.gizmodo.com). The reason for failure was the simple fact of nothing can ever be perfect. Everyone will always have different point of views. One place which they say was supposed to be a utopian society in Texas is Post,Texas. Post, Texas which was established for people who worked for post the cereal was meant to be perfect. This town also failed in becoming

What if I told you that your daily activities are damaging the very Earth that supports you? You wake up and shower with shampoos and soaps that contain a hundred chemicals that proceed down the drain and into the ocean. Then, you then drive your car that produces greenhouse gases that hang out in the air you breathe. Then you throw away all of your trash. All of the waste you have ever produced can still be found to this day, somewhere on the planet. If we want to imagine a utopian society, we have to understand the consequences of our daily actions. It is difficult to imagine an ideal or utopian society when our present day society seems to be stuck in a downward spiral. Although, if you look a bit further and really try to figure it out, some great revelations might come through. An ideal society would emphasize on the basics. It would be a clean and safe place to thrive and support its inhabitants. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a society can be defined as “a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests” (Merriam-Webster). From that definition, I can deduct that we, as a broad grouping of people, have collective activities. These activities are as ordinary as eating, walking, and breathing. If we consider every human a part of the Earth society, all of these activities are shared with all people on earth. Ideal society includes the use of renewable energy sources instead of

The concept of utopia is one which has many differing connotations and is therefore also one which cannot be confined to one interpretation alone. The term is commonly used to represent a community or society that, in theory, possesses highly desirable or near-‘perfect’ qualities; however, these encompassing ideals, which arguably place emphasis on egalitarian principles of equality, are implemented in a number of ways and are subsequently based on varying ideologies, thus insisting on varying views of morality. The word itself, which was first coined by Sir Thomas More in the early sixteenth century and used to describe a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean, was taken from the Greek οὐ (‘not’) and τόπος (‘place’), literally translating

‘One man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia.’ This is a famous quote we must often bear in mind when writing about such topics and it is often fairly accurate. A utopian society, in this essay, will be defined as a “non-existent society that is described in considerable detail…” (Fitting, 1993, 1) and an ideal and visionary society that enjoys perfection in various fields such as politics, law and more as seen in Thomas More’s famous novel, Utopia. A positive utopian society is often impossible due to a variety of reasons, primarily human nature and the inevitable inequality found in these idealized societies. A prime example of how a utopian society is often impossible can be found in Andrew Niccol’s film, Gattaca (1997). The film Gattaca explores a new version of an idealized society, a utopia that revolves heavily around genetic engineering. In Gattaca, an individual’s future is delineated by his or

A utopian community would be a world without oppression, discrimination or social hierarchy—essentially, an ideal place to live. However, does a perfect society really exist? In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, More flirts with the concept of a utopian community with regard to geography, city structure, labor, government and religion. Considering these aspects, the community depicted in Utopia is primarily a success, with limited failures.

Utopia is a dangerous idea, responsible for millions of deaths throughout the twentieth century. From the idealism of Lenin and Trotsky & the communist revolutionaries all over the world to the Arianism and bond to blood and soil experienced by the Germans under Nazi rule. History has proven time and time again that attempting to achieve utopia only results in several wars and countless casualties. We could argue every aspect of the above mentioned socio-economic systems and only obtain a narrow understanding as to what truly defines a utopianist system. however, there is one point that I cannot concede, that is not prevalent in the two above mentioned utopian systems: Pragmatic liberalism is an emerging utopianist force and it is becoming dangerously popular amongst the general public. The methods we use in the first world are naive in regards to achieving universal goals. In saying so, I must make it clear that I do not condone conservatism or neo-liberalism as a solution to idealistic centre politics, for the sole reason that I believe problems such as environmental sustainability, access to education, and equality should be held in higher regards than production and wealth. Therefore, in order to achieve the goals that may seem to lay just out of our reach, we must enact radical changes to our current socio-economic system. However the question remains, what is utopianism today?

Throughout the ages, man has come to idealize a word that is most commonly related to ‘heavenly’ or ‘perfect’ without actually picking up the book and realizing for themselves that there is no such thing. A Utopian society could never exist because man is made to want, to desire success. Man is competitive by nature and would never be happy in a society where everyone is equal and there is no chance of advancement. Sir Thomas More dreamt of a land that was much like England but could never surpass time. He opened the eyes of a nation and made its people desire something new. Views were significantly changed and the world would never be the same. Sir Thomas More inspired dramatic changes in religion, community life and even paved