Utopia has been a hot issue for everyone living the reality. Every person living in this world is dreaming of their Utopia. Think of how much revolutions and wars were made, and how much people fought to achieve Utopia historically. According to the British Library, from 18th century, utopian ideas exploded into actions (British Library, n.d.). Condorcet, Rousseau's opinions were enough to enlighten people to recognize that they have right to claim Utopia. Thus in America and France revolutions exploded.
Compared to the history, it's true that the world seems to develop in a better way. As the technology is developing rapidly, people started to dream that technology can actualize Utopia. Technologies make people meet their family every day by using video calls, go wherever they want to go by getting on an airplane and cure disease using techniques of medical treatment. Thus, nowadays people dream of bright future which is considered as Utopia.
In addition, many novels that describe Utopia show people's interests toward it. The first people who invented the word Utopia is Thomas more. He wrote the book Utopia and defined Utopia on his own (British Library, n.d.). In his book, the society exist on the island and people living in there have no money. People move to other houses every 10 years to avoid obsession to their belongings. Selected officials govern the country and these officials have intellectual capabilities. As people should share equal wealth, this society resembles that of communism.
Not only in literature, there are many people attempting to actualize Utopia in real world. New haven, Society of the woman in the wilder, Ephrata cloister, Shakers, Harmony, Nashoba, New harmony, Brook farm, Kindgon of St. James, Oneida, Icaria, Fountain Grove, Kaweah, Roycroft, Point loma, Halcyon, Holycity, Peace mission of father divine, Drop city, Hog farm, Twin oaks, Family of mystic arts, the diggers, the farm are Utopian societies that are discovered (Yale University Beinecke Rare books & Manuscript Library, n.d.). However, if you think these Utopian communities were just the old story you're making a huge mistake.
If you type in "Marinaleda" in the search engine, you will find many interesting articles regarding this small village in Spain. You can read it from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. According to an article from The New York Times, Marinaleda has gained a huge attention recently from the progressive press. It is located 70 miles east of Seville in southern Spain's Andalusia region and this small farming village (population: 2,771) has set out to build a Communist utopia since the late 1970s (Burnett,2009). In addition, according to an article from The Wall street Journal, Marinaleda is "probably the most pleasant Communist society on earth". Also author said that there is a complete absence of a police force, mechanization is avoided at all costs in order to make as many people as possible do physical work and it offers new residents home for just €15 per month (Ahmari, 2014). What I wanted to emphasize is that there are people trying to achieve real Utopia and there were lots of efforts to make Utopia. Now, after introducing the history of Utopia, the novel related to Utopia and many Utopian villages which existed and which still exist, it seems to be sure to you that people have a strong desire to actualize the Utopian world. However, in my opinion, people's attempts to actualize the Utopia won't end because Utopia can't exist.
I insist that Utopia can’t exist in reality. There are several reasons why. First of all, every person has different standards toward the perfect world. This is a simple thought that everyone could think of. I mean everyone wants different things because their personalities, jobs, environments, experiences, amount of money they have, family are all different. When you simply ask ‘What is your great pleasure’ to your friends or family members, they will answer all differently. The perfect world means that it can all suffice everyone’s desires and needs efficiently. But as long as everyone wants different things, it is totally impossible to make up the perfect world for everyone. The world that is perfect to you can be a Dystopia to other people. In our real live and history, people fought and started a revolution to get what they want because the disparity between people’s opinions and interests could not come to an agreement. Let me introduce French revolution as an example (British Library, n.d.). Due to the France’s failure to feed its population, the exclusion of the growing middle class from political power and public's reluctance to support an oppressive feudal system, the revolution was caused. People tried to escape from the reality that oppressed themselves and tried to make the world where every citizen can live happily. It brought down the monarchy, the aristocracy and the church, so old regime in France ended. However, does everyone living in the world wanted the revolution to occur? No. What I want to emphasize from the French revolution is that even though majority of the men living in France wanted the revolution, not all of them wanted it. This is because every person wants different society and rules. It is especially obvious when we watch the conflicts between rich and the poor which still exists today. And we already know these conflicts have been happening and will keep happening.
