Utopia and World Essay Example
Utopia and World Essay Example

Utopia and World Essay Example

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  • Pages: 14 (3731 words)
  • Published: June 1, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Utopia is often referred to as the “Perfect World” where there are perfect laws and people live in complete harmony without any problems. It is also believed that such a place is imaginary. Utopia is supposed to be that certain place which, everybody strives for, and never gets there because it is highly improbable that we will ever reach such perfection in society. This is an issue, because you can’t genuinely strive for something if you know you won’t get it, in which case, you are deceiving yourself in thinking you’re actually trying to get there.Everybody is pretending to make this world as best as we can, because everybody subconsciously thinks that they won’t.

I am writing this because people need to understand that Utopia is an idea. Ideas are

...

things waiting to happen. And things actually happen. We need to realize the truth. This is the truth: We, as humans, have about 90% control of what happens in our society. The other 10% is for unexpected things in our lives like the weather, land conditions, and bad luck.

This is the world we live in.Now, when I say “this is the world we live in”, I mean that everybody needs to act like there is no heaven or hell, God or Devil. No, I am not saying stop believing in your religion, I am saying start thinking that when you die, you just stop existing; you just stop thinking; you just stop living and perceiving what’s around you. Now, think that this is the only place where we can exist, where we can think, where we can live and perceive what’s around us. If,

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and only if you start acting like this is true (you may even believe its true), you will understand that it is up to us to fix the world we live in, not God.If you think that this place is terrible, and that when you die you will go to heaven, where Utopia actually exists, then you won’t do anything to fix this place.

So now that we have this understanding, let’s do something about it, because if Utopia will ever exist, it will be because we have created it. Utopia is far from impossible, so let’s make it happen. nothing is perfect. There is always a catch somewhere or a glitch in the system. Something has to go wrong. Utopia is impossible.

In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, the city of Omelas seems to be the perfect place to live.There are perfect people that live in perfect houses and live perfect lives. Nothing appears to be wrong. But, like with everything else, there is a catch. No, Utopia is not possible. It is just an idealistic way of thinking, possibly something created by society to give everything we do as a whole a direction and purpose.

For what if there was no goal? What if everything we strived to create and maintain, everything we worked for our whole lives; what if it had no purpose? If we had no aspiration, only chaos and disorder would ensue.First, Utopia is not possible for a very human reason: drive. Some people work to be the best, they strive to get ahead… others are lazy and really couldn't care less what happens to them

or those around them. Also, if everyone was given entirely equal situations, equal work, pay, education… would we all lose the will to go on, knowing that no matter what we did it would always be accounted for? Next, Utopia cannot exist as long as there is contention and strife, and, yet again, that will always be present as long as there is more than one human being in existence.Saying that crime and other things of that nature can be eliminated from the human population is like saying that bacteria in a trash can be completely destroyed using only a toothbrush.

Finally, to close with the words of Anne Rice, "It is an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater luster to our colors, a richer resonance to our words. That is, if it doesn't destroy us, if it doesn't burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things.Utopia: remote cabin on the beach, the kingship of a vast empire, Nirvana; Heaven, the Happy Hunting Grounds, paradise, perfection. What exactly is Utopia? According to Webster it is "1, an imaginary and indefinitely remote place" or " 2, often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection esp. in laws, government, and social conditions". Where is this perfect place? Will my dog live forever there? Will I never grow old? If I never grow old there does that mean I never mature? What if my idea of perfection differs from my neighbor there, will it still be perfect for both of us?Utopia is a nonexistent, but absolutely perfect place, as we can see from

the beginning of the word in 1516 by Sir Thomas More.

More was one of Henry VIII's main councilors. He fell out of favor with the king when he did not sign a letter urging the pope to divorce Henry and Catherine. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London because his going against the king was treason; he was beheaded. It is strange that a man with such a life, and such an end, was the creator of the perfect world as well as a commonly used word in our language. In his writings Utopia was a lace of absolute perfection.He described a poor king who cared more about the riches of his people than his own welfare, much different than the dystopia that he lived his life in.

