Utopia: A Step in the Wrong Direction

Utopia: A Step in the Wrong Direction 

            At the start of this course, I believed that a Utopia was an attainable world where all people lived without conflict.  I thought that while it would be difficult, a Utopia could be created in very unusual circumstances.  As the course progressed, my definition of a Utopia did not alter greatly; however, my opinion did. 

            As we started this course, I held the idea of a Utopia high in my mind.  I pictured a world with no conflict as perfect and almost picturesque.  In my mind, there were absolutely no downfalls to these ideal communities.  As the course progressed, we learned about countless attempts at Utopias.  I couldn’t help but to notice that all of these attempts seemed to share a common downfall.  In most cases, the intentional communities that we studied did not collapse due conflicts, but rather collapsed because of the lack thereof.  Without any competition or conflicts, the communities lacked motivation and became frustrated.  This interesting observation caused me to look deeper into the idea of a Utopia and whether or not it was really all that great.

            From this point on I became more skeptical of Utopias.  My main point of skepticism came from the notion that a world without conflict is a world without progress.  I realized that in a Utopia, there is no conflict, thus no motivation to progress further.  After this point I became doubtful that a Utopia was really a world that we should strive towards.  Then, my skepticism grew to distaste after reading Berlin’s essay about the flaws of a utopia.  I realized that in order to create a world of perfect order, some dictating force must be acting upon all of the people.  In this scenario a real perfect world isn’t created, it is simply a world of fear and submission.  For some time after this I was very against the idea of a Utopia.

            Eventually my view of the Utopias settled somewhere in between dislike and like.  I don’t believe that Utopias are good as they create a lack of incentive and motivation.  Yet at the same time I don’t think that they are bad, as having the goal of a perfect world to work towards is always beneficial.  At the end of the course I have reached an interesting conclusion.  I believe that the human race should not strive for a perfect world without conflict; but rather we should take baby steps and focus on making the world a better place one step at a time. 

Utopia: An Unintelligent Expectation

Utopia: An Unintelligent Expectation

            From the dawn of mankind, one thing has separated us from being just another species of animals, our intelligence.  Our intelligence as a species has allowed us to progress much more quickly and efficiently than any other species has ever done.  We are able to complete tasks that require extreme amounts of strength by simply thinking our way around the obstacles.  There is no question that intelligence is in fact the greatest attribute of the human race.  However, in some cases intelligence has become such a powerful asset that it has actually hindered our ability to live harmoniously and progress as a species.

            When any other species of animals on the earth is evaluated, it is interesting to note that most of their conflicts revolve mostly around personal disputes of territory, and hardly ever spread over large groups.  However, in the human race, most conflicts take place on a global scale, and unfortunately this means that the resulting damage from these conflicts can be catastrophic.  The interesting tendency of humans to group together and seek support from other large groups fundamentally can be traced back to their intelligence.  As creatures of high intelligence, we are able to communicate well with one another, causing us to associate with people of similar beliefs and tendencies.  These large groups often feel the obligation to assert their “right-ness” or spread their beliefs upon other groups.  This tendency to assert beliefs upon others, as seen throughout history, in many cases leads to catastrophic conflicts blown far out of proportion. In many cases wars have been fought over simple differences in beliefs, leading to the loss of thousands of lives which brings to question: is it really worth it?  The resounding answer is no.    

It can thus be concluded that indirectly, it is our intelligence that prevents us from harmonizing with one another.  In species of lower intelligence, animals often are content living undisturbed by others and simply living to survive.  As humans, we are not content with simply living like animals.  We do not want to only live to procreate and consume, we want to find meaning in life.  As intellectual beings we assign and search for meaning in all things in life.  Unfortunately, the result of our constant search for meaning is that we lose sight of reality.  It could be argued that as a species we have become detached from reality and that we live in a world of ideas.  As we noted before it is these very ideas that prevent us from living harmoniously, and creating a Utopia.

While it is definite that it is our inherent intellectuality that prevents us from creating a Utopia, one must weigh the positives and negatives of our powerful gift.  In my opinion, the benefits of our supreme intellectual prowess far outweigh the disadvantages.  Our ability to reason have helped us overcome countless obstacles and thus become unquestionable the most powerful species on earth.  Our powerful minds have helped us eradicate diseases, elongate human life, as well as raise the standard of living for all humans across the world.  I believe that if the inability to live in a Utopia is the price we pay for our intellectuality, then it is worth it.