In addition, Utopia cannot exist because people must compete. Nowadays, most of the social problems occur due to the income inequality and rich get richer and the poor-get poorer cycle. Thus, to prevent these problems, previous Utopian societies inhibited the possession of money and shared all the resources together. And by equalizing the income, they forced people to accept uniformity. However, historically, it was proved that this kind of method is not appropriate to human beings. Communism which failed clearly shows the fact. Communism was one way to make Utopia. Communism is a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). This was made in order to save citizens from sweating system and violation of human rights. However, when this was adapted to our reality, the fact turned out to be different. People worked without competition and incentives. Thus, it led to the poor performance of economies. Even if competition may lead to income inequality and conflicts between people, competition between people is the basic component of the community and society of human beings. Here is where contradiction occurs. With competition, Utopia cannot be achieved. However, without competition, lively social-economic activities cannot be made.
Also Utopia cannot exist because every human seeks their own pleasure and interest. To be short, humans are selfish. This is not a problem of individuals’ personalities. This regards to the principle of evolution. In 1976, Richard Dawkins published a book named “The selfish Gene”. It is a book that described a gene-centered view of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. He argued that individual genes adapt and evolve, using organism’s body as a survival machine for its genes. Due to this mechanism, human beings become selfish. All altruistic behaviors are made in order to maximize one’s inclusive fitness (Dawkins, 1976). Some people will think this point of view as awkward. However, this book is called as the classic of evolutionary biology. Even though there are some people arguing that this 'selfish nature' of human can be overcome by our smart brains. However, we can see many proofs that reinforce the idea of humans selfish nature which was not overcome by the human brain. Just think of babies fighting for a cookie. People act on their own interests. Everyone can accept this as a fact. However in Utopia, everyone cannot pursue their interests freely because it makes the society hard to maintain. Thus, many novels that depict Utopia, as I mentioned before, restrict people’s desire. However, that kind of Utopia cannot sustain as long as people are selfish.
Also Utopia cannot exist because every human seeks their own pleasure and interest. To be short, humans are selfish. This is not a problem of individuals’ personalities. This regards to the principle of evolution. In 1976, Richard Dawkins published a book named “The selfish Gene”. It is a book that described a gene-centered view of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. He argued that individual genes adapt and evolve, using organism’s body as a survival machine for its genes. Due to this mechanism, human beings become selfish. All altruistic behaviors are made in order to maximize one’s inclusive fitness (Dawkins, 1976). Some people will think this point of view as awkward. However, this book is called as the classic of evolutionary biology. Even though there are some people arguing that this 'selfish nature' of human can be overcome by our smart brains. However, we can see many proofs that reinforce the idea of humans selfish nature which was not overcome by the human brain. Just think of babies fighting for a cookie. People act on their own interests. Everyone can accept this as a fact. However in Utopia, everyone cannot pursue their interests freely because it makes the society hard to maintain. Thus, many novels that depict Utopia, as I mentioned before, restrict people’s desire. However, that kind of Utopia cannot sustain as long as people are selfish.
To be simple, to overcome the problem of peoples' endless greed, equality can be the key to Utopia. Everyone can share their belongings so that there should be no poverty. By sharing equal amount of resources, we can prevent conflicts and fights between people. However this idea leads to the devastated results. As I mentioned before, communism was the way to express and actualize the Utopia. Equality and uniformity were the important rules. However, communism failed. Why did this happen? It's because humans are naturally selfish. Thus, even the leaders of the country could not bear the natural traits. Not even saying about communism, all of the social issues such as politicians and businessmen's bribery and embezzlement of government money,bankruptcy etc occur because of people's greediness.
