Utopia By Thomas More: Why Utopian Societies Are Imaginary
When talking about Utopia, most people think of the English writer Thomas More. It all began in 19th centuries, when the European industrial revolution started. The thinking and imagination of Utopian societies where in full string, and this trend of social experiment with the ‘perfect societies’ was fading.
Thomas More was the first to use the word utopia in his book, this book is about a community living on an island where people have the same beliefs and culture. More got the word ‘Utopia’ from the greek word ‘ou-topos’, meaning nowhere. The book was written around a question; can it be possible to realise a perfect world? The answer is no. Utopia is the imagination of a perfect world, it is called the imagination of a perfect society because it’s impractical and impossible to achieve. It is considered to be false and the irrational expectations from the existing situation. Utopia, refers to the picture of a perfect society, it is determined to be harmonious. It refers to the harmony of the individual, but also the harmony with others. It is said that it looks forward to peace, satisfaction of needs and equality to all citizens. The totally reverse of dystopia. Dystopia is the imperfect and where everything goes terribly wrong, it warns humans about their weaknesses, and the effects of action from humans towards politics, government, etc.
Human existence cannot be answered throughout rational thinking, this is what Existentialism tells us. Existentialism, is always putting humans at the centre of attention, it respects human nature, personality and freedom it thinks also that people live in a meaningless universe. Existentialism encourages individuals to grow, and explore. Every action that we commit now in the present, will have a consequence in the future. We may be limited by some decisions choices we can make, but however we still have the freedom and choice to make the decision that “we” think is correct. It has a different value and way of seeing of death, it seems death in a positive way, it. The concept of death allows us to experience life more deeply.
In the play No Exit, wrote in 1943, Sartre’s most famous quote is “Hell is other people”. “Hell is other people”, this does not mean that other people are the worst and you have to avoid them, but as the book tells us “Hell is other people” means that no-one, and nobody can escape from the watching graze of the people surrounding us. The watching graze is one of the important reasons on why we don’t have this ‘perfect community’, if people surrounding us tend to be selfish and evil. The person who is been watched and discussed will never be good, even if he or she was in the past, they will never again be like that. This is because if a person is not selfish, then it cannot survive. If people wan to have these ‘perfect societies’, then everyone must be considering each other and put away their selfishness. If this is really happening, then a ‘perfect society’ is made. But I believe that there will be a group of people that will chose continuously to be selfish, because they want only their own benefits. So this is leading to these Utopia societies to be imaginary, and never been realised.
“Mens sana in corpore sano”, meaning 'a healthy mind in a healthy body”. This phrase is from the book Satire X, written by the ancient Roman poet Juvenal. The author is trying to transmit the message of: by having a healthy body you must first have a healthy mind. So what does it mean to be human? What do we all search for and want? Being human means to be having the power to read, write, and more importantly to think. Every non-human being, is what is other that human beings. Non-human such as animals, plans, don’t have the capability like humans to write and as we humans describe “sentient”, they can think. Animals can think, and they are conscious like we humans are, they just don’t have the power to write their thinkings. Writing makes us humans “special”, because we can write our thoughts and by writing we can transmit our emotions and sensations. We humans are the most powerful creatures in the Earth, humans are limited in decisions and choices, but from the choices they have they are still free to decide. Like Pico della Mirandola says, in the Oration of Dignity man, humans have free will, they have the right and will to decide, they have “liberty” of choice. So what do we humans really want? Every individual is different, and so choices are different. People have different beliefs and desires for their lives, but what do people really want? Humans are complex, and everyday actions make us who we are. We do’t know what people want exactly, but we are sure that everyone of use is selfish, and will definitely make decisions for their own benefits. Of course everyones selfishness level is different, and this is why we tend to say that a person is more kind-hearted because the selfish person is a level up that the ‘kind-hearted’ person.
The reason why Utopia societies only exist in our imagination is because no-one has ever succeeded in bringing a perfect society to reality. In the past, also now, there are people trying continuously to bring these ‘perfect societies’ to reality, but every attempt failed. So this is the reason why we now think Utopia societies are imagination.
