Literary Utopian Societies
"The vision of one century is often the reality of the next..." (Nelson 108). Throughout time, great minds have constructed their own visions of utopia. Through the study of utopias, one finds that these "perfect" societies have many flaws. For example, most utopias tend to have an authoritarian nature (Manuel 3). Also, another obvious imperfection found in the majority of utopias is that of a faulty social class system (Thomas 94). But one must realized that the flaws found in utopian societies serve a specific purpose. These faults are used to indicate problems in contemporary society (Eurich 5, Targowski 1). Over the years, utopian societies have been beneficial in setting improved standards for society. By pointing out the faults of society, improvement is the most likely next step. Citizens should take advantage of utopian literature in order to better future societal conditions (Nelson 104). Because it is impossible to create a perfect society in which everyone's needs can be met, society must analyze utopias in order to improve their existing environment.Plato's Republic was the first "true" work considered to be utopian literature. In fact, the Republic influenced almost all later text written on the subject
Philip Coupland is a professor at Warwick University. Coupland, Philip, ed. University of Warwick. 11 Jan. 1999 . In the Republic, Plato's showed how a small group of corrupt politicians could control a whole society (Bloom xvi). By making the ruling class in his Republic corrupt, he showed his dissatisfaction with the current role politicians played within the government. Plato's answer to this problem was what is now known as communism (Bloom 1). Not only did Plato disapprove of politicians and their power, but he also despised the authoritarian nature of the government (Manuel 3). The controllers of Plato's society had absolute control and managed the masses through the use of propaganda (Mumford 4). Yet a further disgust that Plato had was the role that women played in society. He believed that women should have more equal duties when being compared to men (Kateb 3). Through the Republic, Plato showed his feelings towards the society that surrounded him. Kateb, George, ed. Utopia. New York: Atherton Press, 1971. Jon Will is the Vice President of the Utopia Pathway Association. Aldous Huxley's a Brave New World was another utopia with many imperfections. In the novel, the characters living in utopia were under complete control of the government. They were exposed to propaganda beginning at birth and continued to be exposed to it throughout their lives. The course a person's life would take was already determined before he was born. Basically, the citizens of this utopia were robots. They did as they were told, and they had no accurate knowledge of what was going on around them (26). Only the elite class of Controllers had an unobstructed view of the world (235). Another theme that was put forth throughout the novel was that of the class system. In Huxley's utopia, the quality of one's genes determined his social class. No person had a chance of leaving his caste, and his conditioning had programmed his mind into believing that this was all acceptable (66). Although Aldous Huxley did not use a Brave New World to protest societal conditions, he did have a primary reason in writing his novel. Huxley used a Brave New World to show that technological advances and scientific advances are not the answer to creating a perfect society. By perfecting the use of genetic engineering, propaganda, hypnoaedia, and drugs, Huxley's Brave New World was supposed to be the ideal utopia. But in reality, all of the pleasures resulting from theses advances were empty. Genetic engineering was the basis for social structure and an unjust class system. By using propaganda and hypnoaedia to program its own citizens, the utopia maintained complete control of everything that went on within the societ
Some common words found in the essay are:
Brave World, , Plato's Republic, Republic Manuel, Republic Plato's, Utopia More's, More's Utopia, Republic Adams, Benz Phillip, Utopian Studies, utopian literature, more's utopia, brave world, plato's republic, jan 1999, class system, utopian societies, mumford 4, 6 jan 1999, contemporary society, societal conditions, cambridge massachusetts harvard, women played society, massachusetts harvard university, role women played,
Approximate Word count = 1848
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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