Utopia as Promotion of Peace and Realization of Human Dreams - Essay Example

Utopia Utopia is largely described as the perfect of affairs; every sane mind would aspire for such a ofaffairs where things are always as they appear. There is no risk of “cards under the table” as individuals making up the societies are as ideal. Of course, this sounds impossible and this is one of the calls, which surfaces when people call for a redefinition of a Utopian state. One of the individuals who seem to identify and seek to come up with an actual definition that explains achievable status is Lyman Tower Sargent. Sargent starts by pointing at the need for utopia for individuals in the society. But the utopia Sargent envisages is not that which presents a perfect state as this is impossible in the contemporary world. Instead, he describes utopia to be situations that strive to better humanity and give hope to individuals. The critical thing in her redefinition is not the perfect states but a better state, which sees the betterment of all situations and circumstances. A good life gives hope to those leading it and provides quality for human life, it is so critical because when people lose hope they lose their worthiness of life. In these situations humanity stares at extinction as a hopeless generation has no future. Sargent stresses that utopia is not at fault but what is at fault is the notion that there only exists one type of utopia. This is because there exists three segments of utopia that are the design or theory, the utopian movement and the utopian studies (Sargent 11-17). Sargent points at the need for humanity to sustain hope; hope is the gateway to a better life and a wonderful future. Sargent points out that the link between a successful life and a life of despair is the ability of humanity to cling to hope. If one ever loses this vital component then they lose their sight on a bright future, which would definitely lead to betterment of life. According to Sargent utopia is the mother of humanitarian movements, these seek to ensure a better society by facing off with retrogressive groupings or practices in the society. Another example of a believer in utopia is John W. Friesen and Virginia Agnes Lyons Friesen who detail existence of several different utopian societies. Through their book The Palgrave Companion to North American Utopias, the two authors assert that every human being in the past and in the current aspires to live in a utopian society. The illustration of this statement is given by citing a number of utopian North America societies. They go further to point that achieving a utopia society is possible at least to the extent of Sargents definition, the way to achieve such a society is well detailed in their book (Friesen & Friesen). Defining Utopia brings more problems than it solves, as people have different conceptions on what it is and how it can be defined. Some of the definitions that have been forwarded define utopia as a creation of the mind where people and systems act and operate efficiently. In trying to define utopia other related terms come into the limelight such as dystopia and anti utopia. Dystopia is the extreme opposite of utopia and represents a situation where all things and people are messy. However, Sargent holds that utopia is not an extreme condition of goodness but a more realistic situation of a better society or situations. Situations that give people a chance to better their lives and embrace change which is beneficial to them. The ability to better lives and embrace change is the drive behind social movements which share in the dream of a utopian community. These movements seek to help people embrace change and motivate them to better their lives by remaining hopeful. This also explains why these movements seek to be all inclusive, because they hold that unification is not a divided calling but an inclusive call which seeks to integrate humanity in entirety. Dystopia also becomes an integral situation in defining a utopian state as dystopia represents a situation where mankind takes charge and lets their ego rule instead of their minds. The end result is oppression of the ruled and a manipulated society whose destiny is destruction. The main difference between a utopian society and the dystopian society is that the earlier is founded on harmony and betterment of humanity. While utopian societies provide a breeding ground for these desirable qualities dystopian societies strive to stifle these elements by instilling fear and oppressing people who eventually become hopeless. The resulting fear makes society fear the likely outcomes of the brutal and uneventful practices. Thus in summary dystopia is used to discourage people from achieving a utopian society. At the end of the day the fundamental difference is that utopia advocates for an ideal life. A look at Sargent efforts to redefine utopia clearly indicates that her idea of utopia is a driving force for human beings. A force that seeks to ensure that human beings achieve a better society in which people continually search for chances to improve their status quo as they aspire for a better future. As was mentioned earlier there are three distinct types of utopia. The other does not seek idealism but is more inclined to human progress. At the centre of utopia is the belief that human beings are driven by a desire to a better life and a perfect society. Sargent’s type of utopia is seen to have three faces unfortunately; people have chosen to focus on definitions at the expense of examining the designs. According to Sargent, utopia as described is a good idea and its benefits are dependent on how utopian ideas and beliefs are implemented. However, these should only be implemented by a society which seeks idealism or has some aspirations of attaining perfection. Unfortunately, the idea of ideal situations is not constant and keeps changing. Irrespective of these changes the society should always seek to adjust its aspirations with an alteration of the definitions for perfect