Utopia: My favorite place in the world

Here is a lovely map of Utopia. The most perfect place in the world. Right. As you all know I thought the story was great, but I think the idea of this place was pretty ridiculous. I always wondered where George Orwell came up with his idea for Animal Farm, and I definitely think that Utopia was a muse. I think that Utopia portrays the epitome of a socialist society where everyone is equal and everything is perfect. Not so much. I mean More stresses this idea of everyone getting treated the same and having the same responsibilities, etcetera. One of the blatant examples of this idea being corrupt in the story can be seen in the way that dinner takes place. The minors have to wait on the elders, and the tranibors (meaning gluttonous) get more food than others. Not only do the minors wait on everyone else, they only get to eat if someone gives them scraps. I mean I guess that’s fair… I suppose the idea sounds ideal in some cases, but for the most part I don’t really see it working. Not everyone has the same personality time, and this type of society calls for everyone to be on the same page all the time. Like I said before I love competition and a society that really doesn’t have any (other than gardening) would fail, because I know I am not the only person that happens to have a competitive personality. Doing everything to be “equal” wouldn’t work, and corruption—which is even implied in his version—would be inevitable. The constant intellectual stimulation would be tiresome, too. It is so relaxing sometimes to just go lay on the beach and think about nothing.

Overall I feel like Utopia is meant to sound ideal, but it really isn’t. The live like sheep, they are herded here and there and all wear the same thing. Even in More’s Utopia the idea of complete equality wouldn’t work. There are constant undertones of how some people receive preferential treatment. Not only that, but there are constantly contradictions. My favorite is that Utopians don’t slaughter animals because it destroys compassion, so they make slaves do it. But how compassionate is it to force people to be slaves? After reading the story again, I almost feel like More, the real Thomas More, doesn’t believe it would work either, but as I said, he is contradictory. Maybe this feeds back into the idea from Book 1 that he really doesn’t know if he feels one way or the other, which then becomes evident in the creation of Utopia.
Let’s be honest, who wants to put in for “vacation time” with the government, then work while you are on vacation in a place that looks exactly like home? Think about it…