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Sir
Thomas More coined the word Utopia in 1516. Written as an act of the
Humanist movement, More's Utopia is the story of an imaginary island
society. Utopia means nowhere in Greek. More's story of Utopia is told
by Raphael Hythloday. Hythloday in Greek means "talker of nonsense."
Utopia
is an island of fifty-four cities, with the chief city in the center.
All cities are twenty-four miles apart. The layout of all the cities as
well as language, customs, and laws are all the same. The countryside
is covered with well-managed farm land, with all citizens spending at
least two years on a farm.
Besides
agriculture, everyone has at least one occupational specialty. It is
customary to follow the trade of your father, however you may be
adopted into a house of a different trade. You are welcome to learn
more than one trade, and practice the trade of your choice, unless the
state deems your other trade to be in need.
A
six hour work day assures there is enough work for everyone. Leisure is
highly valued with time devoted to education and recreation. Working
hard on literature in your leisure time can get you promoted to the
class of scholars. Priests and government officials are chosen from the
scholar class. Utopians consider the cultivation of the mind the
greatest happiness of life.
On
the economic side there is a marketplace where no money is exchanged.
There is no private property, nothing is private. No locks are
permitted on homes, all things are shared.
The
sizes of the cities are regulated. People are moved between cities as
needed to maintain equality.
The
family unit is based on a system where the eldest capable father runs a
large family group. Meals are served at large community dining halls
where women do the cooking, with slaves doing the dirty work.
There
is a high emphasis placed on health, with well managed hospitals a
priority. A terminally ill patient is advised to resign from life.
Voluntary death, approved by the priests and the senate is considered
honorable. Unapproved suicide is disgraceful and not worthy of burial.
In
choosing mates a supervised showing in the nude allows prospective
mates to be assured of no hidden defects. A woman marries at around age
18, a man at 22 or older. Lust and adultery are severely punished.
Inhabitants
of foreign cities who are condemned to death are permitted to live in
utopia as a slave. Likewise, very poor persons from other countries may
volutarily serve as Utopian slaves. Utopians who commit crimes are
individually reviewed for punishment in a case by case basis. Most
serious crimes are punishable by slavery. The attempted crime is
punishable as the crime itself. A novel concept, no lawyers are
permitted. Utopians believe a lawyer simply mixes up a persons story,
and a person cab best defend himself. Utopians are critical of laws,
believing it is better to not write a law at all, than to write a law
no one understands.
Utopians
make no treaties, for the greatest bond is kindness. While they detest
war, but will fight for their own defense. Utopians will also wage war
on behalf of the oppressed. Any wealth received as a result of war is
sold off. Wealth is scorned. Gold is used to make chains and restraints
for slaves. However the wealth won in war is often used to buy
mercenaries, and even as a tool in war. Wealth is used to breed
discontent among enemies. Rewards are offered for the capture or
killing of an enemy leader. In battle the leaders are targeted to end
the war as quickly as possible.
Utopians
are free to worship as they please, however, complete religious freedom
is only extended to those who believe in a single superior divinity.
Services are very ritual in huge dark buildings with candles and
devotional prayer. Those who refuse to believe in an afterlife are not
considered citizens.
More
is given credit for the modern idea of the ideal society. While More's
book did set up a model for society, like most great classics, it was
also an attempt to speak out against the government of his time.
(Source:
Definitions
of Socities)
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Thomas
More toured Antwerp on a diplomatic mission for his king, Henry VIII.
There, More's friend, Peter Giles, introduced the young ambassador to
Raphael Hythloday, an educated sailor who had seen much of the world
while voyaging with Amerigo Vespucci. The three of them convened in a
garden so that More could question this learned and experienced man.
More and Giles both wondered why a man of such wisdom and stature as
Raphael had not entered into a king's service. Raphael scoffed at the
idea: "The councilors of kings are so wise that they need no advice
from others (or at least so it seems to themselves)." Moreover, Raphael
opined that most councilors merely bowed to the king's inclinations and
were more concerned with maintaining favor than with offering impartial
and wise advice.
Raphael
also believed that the average king possessed different goals than he
himself had; that "most princes apply themselves to warlike pursuits,"
whereas he had no interest or skill in the acquisition of riches or
territory. Raphael asked Giles and More to imagine him before a king,
cautioning him that "wars would throw whole nations into chaos, would
exhaust the King's treasury and destroy his own people, [and] that a
prince should take more care of his people's happiness than of his
own." How receptive would the king be to that kind of advice?
More
asked Raphael if he had ever been to England; the traveler replied that
he had, and then proceeded to relate a story about a discussion he had
entered into there with a British lawyer. The lawyer commented that he
approved of hanging thieves for their crimes. But Raphael struck up an
argument against this form of "justice." The high incidence of theft in
England, he claimed, was attributable to the increased sheepherding by
wealthy landowners. This new industry had forced the poorer farmers off
their land while at the same time boosting the price of goods and feed;
and these combined factors had caused a rise in unemployment. Without
work or land, many people had turned to a life of crime or to begging.
