R3wLaura Chappell

Colloquium 390U
Thomas More Utopia Response

The idea of utopia is often associated with the words ideal, peace, harmony, perfection,
and the list goes on. However, even the most perfect place on Earth you can imagine is
going to have its blind spots. These down falls stem from the fact that no society can please
every citizen who inhabits it, that is, every persons idea of perfection varies. Although it
does have its upsides, Mores utopia undoubtedly has blind spots.
Mores Utopia encompasses a problem that many other representations of utopia also
have; the loss of individualism. The goal of taking away individualism in society was to
equal out the playing field for all of its citizens. By eliminating difference among
individuals, Mores utopia also eliminates poverty, greed, jealousy, and other negative
attributes that currently exist in society due to the freedom of individuality. On the surface
this seems like a smart idea, but by taking away individualism, Mores utopia also suppresses
creativity, imagination, and ingenuity. These aspects serve as main function of society.
Without them, people rarely ever reach their full potential, and how can that be best for
society?
Similar to this loss of individualism, is the complete loss of private property. In Mores
utopia, no citizen has personal owner ship of anything, everything is simply commonwealth.
This is also meant to level the playing field among all citizens. By eliminating ownership of
private property, Mores utopia is simply restricting the growth of the society. With no
private property comes no need for money within the society. Eliminating the use of money
stifles the need for citizens to excel because they have no motivation for going above and
beyond. The reward of money plays a very important role in society. It provides an

incentive to do well, and fosters humans drive to accomplish and achieve. More tries to
make this seem like it is beneficial to society, but in reality it is not.
In addition to this, other dark sides to Mores Utopia lie within the fundamentals of his
imagined society. In Mores utopia, there still exists disease, mental illness, unfavorable
weather, and crime. If utopia is supposed to be a perfect society, then this is simply
contradicting. Although More does propose beneficial ideas in which to deal with these
ailments in society, he does not fully eliminate them, and therefore the bad effects that they
cause still exist in Mores utopia.
Perhaps the largest and most serious problems in Mores Utopia are that it does not allow
for advancements of any kind, population growth, or any form of change in general. Mores
utopia is intentionally ignorant to any technological advances in the outside world, and, as a
result, the society is stuck living in the same state for eternity. This is simply unrealistic,
because no society can sustain while remaining stagnant. If Mores utopia existed in the real
world, it would never survive because it would be impossible to not react to the
advancements in other areas of the world without failing as a society. Mores solution to this
problem is making the island on which Mores utopia exists completely isolated, which is a
problem in of itself.
All of these aspects of Mores utopia are blind spots that make it unrealistic and
unachievable. This is simply why utopia means no-place, it cannot exist in the real world
without failing. These blind spots within Mores utopia all represent social coercion, and are
oppressive as well as restrictive.