This Utopia of More sounds very similar to that that Gonzalo speaks of in Shakespeare's Tempest "All things in common nature should produce without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need for any engine Would I not have; but nature should bring forth of it own kind, all foison, all abundance, to feed my innocent people"(Shakespeare 334) There have been many attempted Utopias.One of these can be seen in the book Brave New World. This book takes place on earth in the future.

In this future everything is dominated by science and technology. There is no Religion or art. The directors of this new world have attempted to make a Utopia in which people are predestined to fit into their "their inescapable social destiny. " They feel that this will be better for the people because they will not try for

greater things and fail. The new world uses science to "stabilize" society by removing any possibility of free will.

They train the people like dogs with "Neo-Pavlovian conditioning" as children. There attempts at a Utopia fail completely and result in total disaster or Dystopia. The population is addicted to a drug that numbs them to the poor quality of life they are living. No one is free or sacred and they have the lives of slaves. To define Utopia, the world in Brave New World a definition of contrast. Brave New World is not alone in failed Utopian Society's.

Fahrenheit 451, The Hand maid's tale, the movies The Beach and Gattica. In Gattica, science as formed an entirely new minority.These people are those that are not genetically enhanced at birth. Parents have the ability to chose the characteristics of their children.

Vincent is a "god child" that has a dream of being in space but is not allowed to do so because he isn't genetically up to it. This alleged utopia that they have formed is not one at all with such prevalent discrimination. In Gattica the attempt at utopia is made in a different way, instead of creating the perfect place to live for people, they create the perfect people to live in the place.In the scene where Vincent and Irene are at the piano concert, the pianist throws his gloves into the crowd. Vincent finds that the gloves have 6 fingers on each hand.

Irene laughs at the fact that he didn't know that the piece of music they just heard could only be played by a 12 fingered man. This shot at the

God Child shows that this world is not a Utopia at all for those who are less than perfect. Many Utopias have been attempted in literature. All have failed.

Hitler attempted to make his own utopian society but he also failed.The reason that these attempts at utopia have failed is the same reason that they will all fail in the future. It is human nature to seek perfection and because of human limitations, we set ourselves up for failure. By trying to create a Utopia, there will always be an inevitable creation of some sort of dystopia.

For this reason the definition of Utopia[from Greek ou not and topos place(no place)] is a non-existant but commonly sought after place of absolute perfection. Before we take to sea we walk on land, Before we create we must understand.Utopia Thats a matter of opinion. there where many different utopian societies that tried to form but failed in the early 1900's i believe and none of them lasted. From this its safe to say no there not, because all it takes is one person in the society to ruin it all and no one is perfect. Answer: If you study utopian themes in literature and history it will become quickly clear that behind or within every utopia lies a dystopia, its opposite, an embodiment of chaos.

A utopia is technically impossible in human society. Humans are frail and fallible.We are imperfect. As such, we are incapable of creating anything that is perfect, such as a utopian or perfect society. Consider this: every society must begin with two people, as a society is a plurality, a group, two or

more. these two people could conceivably agree on every subject and topic and rule of their society.

However, for a society to continue beyond the existence of its two founding members, it must grow, it must develop as it grows to encompass and include its new members. To not grow is stagnation, and stagnation is death to a society or culture.As new members are added, either by recruitment or procreation (births), the society must become more complex. New members are incorporated and uses or purposes for these new members must be discovered or developed. This is what complicates it. This development adds variables, the more variable added, the more complex becomes the structure.

The more complex a thing becomes, the more potential for entropy or decay. Eventually, it will break down somewhere. While things in nature that break down tend to collapse into decay, the mark of a successful society is its ability to adapt.Utopian societies do not adapt, as by definition they are perfect. Perfect things do not adapt as they do not need to.