situations. Utopian elements should always seek to affirm themselves within the framework of society in order to provide the way and provide a means to a balanced and ideal society. However, this should always be done with caution as to much focus on the future leaves little space for watching the current status. A loss of control at presents limits the chance of achieving a better situation in future and it might well be understood that too much ambition is not good. Another critical consideration for utopian elements is a constant adjustment not only to the definitions of idealism but to the needs of the society as well. This is because well and beyond a perfect society there are needs and aspirations of these people and meeting these requirements are what relay defines the pro activeness of utopia. In North America society’s utopia not only supported social systems but also came in handy in building steady economic structures which ensured survival. More so, utopian elements sought to establish an economic system which derived benefits to all members of society not to specific individuals. It achieved that by discouraging private entitlements as this was seen as the means to unhealthy competition and would promote egocentrism which at the end of the day would not be good for the society. The other aspiration for the society was to lead a simple life, this is because complexity would blur people’s focus on purpose and the society would lose it’s strive to achieve perfection. As gathered from these observations and an analysis of Sargent argument utopian societies seek peace, development and at the end of the day hope to achieve an ideal society. Philosophically peace in society was talked about as a resultant of state respect to each other and respect to its people. Among the most renowned philosophers who advocated or continually talked of peace was Emmanuel Kant. Emmanuel Kant exhaustively implores on factors that impact on peace and thus determine existence of peace between states. These factors are discussed exhaustively. This condition requires that every party to a peace contract must seek to address all issues which may result to war in the near future. These issues may include unresolved issues or may result from a situation where warring parties result to peace treaties not because the find the need to but because they feel exhausted of warring. If this is not the case then it becomes impossible to achieve perpetual peace which is essential in a utopian society. Kant identified that unless states ensured mutual respect there was no way peace would be achieved. Mutual respect would suffer where states took over others through any of the aforementioned ways. The fear here is that the states taking over would not safeguard the beliefs, ideals of these states. Besides, these would not be able sustain growth a critical aspect of a utopian society. It is important to realize that a state is not so much of the soil or other physical features but is about those individuals who make up the governance unit. “Standing armies shall in time be totally abolished” this is because these appear to be always ready for war which is both intimidating and incensing. As Kant observes in such circumstances it becomes much easier to engage in war momentarily than to live straining yourself against such intimidating opposition. This way it is hoped that the state will wade itself against such burden and even though it ensures peace it leads to disruption of a utopian state. Kant identifies that debt is essential in developing a nation. This is because resources available to the state are not enough to support all its systems (Hudson 58). However, this should not be used to build systems which undermine the position of other states. Interference of another state amounts to insubordination which prompts aggression. Aggression which disrupts peace and well being of humanity, also interference of a constitution which may lead to inequality of law may prompt similar response and consequences. Kant observed that even in the event of a war a state is not allowed to use some underhand attempts to stifle the opposition. It should stick to the permitted ways of war and refrain from activities such as hiring snipers. This is because even in conclusion of war there is still a lot of suspicion which may make it impossible to achieve peace or sustain peace. In conclusion, utopian states are those which seek promotion of peace, realization of human dreams, betterment of life and perfection. However, the complexities of life have made it impossible to achieve such extreme realities and this has resulted to redefinition of utopian states as those which ensure betterment. Betterment means that individuals continue to improve both at a personal level and at the societal level. Of course this cannot be achieved without purpose that is where philosophers such as Kan point at the importance of upholding certain principles as a means of achieving peace. It should be noted without peace none of the utopian states can be achieved this explains why peace should always be a prerequisite. As Sargent points out in such circumstances idealism or at least betterment will be achieved. Works Cited Claeys, Gregory. The Cambridge companion to utopian Literature . Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2010. Davis, C.J. Utopia and the Ideal Society: Astudy of English Utopian writing 1516-1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Friesen, John and Virginia Friesen. The palgrave companion to North American Utopias. New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2004. Hudson, H. The refrom of utopia: Law, ethics and governance. . Ashagate: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. , 2003. Kant, Emmanuel and Ted Humphrey. To perpetual peace: a philosophical sketch. New York: Hackett Publishing, 2003. Sargnet, Lyman. "In defense of utopia." Diogenes 55(1) (2006): 11-17. Sargisson, L. Contemporary feminist utopianism:Women and politics. New York: Routledge, 1996. Read More