For over 500 years the word Utopia has circulated around the world. Invented by Thomas More, an English lawyer, statesman, and writer who lived in the 16th century. Utopia is defined as an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. More’s concept “would shape books, philosophies and political movements as varied as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine of passive resistance and the founding of the state of Pennsylvania (BBC).” In Thomas More’s Utopia, More is introduced to Raphael Hythloday, a philosopher and world traveler who lived on the island of Utopia for five years before returning to Europe. Throughout the book Hythloday explains the society created by the people of the island. The essential aim of Utopia is social justice, which has an “objective of creating a fair and equal society in which each individual matters, their rights are recognized and protected, and decisions are made in ways that are fair and honest (Oxford Reference).” While Utopia’s society is structured to achieve social justice through its communal living and shared property, the society’s unfair punishments and flawed social structure prohibits it from guaranteeing social justice to all people.

Hythloday presents his view that his ideas on Utopia, which are fair and will create prosperity, will never be accepted until the idea of private property is abolished and communal property is established. The Utopians abolished private property to prevent “unequal distribution” (More 113). Hythloday was influenced by the Greek Philosopher Plato, who in The Republic calls for communal property as the basis for the ideal city. Hythloday has been to Utopia and seen a society of communal property in operation. Hythloday describes the effort the island has put into curing social problems. He also describes their technical capabilities, explaining how a ship carrying Egyptian and Roman sailors once shipwrecked on the island; from these men, the Utopians adopted virtually all of the technical skills of those two great empires creating the Utopian society that they lived in.

Thomas More has influenced many who have attempted to emulate his idea of Utopia. Among those names William Penn, Mahatma Gandhi, and Walt Disney are memorable because they took many of More’s teachings and utilized them to influence their people or create a Utopian society. William Penn’s desire to establish a “City Upon a hill” which was his idea of creating a perfect society for the people. “Penn sought to establish a Utopian Society of toleration and peace like many others before and the many who he influenced in the generations to come” (Cecil 54). While Gandhi used utopianism to resolve the ideological crisis in which Indian nationalism had found itself at the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. These Utopian teachings resulted in Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine of passive resistance and the founding of the state of Pennsylvania. These ideas have even carried on to this day. Robert Kozinets discusses how many Utopian discourses are posted on Social media, more commonly on YouTube. This allows “people [to] watch a utopian YouTube video about the vision of a modern savior figure, post a few comments, and dream about a better future” (Kozinets). Plans have been made for the future in order to find a new way of life. Walt Disney has created a Utopian plan in which “a small city of about 20,000 inhabitants who would live and work in a ‘laboratory city’ filled with the latest consumer innovations from new science and technology” (Kozinets). This is one of the most innovative plans created in hopes to be able to find a path to Utopia. Creating a Utopia consists of many elements that were portrayed by Thomas More.

One of the ways that Utopia aims to establish social justice is through equality. Utopia requires complete change from the normal lifestyle that society goes by. In normal societies, social classes are very much present and used to describe a specific group of people who belong to a similar living culture. However, Utopia must aim to remove these descriptions making everyone be seen as equal. In order to make this happen society must transform from “a world of privileged collectives to a world of common privilege” (Bartolovich). Since everyone in the Utopian community is similar in most ways, classes and poverty are eliminated. All the people in Utopia put the same effort while working on different crafts, everyone works towards the public good and this contributes a lot to the success of the Utopian society because “no objective can be achieved without a minimum of agreement on the part of the individuals involved ” (Huriot 4). Workdays are usually six hours long and no one works “unnecessarily, for the main purpose of their whole economy is to give each person as much time free, ... so that he can cultivate his mind” (More 59). There is no reason to flaunt your wealth because money is not a necessity; all people dress the same and only have a few pieces of clothing to wear every day. Similar to equality in the workplace, gender equality is present in some ways. Women have a choice to work rather than being forced to stay home to a certain extent. Women have a choice to work rather than being forced to stay home. Not only is a woman allowed to work, but “if she’d rather go with her husband to the front” (More 95) she is allowed to do so. However, a gender divide is present since the occupation that women acquire differ from those given to men. Although equality is about equal rights, social justice still requires equity which eliminates barriers to guarantee equal opportunities for all people of the society.

Utopia gives equal opportunities when it comes to gender and race, but physical condition must be taken into consideration to provide equity. All people are to eat in dining halls except for those who are sick. “When people are ill, they’re looked after most sympathetically, and given everything in the way of medicine and special food that could possibly assist recovery” (More 83). Sick people rest in public hospitals that are built to take good care of them. Everyone gets a fair share of food and since the elderly are more vulnerable, they are given food first. Utopians are very inclusive; they work together and make each other feel welcome. For example, “if you start laughing at anyone who’s ugly or deformed everyone will start laughing at you” (More 86). Another form of equity is that every person is eligible to vote. In Utopia every thirty households has a community leader that is called the “syphogrant” that is voted by the people and the syphogrants are in charge of electing the prince through a secret ballot. The prince is meant to rule for his whole life, but if he is seen as a tyrant by the people he can be removed. All decisions made by the prince and his advisors so that they are unable to do anything sneaky. Because of the society’s equity, people feel they are appreciated and free.

