Utopia?

So, I learned at class that these posts should be posted before class. Oops. Well, I'll get ahead of the game from now on...

Utopia has been the talk of philosophers since Thomas More coined the phrase in 1516. Although More did not intend to create a 'perfect' society, the word has been used to describe such in modern times.

Many people write about the possibility of Utopia. Kevin, in our class, discusses possibility of Utpoia in his blog post. I would rather want to pose the question: Should Utopia be possible?

The Giver by Lois Lowry has been one of favorite childhood books. It begins by introducing the reader to a utopian society with no feelings, no color, and seemingly perfect harmony. This tends to be the underlying theme of all utopian fiction. It might seem perfect, but it is far from ideal.

Since I LOVE movies so much, I turn to cinema for how society has portrayed cinema. There are several utopian movies that I have seen, but each has a catch. Gattaca, Logan's Run, Wall-e, The Stepford Wives, Blade Runner, Minority Report, Equilibrium all have elements of utopia, but all have the flaws of utopia as well.

In this technological world, we have the ability to create utopias for ourselves. Second Life, The Sims, and World of Warcraft all provide a (possibly) utopian virtual world for us to escape to. These levels of Virtual Reality can only take us away from the real world around us. (See Lawnmower Man for a perfect example of getting too caught up in the unreal).



Kevin pointed out in his post that "If there are no challenges and problems, how could we progress?" I would go further to say that 'if there is no evil, how would we know good?"

A utopian society may be successful for the Millennium, but until then, I will take my flawed world. In all actuality, a flawed world is a perfect world.