A Utopian Calamity Since the beginning of time humans have lived in conflict with one another. Wars and rumors of wars circulate and riddle very century, reminding the population of constant strife and unattainable peace. The natural response to appease a desire that is either unavailable or unattainable would be to fantasize and entertain the idea. Sir Thomas More, in 1516 imagined a place of perfection in which he decided to named Utopia. The very word Utopia itself derives from the Greek root Ou-tupos meaning ‘no place’. More interestingly the easily confused identical Greek root Eu-tupos means ‘good place’. Did Sir Thomas More purposely coin a word to mean both good place and no place? Based on the indecisiveness of the word itself, I believe Sir Thomas More knew that a utopian society at best could only exist the the fantasy of the mind where often times places like a utopia set up in a mythological atmosphere outside of time, history, and everyday reality. Utopia was set up to go against the current social constructions and
…show more content…
Each of these philosophers had their own ideal of what a “utopian” society would look like in their time. Furthermore, many utopian fictions have been produced after More’s work such as, Campanella’s Civitas Solis (1623), Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627), James Harrington’s Oceana (1656), Samuels Butler’s Erewhon (1872), Bellamy’s Looking Backwards (1888), William Morris’s News from Nowhere (1891) and H.G. Wells’s A Modern Utopia (1905). However, no society is credited with achieving utopia because of them. Au contraire, society and inevitably gotten worse despite the remedies mentioned in these works. If a utopian society was indeed possible there would have been someone who have tried his hand at it. Therefore, a utopia with humans and all free will intact ceases to exists and solely plays the roles of escape from reality and a possible reference to
Each of these philosophers had their own ideal of what a “utopian” society would look like in their time. Furthermore, many utopian fictions have been produced after More’s work such as, Campanella’s Civitas Solis (1623), Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627), James Harrington’s Oceana (1656), Samuels Butler’s Erewhon (1872), Bellamy’s Looking Backwards (1888), William Morris’s News from Nowhere (1891) and H.G. Wells’s A Modern Utopia (1905). However, no society is credited with achieving utopia because of them. Au contraire, society and inevitably gotten worse despite the remedies mentioned in these works. If a utopian society was indeed possible there would have been someone who have tried his hand at it. Therefore, a utopia with humans and all free will intact ceases to exists and solely plays the roles of escape from reality and a possible reference to