Freedom is provided in many different ways to the Utopian people, similar to social media platforms today. In Utopia all people have the liberty to choose how they spend their time. People are free to decide what craft they would like to pursue and are not forced to work in the craft that is passed down in their family against their will. In addition to their jobs, Utopians have the flexibility in their religious beliefs and practices. Although Christianity is the most common religion among the people, “they make no attempt to discourage other people from adopting it, or attack those who do” (More 100). Not only are they free to choose their religion but are also free to choose the spouse that they marry. A lot of these freedoms are also granted in today’s society, furthermore with all the advancements in technology. However, there are many rules that come along with marriage, and if these rules are not followed there are many harsh punishments as a result.

With all the freedom that the Utopian people have, there are many things that are enforced that strip away their liberty through punishments. Utopia has many strict laws that if broken result in harsh punishments that discourage people from breaking any laws. For example “anyone who deliberately tries to commit a crime is legally assumed to have committed it” (More 86). This law discourages people from even attempting a crime, as no matter what the outcome is they will receive the full punishment, and the punishments are very harsh. The punishment for most major crimes “is slavery” (More 85). This punishment is set in place because “they say it’s just as unpleasant for the criminals as capital punishment, and more useful to society than getting rid of them right away” (More 85). Among the many crimes, the Utopians are very strict about any type of seduction and these actions are punished harshly. Ironically, even though Utopians are allowed to choose their spouses there are many rules in place that result in a loss of intimacy in a relationship. For example, the “prospective bride, no matter whether she’s a spinster or a widow, is exhibited stark naked to the bridegroom” (More 84). This is the only time that the two are allowed to see each other naked before their marriage. The reason behind this is to maintain more successful relationships that last longer than a relationship based on anything other than personality. Utopians think that you should judge your spouse off their personality because you must really be in love with a person to live a happy life together, limiting marriage based solely off appearance. With all these rules set in place to achieve social justice, “the consequences of these rules are paradoxical: equality is reduced to uniformity; this limits liberty and can produce inequality” (Huriot 4).

With all the support of society to make everyone feel equal, inequality is still a major problem in the Utopia. Slavery a very common thing in Utopia, which means that equality is far away from being achieved. Slaves are treated worse than others and are in charge of many tasks that are not assigned to anyone else. Slaves are not only people who have broken laws, but also those who come from other countries because they are unhappy with their life and are allowed to stay on the island as a slave. The two types of slaves are treated differently. “People who commit crimes and are thus condemned to serve the state for life are also slaves” (More 89), while slaves by choice “may leave whenever they wish to do so” (More 89). Not only are slaves treated unequal, but so are women in some ways. Although they are free to do things, they are still treated inferior to men. When married, husbands “are responsible for punishing their wives” (More 85). This is one of the many inequalities present between both genders, which are also present today in many places. Silicon Valley is described as a Brotopia, which means that men are living in a Utopia, but women are not. A few women have broken the barriers and found success starting out in the Silicon Valley but the difficulty and adversity they had to face to make it to where they are is vastly present. Women face sexual harassment and discrimination due to the fact that they are outnumbered in the workplace and all the rules are made by men not allowing the women to have a voice.

In conclusion, Utopia’s essential aim is to achieve social justice through a combination of equality, equity, and liberty. Although equality and equity are encouraged, discrimination of genders and the loss of liberty make it difficult to view the island as an ideal society. Utopia is not a fixed destination but rather a journey; “creating a better city does not involve a fixed plan but a process of experimentation” (Brunn 546). Even to this day, the process of building a true ideal society is still progressing. Silicon Valley businesses are an example of this, “in a small way their workplaces – like the Google or Facebook campuses – aim to provide workers with a progressive working environment (BBC).” But still an article written by Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos illustrates the gap between history and modernity's promises of peace, justice, equality and liberty. The problem Santos puts forth is that the bridge between experience and expectations, on the one hand, and utopian aspirations, on the other, has collapsed, leaving contemporary societies without "paths to utopia" (Libesman).

Works Cited

● Bartolovich, Crystal. “Utopia and Its New Enemies: Intellectuals, Elitism, and the Commonwealth of Learning.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, vol. 13, no. 3, 2013, pp. 33–65.

● Brunn, Stanley. CITIES OF THE WORLD: Regional Patterns and Urban Environments. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, 2020.

● Cecil, Patrick, et al. William Penn and Pan-Utopianism. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1 Jan. 2009.

● Chang, Emily. Brotopia: Breaking up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley / Emily Chang. Portfolio/Penguin, 2018.

● Hodgkinson, Tom. “Culture - How Utopia Shaped the World.” BBC, BBC, 6 Oct. 2016.

● Huriot, Jean-Marie and Bourdeau-Lepage, Lise. “Utopia, Equality and Liberty: The Impossible Ideal.” CORE, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, UMR LAVUE 7218, Laboratoire Mosaïques, 1 Jan. 1970.

● Kozinets, Robert V. “YouTube Utopianism: Social Media Profanation and the Clicktivism of Capitalist Critique.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 98, Elsevier Inc, May 2019, pp. 65–81.

● Libesman, Heidi. “Between Modernity and Postmodernity: Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Toward a New Legal Common Sense: Law, Globalization, and Emancipation. 2d Ed.” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, vol. 16, July 2004, pp. 413–25.

● More, Thomas. Utopia. Translated by Paul Turner, Penguin, 2003.

● “Social Justice.” Oxford Reference.