The main purpose of this paper is to understand the basic concept behind a utopian society. It shows how assumptions are made in order for such a society to thrive. Additionally, it explores the weaknesses, which may arise due to the ideologies attributed to utopia.
Utopia is a term used to depict a community or a society that exudes a perfect communal, opinionated and legal system. Utopia is a Greek word that was conjured by Sir Thomas More to explain an invented island in the Atlantic Ocean in his “1516 book titled Utopia’. He derived this name from two Greek words; Eutopia, which describes a good place and Outopia, which describes a non-existence, place (More and Bacon 87).
Therefore, the term alludes to a double meaning; “good place and no place”. The use of these words further shows us that such a society is not achievable. He intentionally wanted to explore the irony such a word would create in his novel, Utopia. Utopia depicts an ideal society where the opinionated, communal and financial structures are perfect.
The initial utopian suggestion was that of the republic as stated by Plato. It suggests a categorization of citizens into a strict class structure of “golden, silver, bronze and iron socioeconomic classes” (More and Bacon 87). The golden citizens are a group of individuals that have undergone a fifty-year-old education program like oligarchs. These oligarchs are the philosopher kings. These rulers focus on reducing deficiency and distributing resources within their territories.
In these republics, the citizens are ready to defend themselves from any external military invasion and compete for resources in any strategies probable including the utilization of forces. They focussed on a society that would not look for reasons to engage in wars. These republics have very few laws; furthermore, they lacked evidence of the existence of lawyers, and barely take its citizens to war. Most of these republics employed the services of mercenaries to counter any war (Rowlands).
These republics tolerate the various religious diversities present in their republics. People could employ their religious ideologies without inequity; furthermore, no religion was favoured. There also viewed a society with diminished territorial boundaries thus the entire world would become a society with one just and sincere ruler. Some scholars have decided to use this concept as an ideal blueprint through which republics should be governed.
Ecological utopian describes the various ways through which people can relate peacefully with the environment. It opposes the modern way of living that encourages the destruction of nature thus encouraging the traditional way of living that was in harmony with nature. Most of them focussed on the Stone Age period where man and nature were in perfect harmony. Furthermore, each one of them was dependent to enhance existence and survival.
Economical utopian describes a situation whereby the financial system and the marketplace are in a state that favours all participants. These societies addressed the atrocities caused by the capitalist societies. In capitalist societies, individuals worked for the rulers, sometimes it even involved hard and strenuous work in unfavourable working conditions to the benefit of the rulers.
Everything had a monetary value on it and the market always favoured the selfish interests of these rulers. Some of the recommendations included the abolishment of money as an intermediate of substitution, equal allocation of merchandise and services, the ability of people to do work that they enjoyed. This should be for the mutual good of the society thus shunning the individual selfish interest of the rulers (Engels 36).
This theory sees gender as a creation of the society. It foresees a society whereby gender neutrality will be tenable and that social responsibilities are not subject to the gender of an individual. With this gender notion in mind, it is noteworthy that two types of scholars proposed how a gender free society ought to be. They were the feminist and the masculine scholars.
Most feminist writers were advocating an all female society where the male species would be eradicated either by introduction of diseases that only targeted the male or by technology that did not favour the male species. These scholars were reacting to a period whereby females were submissive to the male. Their mannish counterparts focussed on a society with one sex that is all the sexes responsive thus conjured as one; furthermore, there is no discrimination whatsoever based on the gender of an individual (More and Bacon 87).
By illustrating how societies would turn out when individuals strictly follow the socialist ethic, utopian socialism has three possible effects. First, it inspires the oppressed to fight thus attaining a better future. Secondly, it clearly gives the true meaning of the facets of socialism as evident in its support for livelihoods.
The problem with this theory is that the scholars did not provide a clear path for the implementation of the ideologies. It only left the reasoning of the scholars and subsequently those of the society to guide the implementation of the theory.
Works Cited
Engels, Friedrich. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. New York, NY: Mondial, 2006. Print.
More, Neville. & Bacon, Francis. Three Early Utopias: Utopia, New Atlantis and the Isle of Pines. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.
Rowlands, Joseph. Utopianism. Rebirth of Reason. ND. Web.