Definition of Utopia

Going into this intensive my opinion of a utopia was a place that would not give an individual person any advantages over another: a place without money, without hunger, without political issues, and where everyone lives in equally in peace. In addition, my original thought was that a utopia could not exist because human nature and personal interest and other human characteristics would get in the way.     

            After three weeks my views of a utopia have not changed overall but instead included had new. I now have evidence and examples to back up my opinion. In my original idea of what a utopia was I made claims about certain aspects of such a society. Now with experiences like the Amish trip and different readings we did in class I saw my idea come to life. One constant I mentioned in every blog post was that of human nature. The idea that self-interest, competition, and other human characteristics are a part of a utopia is not a question. It is important to understand that a utopia is very similar to a dystopia; the only difference is that a utopia has not yet been influenced by human nature.

As time went on during this intensive I learned that themes like religion came up often. In real life we did not visit a single community at which there was no association with religion, this is done to keep everyone in order using a higher power. All in all, I have not altered my view of a utopia but have only added evidence to back up my original definition.