This "policy [of hanging thieves] may have the appearance of justice,
but it is really neither just nor expedient." In his view, English
society was "first making [people] thieves and then punishing them for
it."
Another
of Raphael's complaints was that many English noblemen, along with
their entourages of lazy friends, "live idly like drones and subsist on
the labor of their tenants." Such "wanton luxury" only exacerbated the
poverty of the common people.
While
More and Giles could understand the justice in Raphael's social
criticisms, they were still unable to understand why he would not help
rescue society by offering his higher wisdom in the political arena.
Raphael replied:
As long as there is private property
and while money is the standard of all things, I do not think that a
nation can be governed either justly or happily .... Unless private
property is entirely done away with, there can be no fair distribution
of goods, nor can the world be happily governed.
Neither
More nor Giles believed that this prerequisite to peace would ever be
possible to attain. Raphael was not surprised by their scoffs, but
averred that had they traveled with him on the island haven of Utopia,
there they would have seen a truly orderly, peaceful society. The two
Englishmen then prevailed on Raphael to acquaint them, after their
meal, with all the customs and institutions of the Utopians.
Dinner
completed, Raphael began his descriptive tour:
First
of all, Utopian society was uniform, with all cities sharing the "same
language, customs, institutions and laws." Its economy was guided by
one fundamental rule: "All the Utopians, men and women alike, work at
agriculture." Additionally, everyone worked at a trade of his own
choosing, provided the trade proved useful to society. Although every
citizen was required to work, each labored only six hours out of
twenty-four. While to many such liberal conditions might seem
untenable, Raphael pointed out that "the actual number of workers who
supply the needs of mankind is much smaller than imagined," considering
the many noblemen, beggars and others in contemporary society who
produced nothing. For Utopians, the chief aim was to allow everyone
enough free time to develop his or her mind.
Food
on the island was distributed equally, with the sick tended to first.
The rest of the population ate together in vast communal halls. If the
people harvested or produced any surplus goods, these were shared with
neighboring nations who might be suffering from plague or famine, or
else used in trade. The Utopians imported nothing themselves, but
traded only for the wherewithal to hire mercenaries in times of war.
Rather than store their precious metals in vaults, Utopians used gold
and silver to make chamber pots and stools, and "for the chains and
fetters of their bondsmen." In this way the citizenry held gold and
silver "up to scorn in every way." Idling was despised and never
tolerated. No gambling was allowed and there existed no brothels or
taverns in which Utopians might while away their time. When Utopia's
inhabitants were not working, they were expected to pursue worthwhile
activities such as reading and learning, or, if they preferred, to
practice their trades. Anyone who proved especially adept at learning
was allowed to forego physical labor in order to pursue scholarly work.
Utopia's
laws encompassed "no fixed... penalties, but the senate [persons
elected by the citizenry] fixed the punishment according to the
wickedness of the crime." Serious crimes were punished by bondage. If a
bondsperson refused to work, he was put to death- if, on the other
hand, the slave proved hardworking and repentant, he was freed. The
islanders believed that bondage, as a form of punishment, was "more
beneficial to the commonwealth," and that the sight of bondage "longer
deters other men from similar crimes."
Nothing
in Utopia was "so inglorious as the glory won in war." The community
would "go to war cautiously and reluctantly," entering into combat for
two reasons only: either "to protect their own territory or that of
their friends ... or to free some wretched people from tyrannous
oppression." For the most part, when war was deemed necessary they
hired mercenaries to do the fighting. If the mercenaries were defeated,
then Utopians (men and women alike) would take up arms. In victory,
they were "more ready to take prisoners than to make a great slaughter."
In
all, Raphael was convinced that Utopian society was far superior to any
other he had observed. He added particulars concerning Utopian marriage
customs (prospective spouses were advised to see each other naked
before they were wed, so that each would possess a full knowledge of
what he or she was getting), fashion (all dressed in simple attire "fit
both for winter and summer, to correspond to their gender and marital
status), religious observances, foreign relations, health practices,
and rules of the marketplace - each aspect of the island society having
as its aim to make life better for everyone. In Raphael's opinion,
Utopia was the only commonwealth which could accurately be called a
"commonwealth",- all citizens there were treated equally and given
equal opportunities and possessions: "When no one owns anything, all
are rich."
Thus,
Raphael ended his tale of Utopia, and even the practical, conventional
Thomas More had to admit that "many things in the Utopian Commonwealth
[he] wished ... to see followed among [his] citizens."
(Source:
Awerty
Notes)
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A Brief Description of Utopia