Hence, utopia is impossible. I'm bored sitting here waiting until I have to go to my military lab, so here's a short essay on why I personally believe Utopia or a Utopian society will never be possible. First off, how are you going to even accomplish gaining Utopia? Getting food and clean water to everyone? Cure the diseases? Finding a way to make everyone equal in gender, job, and money making oppurtunities? Ridding the place of guns (good luck with that one)?Making education strictly mandatory? Those are all good and well (with the exception of getting rid of guns),

but it could never be done, and in fact, would work to the society's disadvantage. Now, suppose we have Utopia, so what? What now? What's the economy like? Truth be told, a Utopia's economy would be horrible; there's no competition, and you'd be at a disadvantage trading with other competitive countries, little drive to work to one's advantage to get ahead in life without upsetting the balance and putting others "at a disadvantage" with your newfound wealth/higher standard.

A highly educated society would not benefit from this, since everyone would have recieved professional training for a specialized field, and be prepared to work in it. Who would work in the lowest of jobs, like factories, asembly lines, other menial tasks? No one with a good education, that's for sure, and if they know there's better oppurtunities for them, they will not want to work in them. Ok, you say, what about robotics? Ok, they'll work in some areas, but in others they're not practical/possible. Human interaction is still needed.And, having a workforce of robots would take away a lot of jobs from people, putting more people out of work and at a disadvantage, creating an imbalance. So you have your Utopian society/country, and now your neighbour is looking to move in and annex some of your land or invade you for whatever reason.

If history has proven anything, treaties and paper mean absolutely nothing about keeping your land safe (most noteably in the Phillipines in WWII; the Japanese walked all over them with little trouble).With no military, and the enemy not willing to negotiate, the Utopia is left defenseless, ripe for the picking, since there's no

military or guns to defend with (no violence or keys to violence allowed in Utopia, remember? ). The above are just a couple reasons why I believe Utopia will never be possible. Even in our modern world, with all its technology and wonders, there will always be someone at a disadvantage, someone not up to par with the highest societies. That is not a racist or discriminatory comment, it is the truth.It has always been that way, and likely will always be that way, even if the world eventually does become completely modernized.

Competition itself will never go away either; it drives the world's economies, and drives us to do better and to go for what we want. You can't do that in Utopia. I could go on, but I gotta get going to lab. I do not see a pure, refined and idealistic utopia as perhaps most Americans would. Through this short essay I will attempt to coherently convey my vision of a near perfect society under a near perfect government, while remaining within the realm of reality.

Basic components of this utopia include one extremely strong and powerful central government, essentially communist (or at least heavily socialist) economics, and a rational and artistically free culture. In addition, it is my hope that this essay will explain why I believe such a utopia is impossible, and the reasons I believe it would be disastrous to attempt to achieve a true utopia. First it is important to clarify the objective of at least a minimal reality. There is a very fine difference between my view of perfection in civilization and a truly ultimate utopia.

In such a

perfect and ideal utopia, there would be no use for law enforcement; all the citizens would obey all the laws. This is going too far, it leaves no room for real thought about a system of governing. It, instead, is simply saying that everything would be naturally impeccable, and does not allow for any true logic to be applied to the idea of an ideal society. As previously mentioned I believe that all utopias are simply ideal dreams, and are impossible to achieve. However, this does not mean that one should abandon all rational and realistic thinking when conjuring an image of a utopia.

For example, under my utopian vision, there would of course be law enforcement, because it is rational and realistic to assume that people will always be tempted to break the law, and there would ideally be measures against breaking laws. Having said this, I will continue to speak of my personal utopian vision in this degree of realism. An important element when considering any ideal society is that of government. I strongly believe that in any utopia, the world should be united, under the strict control of one central government. Whenever there are separate and sovereign nations or states, there will be massive amounts of conflict.

Simple worldly unification eliminates this problem, as well as many others. Here we find what is probably the biggest case of willing suspension of disbelief in my utopia, that of such wonderful, talented and simply good people at the core of the government. To completely synthesize and thoroughly describe the workings of an entire government is to big a task to be contained within an essay of

a differing topic, so I will simply say that at the head of this powerful government will need to be the best leaders in the world. This idea is imperative in assuming my utopia.These leaders most not only be extremely effective and competent, but also have the good of the entire population as their sole objective.

