One Step Away from Dystopia

All utopias have one commonality. It is complex and varies depending on the type and specifics of each one. Every utopia is one mistake, one small error, away from turning into a dystopia. This commonality that all these utopias have is their fragility. The difference in reading about utopia and dystopia is one step; dystopias are simply one step further in the utopian process. Many definitions of utopia include the idea that one cannot exist. This is untrue: a utopia can only exist for less than a few moments because the structure will fail do to something uncontrollable every single time.

            The largest example I have found during these three weeks of the intensive is in our book War With the Newts. A creature is found that can create an almost utopian society for these humans but just before the climax of their progress the creatures turn on the humans and begin to take over the world; they slowly wipeout the human race. In any society humans will make mistakes, whether it be over a period of time due to ignorance or it be small human errors due to spontaneous self-interest. Someone will always attempt to rise above others because competition is human nature. Attempts at utopia in the real world, like the few we visited, needed God, a higher power, to keep all humans and human characteristic in line, even then, the utopia could not be persistent. In addition, it is debatable whether those societies were or are utopias in the first place. The fragility of a utopia is too great to sustain, proving, once again, that it is impossible to create a true utopia.