Sunday, September 29, 2019

Utopia (Thomas More)

Thomas More
Utopia



Classic text on government which sets out the advantages of a co-operative way of living where each takes according to need rather than greed, or production. Some would call it anarchy and others communism. Same difference taken to their natural conclusions. Not that Utopia as described is free of government but it's the way it's implemented. Utopia is interesting as it was written when there was still a lot of common land in Britain but it was being taken away from "the people" and given to landlords under acts or by violence. Today's local government owned land is not the same. From More's time onwards industrialisation hand in hand with capitalism has pushed people from community living to large cities where community is difficult to maintain especially related to governance. Or not. The latter parts go into great detail about enforced social regulations and it does tend to stray from the anarchist idea of utopia. Whether this particular society is utopia or dystopia or a bit of both is open to question and dependent on viewpoint and this aspect is covered in the essays included in the book. A good read.

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