09.04 - Different Utopias

For the first part of class today, we spent time as a whole class discussing whether or not Thomas More's country "Utopia" would actually be a more perfect world. Our discussion focused on the affects of different conditions, laws, and social policies looking at their long term affects and how they would interact. Some features of this discussion included:

- As an isolated island the society may experience problems with over population and a lack of sufficient natural resources (made worse by the fact that they have no relations with other countries and therefore no imports/exports to rely on).

- Having a variety of very specific laws, but no lawyers could lead to poor representation in the courts and mean that some people are not fairly judged by the law.

- More claims that society will be free of rivalry, however, there are several different towns on the island and local political elections. Different geographic areas and politics introduce natural forms of rivalry that this society would be unable to deal with.

- People in Utopia own slaves which means that the country is a perfect place, except for those who are slaves in which case it is a terrible place.

Next, we looked at John Lennon's song "Imagine" (song above) as another version of a utopia (which has since come to mean an ideal or near-perfect society). Everyone looked at this individually (reading questions below) and then we discussed whether or not Lennon's vision for the world would really lead to a utopian society. Elements of this discussion included:

- The song only refers to basic principles for the society. It does not enumerate specific rules that people should follow like More's did (men marry at 22, no trading with other countries, this country must be an island, etc.)

- This eliminates some of the problems that we saw in More's utopian society. Lines like "imagine no possessions" could eliminate arguments over physical property and would mean that there could be no slavery since a slave is viewed as a possession. This might be difficult if someone wanted to have some sort of personal property (a favorite coffee mug or a nice dress).

- Ideas like "no religion" could be helpful to eliminate religious disagreements, but it could also set the society up for failure as people tend towards some sort of religious belief.

We then looked at how attempts at Utopia can also lead to the opposite sort of society, one where everything is really terrible: a distopia. As an example we looked at how the world envisioned by Hitler was meant to be a nazi utopia, but for everyone that was not a fervent nazi it was the worst possible society, a complete distopia. Often in fiction, authors show us distopias as a way of commenting on how a specific social trend (if carried too far) could lead to terrible consequences.

To explore this idea, I handed out copies of Kurt Vonneguts short story "Harrison Bergeron." Tonight, everyone should read the story and annotate the text as a means of analyzing what message Vonnegut is trying to send in writing the story. We will be working on an in class essay on this topic tomorrow.

Handouts:
"Imagine" by John Lennon (with reading questions)
"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut

Homework:

Reading Vonneguts "Harrison Bergeron" and annotate the text with a focus on identifying what message he is sending in writing the story.

Continue revisions on your essay for A Separate Peace. Revisions are due Friday, 9/12.
If you did not originally submit an essay you may submit the essay by Friday, 9/12, but will not have an opportunity for revision.