Assuming such leaders are in control, the government is to wield immense power and control. I see slight loss of specific personal freedoms as a small sacrifice towards a united, peaceful world. Such a strong and empowered central government is extremely important in order to maintain unity, and it would also optimize efficiency and maintain the same standards everywhere in the world. Next in the main points of my utopia is the economic process that would occur.

To me, the only conceivable economic strategy to attempt the most perfect civilization is quite socialist, though not specifically fitting into any pre-existing model. Again, to delve completely into thought, analysis and description of this economic system proves to vast for an essay limited to a personal utopian vision, and as such I will only briefly describe this system. This system would involve currency; any view of an economy and culture without currency is simply too idealized and broadly unrealistic. Though currency must exist, I see it as only being essential to limit the amount and extent of luxury items people acquire.I do not see any one job as paying more for an equal amount of labor than another pays.

Janitorial work is just as important as astrophysics, and an astrophysicist should not be paid more than a janitor should for the same

amount of labor. Some may say this is unfair because astrophysics is a more detailed and expert field. The only possible reason for the scientist to be paid more is the work and money they put into gaining that expertise, but all of this would be compensated for by the government during the time they were learning.Basically, the government would put them through and provide for them during their education, now they have no right to a higher salary than a worker performing menial labor. Though not in depth, that is the basic economic situation in my utopian vision.

The culture and other somewhat miscellaneous factors must also be discussed. Because of the aforementioned styles of government and economics, the artistic world would actually open up. The total unification of the world with such a powerful government should effectively eliminate wars, and the constant economic situation would ideally allow for artists to be less worried about staying alive.That is to say they would have no wars to go off and fight in, no worries of putting food on their table, they would be able to simply create.

This hope encompasses all types of art; paintings, books, film, music, architecture etc. Because I feel so strongly on this subject, I am compelled to include what I see as the religious state of this utopia. There would be none. As I see it, today’s religions will have become extinct, to be studied as the old Greek and Roman religions are now.This will not be the doing of any governmental, violent, or non-violent action; it would simply be an evolution and expansion of rational and scientific thinking.

Under

such world unification, I am sure the fear of losing one’s cultural roots will be prominent. It would still be acceptable and very possible to remember one’s roots, while belonging to a larger community. I do, however, think it would be very dangerous to allow any strong pride in one’s background; everyone must consider themselves as a worldly citizen, not an American or an Englishmen.It is fine to remember one’s past as long as it is not dragged into harming the present. Lastly I will entail why it is my strong opinion that any attempt to strive towards this or any other utopian vision is foolish and extremely dangerous.

While you, the reader, may not share all (or any) of my views on a utopia, I will simply use it as an example. If this utopia were actually attempted as a reality, it would be a disaster. The government would inevitably become corrupt, by either a desire to help a nation or simply personal greed.Even if it did not become corrupt, it could not possibly have leaders skilled enough to effectively handle all that would be involved in running the world. This alone will destroy the utopia and most likely make things worse than the preexisting situation. The economic ideal would also fail miserably, be it because of people not working, people wanting the best jobs, or other common issue in socialism.

All other utopias I could imagine would also be destroyed by the reality of the human nature. Comparing these utopias to other less ambitious styles of government, it would be idiotic to attempt a utopia.It is infinitely less likely to succeed, and even

the slightest misstep would result in disaster. Hopefully I have expressed my view of a partially realistic utopia in an understandable fashion.

Essentially I believe that a utopia would contain a strong world government, socialist economic ideals, and a free and thoughtful culture. However, more important than my vision of a utopia is my unyielding belief that it would be extremely rash and plainly stupid for anyone to pursue such a fantasy of perfection. In respects to a civilization, one should dream of a utopia and strive for mediocrity.

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