So this week was a fun week! Okay not so much, but Dr. Tucker was back and we actually got to do stuff so that was cool. This week's focus was on good ol' Saint (Sir) Thomas More and his book Utopia. Basically what happened is that Thomas and Peter Giles ran into this guy who traveled with Amerigo Vespucci, and he found this island called Utopia. Basically to cut the story short, Utopia was Russia, just without Stalin, the frigid cold winters, and labor camps. All the people had jobs, helped out with farming, wore the same clothes, and had no private property, and it seems all good and dandy until you realize while you're reading that this wouldn't be a fun place to live. Here's why:
1) Everyone wears the same clothes, and as a girl I just don't like this. There would be no individualism!
2) No private property means that everyone would have free reign over everything. I would need my space!
3) Only essential jobs would mean that there wouldn't be any cultural or political advancement. We'd be stuck in a rut, doing the same exact thing, day after day.
4) Everyone helps out with farming- sorry some people aren't cut out for farming.
5) Everyone's one big happy family, and that's just not human nature.
I know I probably sound like a Debbie Downer, but there is a reason that communism and Utopian societies, don't really last, it's because it's against our nature. We are competetive beings; we are ambitious; and we don't really like sharing. Somewhere in the middle of all the feel good stuff, greed and jealousy creep in. I am not saying that we are born evil, I am not going Machiavelli on you, but we are very susceptible to evil thoughts. Corruption will arise in these type of societies sooner or later.
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