Is a utopian society possible? I think about this alot. And I have come to the conclusion that it would not be possible to create a utopian society. Because everyone has there own ideas on what utopian is. What are your rhoughts on this?
first of all, ur picture is pretty scary, secondly, i think by knowing every one has different concept, then the best way is to build up different utopian villiages for those who have same concept about utopian, then combine it as a whole country.
Humans will never get along. Humans will never make an “utopia”. It is in part because everyone’s idea is different, but that is not the fundemental reason for its impossibility. Humans are inately flawed, and it is our flaws that make us human. These flaws include greed, lust, selfishness, arrogance, and so on. To remove these flaws is the only way to get any sort of utopia working. But yet to do so would be, in an obvious sense, dehumanizing. Huxely’s Brave New World poses an “utopia”, in which people have been dehumanized to the point of loosing “strong” or “deep” emotions such as love. In this way they may be controlled, but you sacrifice your indviduality, which is in a sense sacrificing everything. Humans will always disagree, humans will always want power, and it is impossibly to have “utopia” without some from dehumanization. While it is possible to get small groups of people to agree, on a whole, it would lead to massive power struggles and competition. Honestly, I see room for some improvement in our current world, but not much more. Capatilasm is by far the best philosphy since it is the only one that uses humanites flaws (greed) for the overall betterment. It is a sad thought indeed, but as long as there is difference there will be conflict, and without difference, there is no individuality. “Utopia” is a paradox working only for the individual. Each person can have their own utopia and manifest it in their own way, this would equal living a happy life. However, to think everyone can live happy ever after under an uncorrupt nation while retaining all ther freedom and individuality is simply impossible. Welcome to the real world.
-Funny, though, because I consider myself an idealist.
Let’s genetically engineer a race of humans who’s greatest happiness is found when they serve man! We could make the greatest slave race of all time!
Great avatar Slc_guy29! Welcome to the forum! Dostoevsky had some things to say about this in (notes from the underground?) to the effect of making humanity a mathematical equation which someone mentioned in an earlier thread and I can’t recall at present. I don’t think it possible either.
its definately possible.
in fact i guarantee i could do it with 5 or 6 people if we pitched tent in my backyard.
no
WHy? simple. there is no criteria that you could use to define a society as perfect. A society in which it’s inhabitants had everything would not be a utopia. There would bne no contrast…you would be a lot liek a bacteria in a petri dish full of nutrient water. you would simple carry out biological functions and exist. there would be nothin g for you to do.
Thaty’s the absolute estreme, where every need is taken care of…
The other extreme, considering that humans derive satisfaction froma job well done (on some level…i.e. the joy of the chase) is that every9one has wto work for everything and no function or need is simply fulfilled.
Somewhere in the middle is a good balance…my comfortable life in suburbia, for instance, is a good balance for me.
I say, there exists a point on this scale that is ideal for each person. it is NOT a universal constant for all humans. The utopia would be the society that came closest to fulfilling this balance point for everyone.
Consider that many factors that influence what humans have to work for vs. what is “given” to them are out of our control.
COnsider that some people’s ideas of utopia are directly contradictory, i.e., their ideal distribution of work and reward is contradictory to another person’s.
Consider then that a group of similar-minded people in this fashion minimizes this effect.
People are on average not happy by themselves, haviong eveolved to be social animals. therefore, we need enough people in a group to have social contacts but not enough to have large conflicts between it’s members.
Really, the distirbution of work and reward is a measure of the amount of conflict in ones life…“adventure”, “excitement” etc. are all some form of conflict, or a resolution of said conflict. therefore, some conflict is necessary to get to this ideal balance point i mentioned before.
Theoretically, the utopia would be a small group of people that can pick their enviornment, their society, etc. without constraint.
Except that they would have to be contrained in some way to satisfy the necessity of conflict. Therefore they could never have everything they want, and therefore, you cannot have a true utopia.
YUouc an come close though, so it’s not like it really matters anyway.
Going by the ideas of Thomas More, a utopia is basically a communism-based society. The government tells you to follow Catholicism and you have to do it. In a utopia you have no choice because the government wants to maintain the “perfect” society, and the only way to do this is to make secure what the people should and should not do.
We all know what Adolf Hitler did, and the reason he forbade most Jew rights was because he wanted his vision of a perfect world to be a reality. He was indeed trying to make Germany a utopia of his own.
Hitler only wanted to see a perfect world after he became corrupt due to too much power, but initially his mission was very noble and it arose mainly because many Jews had become extremely greedy and capitalistic to an extent they started dominating society so much that many others could not even live a decent life. And you know how, “life has a way of taking care of itself,” so that is why I believe Hitler arose on the scene to crush the Jews and so an indecent life is what they saw in the Nazi death camps. I’m not suggesting that the Jewish Holocaust was justified in any way but I’m just presenting a reason why it came up, because many Jews did not stay inside their limits and so life taught many of them a lesson for life. It’s true many innocents also became scapegoats as a result because life is not perfect ever. That’s unfortunate! It’s true God sends messengers when He sees necessary, but I think Satan also sends His own brand of messengers like Hitler to set things right. Anyway…
I wanted to say that a Utopian society should be possible because we all have similar needs, perhaps not similar interests, comforts, luxuries, desires, ambitions, etc. But because we have similar needs therefore, based on needs alone we can bring Utopia in the world at large.
Personally I believe that, it’s the public that elects or selects the government and so, the government should look after the interests of the public, but the way it is today is, the public answers to the government or looks after the interests of the government. This should stop. How? In the following way - (I may be wrong in this view, but whatever…)
- Income tax should be collected so basic services can be provided to the general public. These services are -
a) free standard housing to every citizen or resident 18yrs or older
b) free basic utilities (basic defined)
c) free transport inside the city together with maintaining the roads etc.
d) Welfare ONLY for severely physically and mentally handicapped people and partial welfare for those who are handicapped but not severely and so can only do a limited amount of work.
e) You can get bigger housing but cannot buy it, only pay land tax which will go towards providing more housing etc.
f) Lottery is public interest and not a need and so cannot be government controlled therefore. You want to start a lottery of your own, you’re welcome!
g) Those with more than one in the family will have as many bedrooms accordingly inside the free house.
h) Schooling will be free until grade 12
i) No one can be stopped from entering university at any time for any subject. If you have grade 12, no matter what your marks, you will get admission.
j) For general subjects like philosophy, psychology, etc., for which you just need to know the language and have interest in the subject, you won’t even need a grade 12. This way children who drop out early can still try university. I don’t kid at all.
Etcetera, etcetera…
Other needs that will not be free or government provided -
Food, clothing, medical, entertainment, higher education, sleep (hehehe!), love (hehehe!), financial security, your own interests that you want to pursue for ambition’s sake or otherwise are interested in like hobbies etc.