Why Not?

Perfection. Just the word itself makes us curious. It’s something that no one has ever achieved, but we all strive for it whether we acknowledge it or not. No one strives to be mediocre or unsuccessful. Everywhere we look, we are pushed to “do our best” and “climb to the top”. But the word also makes us cautious and a bit hesitant because, although we are told things like "Practice makes perfect", we are also told that there is no such thing as perfection. Confusing, right? Like c’mon society make up your mind! To the majority of us though, the reality is that there is no such thing as a perfect anything. And because this is engraved in our minds is one of the major reasons why many of us believe that a utopia cannot be achieved.

It is said that no one has achieved perfection, but just because no one has achieved it, who says it is impossible? The answer is probably everyone around us. But why is it that we think this way? Because someone said so?


Everything we know and believe in has been taught to us. We have been fed these “truths” and are just expected to swallow it. Expected to believe that it is the law of the land. We are taught, by social media greatly, what beauty is and is supposed to look like. Celebrities are portrayed a certain way on social media, that makes us feel as though they may be close to perfection. A way that sets the bar incredibly high for everyone, and we are basically told, to be considered this way, you have to be just like this person. You need to look, dress and act a certain way. 

And just as we are implanted these standards of beauty, we are implanted everything else in our lives.

Could this be one of the reasons why we believe a utopia is unachievable? Because we have been told that this is what a utopia is supposed to be; it is supposed to be perfect? Says who?

Similarly, we are taught that in this world for there to be good there needs to be bad. In Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas, a (possible) utopian society is being described. It talks about all the beautiful aspects of this utopia. The festival, the joy of the naked people. (Hey, maybe that’s the key to happiness, running around naked.) And, at this point, the reader is left thinking, “well damn, I want to live in Omelas!” As the story continues, it takes us to another part of Omelas. The dark side. Not like the Star Wars dark side, like some crazy, disturbing dark side. Like, a kid sitting in a cold dark room, alone and hungry, sitting in his own excrement, so the rest of society can be happy, type dark side. Yes, you read that right. In this short story a poor, innocent child must suffer for the rest of society to be happy. And just like us, the many people of Omelas who know of this child’s existence are just told that there is no other way for them to be happy. And, just like us, they swallow what they are fed, without questioning who the heck came up with this nonsense?

Just like in Omelas, we are also fed that for society to function there must be this hierarchy of rich to poor. That for there to be prosperous people with nice lives there has to be people who struggle. And that’s it. We are left to just swallow the fact that although we could live in a society where everyone is equal and wealth is shared (my kind of utopia) it just “doesn’t work that way”.


But why just settle with what we are told? Just because no one has reached a perfect anything, doesn’t mean it is not real. And just because no one has reached a truly perfect society, doesn’t mean it is not possible. Just because it’s nicer to be spoon fed “facts” rather than hunting for them ourselves doesn’t mean we should just settle and believe everything we are told. We should question why can't things be different for a change. 

Why can't there be social and economic equality? Why must we settle for average? Why can't there exist perfection away from your standards? Why can't we live in a utopia?

A utopia society could be possible if we stopped believing that, one: a utopia must be perfect; and two: everything we are told and the standards set by society are the only way to look at the world.

Kelsey C. Words: 776

Work Cited
Le Guin, Ursula. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." The Winds Twelve Quarters: Short Stories. 1999.

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