In 1516 Thomas More published Utopia which described a perfect society situated on an unknown island. This book has become an embodiment of the perfect society from these times to the present. This book was not only a beginning of a new age in evaluating a prototype of the society, but also a new stage in literature. This book is still the most provocative and has a lot of opponents. As a proving example, The Guardian (‘Utopias, past and present: why Thomas More remains astonishingly radical’, 2015) reveals that this book is not a favorite one in Buckingham Palace.
It goes without saying that the Utopian society had no flaws at all and looked like real perfection. From the point of view of the social structure, the Utopian society is based on the equality. The main concept included in the Utopian is the concept of community. The most significant unit in the Utopian society is family. As the society is the communal one, so every product was made by different family, and they sell it to each other. There was, also, a division of the work according to the gender, therefore women, which thought to be weaker, worked with wool and flax, and men, which were stronger, had work which was much tougher. Additionally, women were responsible for cooking, and slaves were those who cleaned everything (‘Thomas More's Utopia - communal living’, 2016).
Respectively, there was such a phenomenon as slavery. Although the slavery cannot be viewed as an element of normal equality, it was not a normal issue, but something more than a punishment. There was no death penalty; therefore being a slave meant the most severe penalty which could be ever imagined.
Talking about penalties, we should dwell on law and its peculiarities. Every member of the Utopian society had to know all the laws, especially know their rights and duties. Additionally, all the laws were clear and easy to understand, so that every citizen could not get confused. As a result of the awareness of every citizen, there was no such a profession as a lawyer. Moreover, the system of jurisprudence seemed to be so perfect, so the other countries asked the members of the Utopian society to establish a similar system to the Utopian one.
The Utopians had a different point of view concerning money in comparison to the reality. As their trade matter looked like more a barter than a normal market, they had an extremely radical attitude to money. They believed that money was not also unnecessary for the society, and its members, but also somehow immature and even disgraced (‘Thomas More's Utopia - pomp, circumstance, and wealth’, 2016). Therefore, they shared everything with others and helped in any needed situation which could appear in their lives.
As it may be understood, the Utopian society was a democratic one. But it necessary to be pointed out that it was a special type of democracy. There were two types of magistrates - Syphogrant and Archphilarch. Each of these magistrates had its own peculiarities and an individual system of election. Syphogrant was elected directly by families and ruled over these families. Archphilarch was higher in its responsibilities as it had power and authority over every ten Syphogrants.
Moreover, this democratic society chose the Prince. The Prince was an embodiment of respect, trust, and wisdom. He was elected to the end of his days. However, he could be re-elected in a case of treason or bad intentions (especially, desire to enslave innocent people) (‘Thomas More's Utopia - the prince of Utopia’, 2016). So, there was a fusion of different types of government in the Utopian society since it was a democracy but with the elected Prince as a head of the perfect society.
The Utopian island is well-organized and structured. There are 54 cities, and they are situated in such a way that every city is no more than a day’s walk to the other. Since the distances are equal, people can travel from one city to the other without wasting time or resources. Moreover, because of a good organization of the island, people could meet frequently, share their skills, abilities, and knowledge, and improve them. It was done in order to wipe the line between the population that lives in cities and in the countryside. There was, also, a program which ‘changed places’: ever year there were families, who originally were city dwellers, stayed in the countryside in order to get acquainted with agriculture and a rural life in general. Two years later, they were able to come back to the city and continue living there (‘Thomas More's Utopia - town and country living’, 2016). As a result of these actions, every member of the Utopian was aware of the system of agriculture. Moreover, they knew it not also from the theory, but also from the practice since they had a two-year experience of living in the ‘environment’ of agriculture.
Talking about the moral aspect of the Utopian society, their moral philosophy was based on the genuine happiness and the ways of its achievement. The main elements in their moral philosophy were happiness and satisfaction. There were three key principles in the Utopian society concerning religion and philosophy as well: Souls are immortal, Souls were made to feel happiness, God can reward for good deeds and punish for bad and evil ones (‘Thomas More's Utopia - moral philosophy and religion’, 2016). So they believed that all people were ‘shaped’ to be relaxed and without any problems and trouble all the time and even the death was celebrated as God gives you more satisfaction after death in case you did good things during the life. They had a different attitude to the life, its morals, and death. The picture of the life after death varied from the common one which seems to be usual for nowadays.
The first thing which is in common for the modern and the Utopian society is that people want to be happy and satisfied all the time. There is no use to make references between the types of the society we live in – people are people and they want to feel comfortable and free all the time. Members of the modern society work and plan all their lives so that it was convenient and pleasant to live in their lives. We build our happiness by ourselves in both societies – the modern and the Utopian one. But it should be mentioned, that this is the first and the last similarity which may be named since there are no other similarities in the societies.
As it could be understood there are lots of differences which can be noticed to the naked eye. First, there is a different attitude to the fortunes. Since money and luxury had no value at all in the Utopian society, we cannot say the same about the modern society. Money and expensive clothing seemed to be foolish and useless. On the other hand, in the modern society, the most significant issue is money. Every member of society is addicted to the thought to become rich. Moreover, such a phenomenon as success is measured in money. The more money you have, the more power and respect you obtain.
Second, the attitude to agriculture differs as well. The fewer people are interested in agricultural issues, and even fewer people are aware of practicing it. People, also, try to escape from the rural area, as it’s thought to be unprivileged to live there. Moreover, it’s much easier to find a well-paid job in the urban area in comparison to the rural one. As a result, the countryside is getting worse and worse from year to year.
Third, the Utopians had a different point of view concerning death. They weren’t afraid of it. Moreover, it was necessary to celebrate one’s death as a person gets present from God for good behavior on the Earth. It was inappropriate to mourn, but they had to sing hymns and cheer with the hearts full of hope.
The last thing is that everyone knew their own rights and general laws. There was no necessity to have such a profession as a lawyer. Moreover, every citizen lived in obedience and in a perfect order, and the strictest form of the penalty was not a death penalty, but slavery, as it was disgracing to be a part of one’s property, and not to feel happiness in one’s life.
So we may conclude that the Utopian society in the modern times since members in the Utopian society had absolutely opposite attitude to almost every issue connected with their lives. They lived in order to make themselves happy without caring about money and luxury. They treated everybody with dignity and respect and the main principle of society as equality. The modern society and the Utopian one are extremely different, perhaps the reason is the Utopian one is unreal one.
References
Thomas More's Utopia - communal living. (2016). Bl.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/communal1/communal.html
Thomas More's Utopia - moral philosophy and religion. (2016). Bl.uk. Retrieved 6 August 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/moral1/moral.html
Thomas More's Utopia - pomp, circumstance and wealth. (2016). Bl.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/pomp1/pomp.html
Thomas More's Utopia - the prince of Utopia. (2016). Bl.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/prince1/prince.html
Thomas More's Utopia - town and country living. (2016). Bl.uk. Retrieved 6 August 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/agriculture1/agriculture.html
Utopias, past and present: why Thomas More remains astonishingly radical. (2015). the Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/16/utopias-past-present-thomas-more-terry-eagleton