However, there are some people arguing that Utopia can exist. They can find research which was published in Nature communications by scientists saying humans and animals could not evolve in a co-operative environment by being selfish (Melissa, 2013). They might want to use this source as counter argument for my reasons that go "Utopia cannot exist because humans are selfish". Some may say that this challenges a previous theory which suggests that it is preferable to be selfish and put you first. Using this source they might argue that because people evolve in a co-operative environment by being altruistic, Utopia can exist. However, according to an article from the Guardian all of these experiments were conducted in a laboratory, with only computer simulations. It seems that when that mathematics is fitted to the wild nature, it will pretty soon break (Brown, 2013). This new research suggests that co-operation helps a group evolve, but does not mean that the selfish gene theory of evolution is wrong. Thus it is obviously right in saying that as long as people are controlled by selfish gene, regardless of possibilities of altruistic behavior, humans are originally selfish. Also some might argue that as technology develops, one day, human society can be perfectly controlled by it. Thus they can argue that by developing new technology we can make Utopia. However, this argument is totally absurd. Historically, as technology developed, new problems came out. According to Harry R. Lewis, history is an endless cycle of control and new technology (Lewis, 2011). New technology usually brings not only convenience but also the social instability and new problems. Even by the time society becomes stable, by finding new ways to cope with new technology, other new technologies give birth to unanticipated problems. Thus, even if new technology can make our lives more comfortable, it cannot totally change our societies into Utopia.
Therefore, Utopia cannot exist in reality. It's because firstly, people have different standards toward Utopia, which we can easily recognize when we see the endless fight between the poor and the rich. Secondly, people should compete. Through competition, people can get incentives especially when they perform better than any other or invent new things that other people could not think of. Even if competition can occur problems and block the way to Utopia, it is the basic component of human society, which helps each member of society to perform better. Thirdly, humans are naturally selfish. Undeniably, people are controlled by their own selfish gene. And even, it's unnecessary to mention Richard Dawkins, because there are so many social issues which show the greediness of people such as bribery and embezzlement.
Some can say that my argument takes away the last hope for the humanity. However, I am not saying that our society is full of selfish and greedy people and severe competition so that we don't have any hope. I am not saying that we can't make our future brighter. Like I mentioned before, all I want to argue is that we must learn how to use the concept of Utopia in our own lives. And to do that, I insist that understanding the concept of Utopia correctly, understanding Utopia as the thing that we can’t achieve even if we should always try to achieve, is the most important thing.
If we continue daydreaming about Utopia, which does not exist, it is obvious that so many precious opportunities to change the society will be lost. If we continue believing in Utopia, we must or try to ignore the innate greediness of human, the necessity of competition and diversity between people. However, if we stop dreaming about it, if we notice the nonexistence of Utopia, then we can finally have a critical perspective toward society. Finally, we can plan for the best and most ideal way to make a better society than now. Eventually, we can examine the factors that disturb the creation of Utopia. Even if we cannot remove or eliminate them, we can think of ways to attenuate them. Thus, to sum up, the value of pursuing Utopia totally depends on realizing the fact that Utopia can't exist in reality. Dreaming of Utopia can be a great tool for a better society and as long as we recognize it, our future would not be that miserable. Thus, we should not stop dreaming about Utopia even though we know it cannot exist in reality. Accepting the origin of the word Utopia, is the most important step toward our better future.
References
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Communism (n.d.). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/129104/communism
French Revolution. (n.d.). In British Library. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/revolution1/troops1/troops.html
Harry R. Lewis, Ali S. Asani, Lawrence Buell, Jonathan B. Losos, Charles S. Maier, Karin B. Michels, Steven Pinker, Mathias Risse, T.M. Scanlon,John H. Shaw, Werner Sollors, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. (2011). Harvard Sampler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Richard, Dawkins. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.(Original work published 1976)
Melissa, Hogenboom. (2013, August 2). Selfish traits not favoured by evolution, study shows. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23529849
Revolution. (n.d.). In British Library. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/revolution1/revolution2.html
Sohrab, Ahmari. (2014, September 24). A Communist Utopia in Spain. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/articles/a-communist-utopia-in-spain-1411580857
Thomas More. (n.d.). In British Library. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/moreutopia.html
Utopia. (n.d.). In British Library. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/utopia.html
Utopian Communities. (n.d.). In Yale University Beinecke Rare books & Manuscript Library. Retrieved from http://brbl-archive.library.yale.edu/exhibitions/utopia/utopcom.html
Victoria, Burnett. (2009, May 25). http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/europe/26spain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
