Utopia: Possible or Impossible?

Many people have different ideas and opinions as to what a Utopia is. To me, a utopia is an organized society in which there is no crime, there is financial stability as well as equal treatment and opportunity amongst everyone. For this to happen, every member of the Utopian society must be on the same page. Every member of the society must also be willing to work for the greater good of all and not personal benefit. There can be no social status or hierarchy. Everyone should be willing to share. A community that falls under these requirements perfectly is the community of Twin Oaks.
Located in Virginia, Twin Oaks is a closed community, home to around 100 residents. Here, there is a shared economy where residents get an allowance and they all work for one another. Everyone in this community has access to all the same resources including food, shelter, and a great education. This sounds great and all, but if this place is so perfect, why do more people not live here? Why do approximately 20 people leave a year? Could it be that to them, this is not a “perfect society”? Is a perfect society truly even possible?

In my opinion, the answer to that question is no because, mainly, not everyone’s idea of utopia is the same.

Twin Oaks is not the only utopia that has ever been tried. One different idea/form of utopia that rose in the 16th century is communism. Communism, like utopia, has many different interpretations but in Michael Dhar’s article “What is Communism” it is referred to as “an ideology of economic equality through the elimination of private property.” That sounds a bit like a utopia to me. But of course, it’s meaning has been twisted during its executions throughout the years. Communists such as Kim Jong-Il, Nicolae Ceausescu and Fidel Castro have made the idea of communism stray far from a utopia. Kim Jong-Il’s government lead to several famines in North Korea. Jong-Il was also referred to as “Dear Leader” (and his father as “Great Leader”), creating a social hierarchy with Jong-Il at the very top. In Romania, the Ceausescu family, referred to at the time as the first family, ruled everything and almost lead the country through a famine during the mid 80’s while also removing rights such as freedom of speech from their citizens. As for Cuba, during the rise of the Castro family, the promise of things such as universal education and better health care were made but these promises soon only lead to deaths and imprisonment of anyone who disagreed with their way of rule and a dictatorship that still reigns today. These communist governments all go against the ideals of a Utopian society, with crime and inequality being prominent in all of them.  

Right now, you are probably thinking that this is just one failed attempt of a utopia, that the leaders of these countries were just power hungry and that a Utopian society should not have any leaders anyway. But how can there be an organized society with no leader or some type of order regulation? Since the earliest forms of society, there have always been leaders for the groups of people because without them there is chaos. I mean, there’s even a movie based on 12 hours with no government and the people literally result to mass murders (I am referring to “The Purge” and if you are interested in learning more you can check that out here). With and without leaders there is disagreement, which is another reason why I believe a Utopian society is not truly achievable.

From differences in cultures to religious beliefs, everyone has different ideals. In my eyes, the answer to whether or not a utopia is possible is no. In Latin American culture, there is the saying “Cada cabeza es un mundo,” which means each mind is a world of its own. Everyone thinks differently about even the most minimal things, so how could we possibly agree as to what a perfect society would be? Whoa, I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it. No but seriously, the fact that things like racism even existed and still exist in this world to this day, goes to show how differently people think about even just others’ rights. To Hitler, the events that occurred during the Holocaust were just steps leading up to the creation of a perfect society and I am pretty sure none of us believe that that was anywhere near a utopia. Unless you do, then that would just further prove my point, and also make me question your morals.

Kelsey C. Words: 820


Work Cited
Begg, Yusuf. “Sunday ET: 10 Communist Leaders and the Rot They Spawned” The Economic Times, 10 Mar. 2013, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18884138.cms?intenttarget=no&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Dhar, Michael. “What is Communism?” Live Science, 30 Jan. 2014, http://www.livescience.com/42980-what-is-communism.html.

Robertson, Gary. “A Cultivated Community” Richmond Mag, 18 June 2013, http://richmondmagazine.com/news/a-cultivated-community-06-18-2013/.
“The Purge” IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/.  

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