Utopia Vs. America

Another part of More’s Utopian society that differs from ours is their view of gold, and by extension material wealth. The chains that bind their slaves are forged from their nation’s gold. This is meant to instill a dislike of material wealth in all the citizens. Moreover, the people do not purchase their necessities with money the way we do in our Capitalist society. Instead they request what they need from the government. In this way, social evils like poverty and class warfare are staved off. This all presumes, of course, that the system through which goods are distributed has not been corrupted by human greed. A similar system was implemented in the old Soviet Union with disastrous results. A majority of the population was kept impoverished, and many died from not receiving proper food, shelter and health care. Meanwhile, an elite few inside the government lived in luxury, all while proclaiming to fight on behalf of the people. Thomas More offers very little explanation for how he plans to circumvent the basic problem of human greed and envy. He states that as small children, some people are chosen to be leaders while the rest are designated as workers. There is nothing to stop the people in charge from exclusively selecting their own sons and daughters as the leaders while alienating a large portion of the population. The problem here has little to do with the system of government and more with human nature. People in a society will naturally want to be superior, even if they are indoctrinated against it from birth. They will see others who are slightly or greatly better off, and want to emulate them. This perfect society denies that such impulses exist, while Capitalism uses these competitive urges as its driving force.  Perhaps our socio-economic system is not perfect, but at least it does not try to strip us of the desires that make us human.

Other things that make us human are our own moral weaknesses. The first problem here is the definition of morality. Marital fidelity is a staple of Judeo-Christian ideology. In Utopia, adultery is punished by enslavement, and premarital sex is punished by a lifetime of forced celibacy. These are clearly effective ways of curtailing such behavior, but they raise problems when it comes to enforcing the punishment. A person’s close friends and family members would ultimately be responsible for ensuring the lifetime of celibacy. Given that Utopia is a close-knit community, this may be plausible to a certain extent. Quite frankly, though, such a law seems too easy to ignore. As far as slavery for adulterers, it has already been stated that there is not much difference between the island’s slaves and its common workers. Therefore, the only thing that would truly change would be the person’s status in the community. The consensus among the lawmakers seems to be that the social punishment ought to fit the social crime; in essence, shame on those who have shamed themselves. Again, there is nothing protect the system from corruption. False accusations could be flung about with no one to refute them except the accused. The perfect society’s moral provisions fall victim to the same traps as the imperfect, immoral society of modern day America.

Thomas More obviously did not intend for his Utopia to be a truly perfect society. Instead he presented England’s morally self-righteous clergy and common people with a society of their own making. He showed them the country they longed for, and its flaws were glaringly obvious. Everywhere there is the certainty of corruption, from the distribution of wealth to the legal system. Even moral laws enforced by the government are no match for human ingenuity and lust. Ultimately, it is human behavior that has to change if a society wishes to be exemplary, or at the very least, decent.