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| Utopia by Thomas More |
| Description (from Wikipedia.org) St. Thomas More depicts a rationally organized society, through the narration of an explorer who discovers it - Raphael Hythlodaeus. Utopia is largely based on Plato's Republic. It is a perfect version of Republic wherein the beauties of society reign (eg: equalism and a general pacifist attitude), although its citizens are all ready to fight if need be. The evils of society, eg: poverty and misery, are all removed. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, but hires mercenaries from among its war-prone neighbors (these mercenaries were deliberately sent into dangerous situations in the hope that the more war-like populations of all surrounding countries will be weeded out, leaving peaceful peoples). The society encourages tolerance of all religions, but not of atheism, since the people believe that a man must fear some God, else he shall act evilly and their society will weaken. Some readers have chosen to accept this imaginary society as the realistic blueprint for a working nation, while others have postulated More intended nothing of the like. Some maintain the position that More's Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, a work intended to reveal more about England than about an idealistic society. This interpretation is bolstered by the title of the book and nation, and its apparent derivation from the Greek for "no place" and "good place": "Utopia" is a compound of the syllable eu, meaning good, and topos, meaning place. But the homonymous prefix ou, with the meaning "no," also resonates in the word: the perfectly "good place" is really "no place." |