Debunking Utopia

Would you like to reside in a country where happiness, peace, equality, and prosperity are available to every individual? Odds are that you would. I know I certainly would. This idea of a perfect society has its roots in the term "Utopia" coined by Sir Thomas More in his work titled Utopia. More's novel tells the story of a character by the name of Raphael who thoroughly describes a seemingly perfect society he encountered on his travels to a far-away island. But why does this type of place seem so fictitious? There seems to be good reason for its mythical appearance. Great-thinkers throughout the ages have attempted to create a perfect society, but human efforts have failed to create a faultless model. This fact has led many to question the plausibility of a perfect society. However, human nature proves itself to be vastly against the reality of a perfect society like the civilization described in Thomas More’s Utopia.

Human nature proves instinctively greedy, and thus a faultless civilization cannot exist in the midst of a covetous people. The fact that More's Utopian society thrives without money does not exclude it from being corrupted by the desire for materialistic gain. An instance within the text where human greed would naturally take over can be found in their communistic policy in which "Any necessary equipment which is not available in the country is got from one's hometown … You simply ask an official for what you want, and he hands it over, without any sort of payment" (51). Any human being in a situation where he or she needs an item and does not have to pay for it will inevitably exploit the system and acquire more. One's reasoning for obtaining more than needed at the moment could either be for the sake of possessing more than another individual and thereby elevating one's socioeconomic status, or simply to prepare for unexpected predicaments. After all, no matter where a person lives, it manifests itself virtually impossible to steer clear of unplanned situations because God rules, not people. Another basis for hoarding excessive materials could be to save another trip to the town official, and that leads us to the next innate human nature that hinders a perfect society.

        It proves evident that individuals are quite lazy, so even the most ideal environment cannot suppress a person's desire to take shortcuts. Even if a person has never tasted the sweet, natural remedy called rest and relaxation, an individual can still recognize a quicker means to an end. Within the “ideal” land of Utopia, a policy exists in which the “authorities announce a shorter work day” because of the notion that they do not “force people to work unnecessarily, for the main purpose of their whole economy is to give each person as much time free from physical drudgery as the needs of the community will allow … ” (59). The fact that the citizens of the Utopian society have the opportunity for reduced work days and actually take advantage of it suggests that the citizens have a motive behind finishing their work. What other motive could that be other than shortening the hours spent in “physical drudgery” which leads to leisure and relaxation? They are certainly not speedily finishing their work in order to hastily begin more unnecessary work. Following that reasoning, how do the people finish their work so quickly? If they are already working their hardest, they cannot work even harder. They must have found a shortcut to aid them in hastening the process. With the instinctive human desire for downtime and time-saving, a perfect place cannot exist. Another unavoidable human characteristic that inhibits an ideal civilization presents itself.

        Humans naturally desire to improve themselves by advancing their lives; with that at the forefront of every person’s mind, an unblemished community cannot exist because every person primarily strives for self-betterment rather than bettering other’s lives. More refutes the idea of innovation for self-improvement by stating, “… there are bound to be dozens of unnecessary trades carried on, which merely supply luxury goods and entertainment” (57). Clearly, innovation remains an important part of economic growth and not an unnecessary factor in an ideal society. But why does an entrepreneur invent? An entrepreneur might say that his chief purpose for innovation lies in the appetite to improve the lives of others, but an inventor would not come up with a product that does not improve his own life as well. Products would have been thrown out if their usefulness did not initially present itself to the inventor. The great entrepreneur Steve Jobs does not have people at the forefront of his mind when he puts a new phone on the market every couple of months with a price-tag of close to a thousand dollars. Yet, he like other inventors prove essential to the prosperity of a country because a land would fall drastically behind others and lose its status as a dominant world power without advancements. Obviously the instinctive human desire for self-improvement cannot be avoided; consequently, a perfect civilization in that sense proves unavoidable as well.

        Ultimately, human nature inhibits the reality of an ideal society similar to the perfect civilization described in Thomas More’s Utopia. Even though we as humans would like to be a flawless individual without imperfect characteristics, a perfect being besides Christ cannot exist. Greed will always lead us to want more out of life. Laziness will always lead us to walk the straightest path between two points, and self-improvement will continue to lead us to dream up larger-than-reality innovations. Nonetheless, we should not fret at the thought of always living in imperfection because if we are saved through Christ, we have the opportunity to experience the perfect reality of Heaven.