Pros And Cons Of A Utopian Society

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Sir Thomas More, councillor to King Henry VIII, wrote the book Utopia in 1516, which was the first to introduce the idea of a perfect community to the world while coining the aforementioned community a utopia. A utopia is the idea of perfect society in which the community as whole does not go through any negative experiences. Conflict is non-existent, and citizens live in harmony. All ideas are accepted and thought is encouraged. There is no wrong. A utopia is not possible because human nature does not allow for it. One reason that a utopian society is not possible is because people are naturally selfish and tend to not look out for the interests of others. For example, according to the article “Why Utopias Fail,” the first settlers of America …show more content…

Bradford wisely placed the blame not on the flaws of his people, but on the system their society had chosen. They abandoned communal ownership and, lo and behold, the fields sprouted with life.
This part of the article shows that in a communal society, humans failed to do the work necessary to even survive. However, when the society was changed to be based on a reward system, the community flourished. This is important in order to understand the impossibility of a utopia and to demonstrate that the natural traits of a human do not allow for a utopia. Therefore, utopian societies are impossible because of the selfish nature of humans. Another reason that utopias cannot exist is because a utopian community is built upon certain ideals, and those ideals can become constraints or limitations. For instance, Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women) and Charles Lane founded the community known as Fruitlands Commune in June of 1843, in Harvard, Massachusetts. According to the article “4 Utopian Communities That Didn’t Pan