Utopia's Origin in the More's and Hopes

Utopia's origin in the More's and hopes of the individual author's times. Utopia is the place where all our needs are balanced by abundant resources. Utopia is believed to be a perfect state, a place which has social justice, political peace, and moral harmony in all aspects of life.

If such a place did exist, how would it be structured? How would people work and live together in harmony, while at the same time have all their needs met, and live in abundance so that their desires for profit, prosperity, and personal freedom were met? In 1516, Sir Thomas Moore wrote his epic "Utopia." His work was the result of political and social unrest, and the goal of his work seemed to be to unsettle the thinking of the English empire.

Long settled in its methods of economy, personal, religious and cultural life, England had grown to be a nation of striking economic dichotomies. On one end of the social scale, the wealthy lived large, without care for the excesses of their time. At the other end of the scale were the poor commoners. In Moore's England, there was very little middle class. Moore's Utopia was written with a model society which did not know the stark contrasts between the rich and poor.

Moore blends a variety of philosophical influences in order to arrive at the picture of a social order which was harmonious, and beneficial to all members. Moore's society was a communistic democracy that functioned to the benefit of all its members, and not an aristocracy Like Britain's existing government. The values, and morals of Moore's Utopia reflected the desires of the common man in England at the time of his writing, and the response of a socially conscious writer who wanted to see the inequities erased.

In Moore's Utopia, every man and women mastered one craft and was also a farmer. A person spent only six hours working each day, which left a larger amount of spare time which could be applied to useful pursuits such as reading and attending lectures. Moore's Utopians believed freedom and cultivation of the mind is the good life, where happiness lies. Accordingly, scholars were exempted from work devote themselves to learning.

Citizens select the members of this pseudo-elite group, and from it citizens also determine the nominees for city positions of political leadership. Each community shared resources among its citizens and with other cities. In a mirror image of Marx's communist dreams, all produce was distributed according to need without the exchange of money, and each city also kept a surplus, often shared with neighboring communities in need. Public health care was available and the Utopians regarded medicine as one of the most beautiful and useful philosophies.

What Moore failed to consider is why citizens would work to contribute to the well-being of others without the hope of monetary reward, or profit, in essence, without receiving the means to a better life for themselves. On the other hand, Francis Bacon's Utopia, which was written some 100 years later, was not a product of social commentary, but rather a hopeful look forward to the possible outcome of the age of enlightenment which was spreading its influence across the European continent.

Where Moore based his utopia on a political system which centered on social justice and equal sharing of goods to all men, Bacon built his utopia on three cornerstones of his century which were promised to usher in greater societal prosperity and peace. The first images greeting the reader on Bacon's work is deeply religious symbolism. Bacon's utopia has a strong and saturating commitment to religious life within its people.

The primary emphasis of this in Bacon's work is shown in the first conversation which the explorers have with the member of the utopian society. The travelers first find a sign with religious symbolism, and then when approached by a person, Bacon writes this of he first encounter. And thereupon the man, whom I before described, stood up, and with a loud voice in Spanish asked, "Are ye Christians?" We answered, "We were;" fearing the less, because of the cross we had seen in the subscription.

At which answer the said person lift up his right hand toward heaven, and drew it softly to his mouth (which is the gesture they use, when they thank God)," The second cornerstone of the economic and social prosperity which Bacon's society enjoys is the widespread success of ocean bearing trade. The people have an elaborate system which keeps members at sea, seeking to trade and bring home treasures. At the time of Bacon's writing, ocean going trade was the source of a nation's ability to build wealth.

The new world and been discovered, and by the mid-1600's, ships were traveling back and forth between England and the America's carrying gold, agricultural goods, and mountains of rare treasures which had never been seen in England. The increasing power of the ocean going vessels to find seemingly unending treasures through merchant voyages was extended into Bacon's utopia. If small companies could increase wealth for small groups of people, then in his island nation, the entire nation could increase their wealth by a full commitment to the same.

The third cornerstone in Bacon's utopia is the nation's extensive involvement in making progress through the scientific community, and expanding their knowledge thorough scientific research. While the other two are assumed components of the social order, the commitment to the scientific method, and industry which arose thorough the pursuit of scientific research seems to be at the core of Bacon's work.

When the travelers in Bacon's story are finished describing the society, and they sit down to spend time with the leader of the city, they are told the following: Son, to make you know the true state of Salomon's House, I will keep this order. First, I will set forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly, the preparations and instruments we have for our works. Thirdly, the several employments and functions whereto our fellows are assigned. And fourthly, the ordinances and rites which we observe.

The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible. The preparations and instruments are these: We have large and deep caves of several depths; the deepest are sunk 600 fathoms; and some of them are digged and made under great hills and mountains; so that if you reckon together the depth of the hill and the depth of the cave, they are, some of them, above three miles deep.

For we find that the depth of a hill and the depth of a cave from the flat are the same thing; both remote alike from the sun and heaven's beams, and from the open air. These caves we call the lower region. And we use them for all coagulations, indurations, refrigerations, and conservations of bodies. We use them likewise for the imitation of natural mines and the producing also of new artificial metals, by compositions and materials which we use and lay there for many years.

We use them also sometimes (which may seem strange) for curing of some diseases, and for prolongation of life, in some hermits that choose to live there, well accommodated of all things necessary, and indeed live very long; by whom also we learn many things." It is clear from this exposition on the foundation of the community's strengths and successes that Bacon believed that a utopian society could be built from a religious community which spent their efforts increasing the amount of religious devotion among its people, spent its economic energy trading abroad, and spent its industry on the creation of scientific knowledge.

