Ideal Community In Thomas More's Utopian Society

More’s Utopian society was a work of fiction with the writer exhibiting what would be considered as an ideal community that differed from the medieval view and adopted a modernist approach. In his book, Utopia, More’s main features highlight an ideal society and has been adopted today, to an extent by the society. In Utopia, the structure of the community about marriage and family is idealized. Premarital sex is severely punished and families adopt a traditional structure with elders at the head of the household. In politics and government structure, Utopians are pacifists and uphold moral and ethical practices that are well defined in the society today (Engeman 140). Work and economy in the modern society are held in high regard with everyone
The privatization of property in today’s world is among the leading causes of unhappiness even among the high social class people. This can be partly attributed to the long working hours, where the workers are forced to sell their labor to survive (Ollman 3). Economic Utopian state that the start of capitalism marks the beginning of a social defect, which is seen today in the inequalities resulting from the financial divide. About human ethics, More’s Utopia proposes a word where people are liberated from the need to work, which in turn results in happiness (Dorrestijn & Verbeek 48). The labor market today is characterized by overwhelming low wages, long working hours and poor working conditions which continuously jeopardize the safety of workers. The concept of Utopian society in the modern day society has introduced a struggle where one seeks his freedom and on the other hand, struggles with science and technology as a way of
According to Dorrestijn and Verbeek (47), technology poses a threat to the Utopian design tradition. Before the introduction of technology, the Utopian society had a positive influence on the society. That is, the society advocated families to focus their spare time on their children. In a Utopian society, traditional design involved working for six hours er day and farming that are healthy. In the modern day society, science and technology have driven the family apart and advocated for long working hours and unsafe working environments (Engeman 143). The introduction of technology, as expected has not made work easier for man, Rather, there is an increased trend of long working hours with advancing technology with business operating for the full 24 hours in a day. The increasing unhappiness persists in the society despite financial gain. In a Utopian society, there are minimal laws and no need for lawyers owing to no crime as each person accepts their role in their society and contributes positively. Today, negligence and technology are attributed to the rising incidence of crime. There is an observed trend in juvenile crime, and exposure to social media and the internet has led to the evolution of new crimes. Many interventions approached today to adopt a Utopian approach to help