Interesting to note also that a key to Bacon's society was the ability of the people to overcome death, and thereby continue to amass knowledge through the work of the 'hermits' who chose to live in the caves where the scientific research was undertaken. These 'hermits' became the depositories of knowledge for the community. Since they did not die, they were able to continue to amass wisdom and knowledge. Since the community did know loose their accumulated knowledge, the community also benefited.

Many types of economic structures have been established in attempts to build a utopian structure. Democracy stands for the largest population as a fair means of governing, because every person has a voice in the process of living. Socialist governments assume that in a democracy, the selfishness of the people gets in the way of truly achieving a balance of social and economic equilibrium.

In a democracy, the socialists insist, there is always a group of 'haves' and another of 'have nots' which create the economic disparity which Moore wrote against. The differences between the people causes lack of fairness, lack of opportunity, and thereby lack of utopian peace. The socialist solution is for a group, or governing board of individuals who are committed to the people's welfare to make decisions regarding economic activity.

Moore, writing from the position of supporting such a system, established a society in which much of the countries wealth and wealth producing mechanisms are controlled by the government, and allotted to the people as the laws, and government policies determine will best suit them. As Marx's hypothesis suggested, Moore envisioned a society in which the people all worked together for the common good. They expressed their goals for self-improvement not thorough economic advancement, which inevitably lead to economic disparity between peoples, but instead they developed an intellectual advancement.

Social prosperity flourished because the people applied themselves to reading, and social enlightenment. Bacon however, included the economic engine as a source of prosperity for his island nation. The power of commerce to bring to the English empire during Bacon's time was astounding, and he could not envision a society which could build a wealth producing engine without the participation of ocean going commerce. He did not address the presupposed social ills of capitalism. He seemed to be a free market thinker rather than his socialist contemporary Moore.

For Bacon, because the entire island was committed to the enterprise, and participated in a fairly formal trading schedule, the entire nation prospered and benefited. Bacon seems to take these first two elements of his utopia's structure as given and necessary elements of any modern society. For Bacon, the religious devotion was not a contradiction to the community's involvement in science, and scientific investigation.

At the time of his writing, Darwin's assumptions about the evolution of the species had not yet been published, and most scientists were just as devoted to their sciences as they were their religions. Science was seen as a way of understanding God's creation. It was not until Darwin that science was looked upon as a means of eliminating God from the social order. So Bacon's creation of a society which was equally committed to science and to religion was not the contradiction which today's readers may believe.

At the core of Bacon's society was a deep and saturation involvement in the use of science to expand knowledge, which thus benefited the society. As the leader of the city talks with his visitors, he described at length the different elements and individual fields in which they are engaged in scientific study and investigation. The preparations and instruments are these: We have large and deep caves of several depths..

We use them likewise for the imitation of natural mines and the producing also of new artificial metals, by compositions and materials which we use and lay there for many years. We use them also sometimes (which may seem strange) for curing of some diseases, and for prolongation of life.. We have burials in several earths, where we put divers cements, as the Chinese do their porcelain. But we have them in greater variety, and some of them more fine.

We also have great variety of composts and soils, for the making of the earth fruitful. We have high towers, the highest about half a mile in height, and some of them likewise set upon high mountains, so that the vantage of the hill with the tower is in the highest of them three miles at least. And these places we call the upper region, account the air between the high places and the low as a middle region.

We use these towers, according to their several heights and situations, for insulation, refrigeration, conservation, and for the view of divers meteors.. We have great lakes, both salt and fresh, whereof we have use for the fish and fowl.. We have dispensatories or shops of medicines; wherein you may easily think, if we have such variety of plants, and living creatures, more than you have in Europe (for we know what you have), the simples, drugs, and ingredients of medicines, must likewise be in so much the greater variety..

We have also divers mechanical arts, which you have not; and stuffs made by them, as papers, linen, silks, tissues, dainty works of feathers of wonderful lustre, excellent dyes, and many others.. All of these elements, research, fine materials, medicines, knowledge, overcoming aging, represent different elements of the current English society which the people either could not overcome, or from which the people had begun to find great wealth. The colonial era was rich with promise, and the promise of wealth from trading held the promise of a utopia.

The advancements of science in the areas of medicine was beginning to discover cures for diseases, therefore in Bacon's utopia he believed that continued advancements in these areas would continue to bring advancements in social order, prosperity and happiness. The change that occurred between Moore and Bacon's approach to utopia could have been a reflection of the knowledge gained in another experience in utopia building. Marx' theories were relatively untested at the time of Moore's writings.

The social inequities were severe in England, and the idea of a society which worked and shared communally was an untried approach to building social equity. However, by the time which Bacon put pen to paper, the socialist approach had been tried in a new, and virgin territory, and it had failed miserably. When the settlers came to American in 1622, the settlers in the Jamestown colony almost failed to build a foothold on the new world by applying socialist theory.

The first year, which was so devastating to the community, the group of settlers approached life from a communal mindset, in which all contributed to a common cause. However, it seemed that some were higher contributors than others, and the resulting dis-utopian feelings which were engendered harmed the entire community. According to Governor Bradford's own journal, of 1693, the winter after the first full year in America was described this way. Spring of 1622: "In the spring of 1622, the Colonists complained they were too weak.