Three weeks ago, shortly after I read Bellamy’s Looking Backward, I completed a rereading of Thomas More’s Utopia.
The fictional society extolled was revealed by one Raphael, an acquaintance of More’s friend, the diplomat Peter Giles, in an excursion that More and Giles took to Antwerp, Belgium. Raphael was along on the 1497 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci before at one point venturing forth from the main group with his own party, discovering among other peoples the highly admirable Utopians.
The island of Utopia is 200 miles long and rather circular, the width being about the same distance of 200 miles. The country was established by a King Utopus (also known as Abraxas).
There is no private property in Utopia. Each citizen moves to a new house every ten years. People rarely cook main meals but rather share meals in a common mess hall with those in their same group of 30 households; those households are led by an official known as a syphogrant or phylarch, with every group of ten phylarchs having administrative superiors known as a chief phylarch (or tranibor), The syhphogrants number 200 in all; these select a prince (monarch) as the chief ruler of Utopia. Three senators from each city gather in a Senate that apparently is the only legislative body. Laws are few and clear enough that those of the literate populace, devoted to and delighted in learning, are able to represent themselves in any of the few legal cases, including those limited cases of criminal contravention of the law: There are no lawyers.
The people, both women and men, are engaged vocationally mainly in agriculture but each person also specializes in a trade; men dominate in the trades requiring physical strength, with women tending to pursue traditionally feminine occupations in the production of textiles and other household goods. The people make no fuss over clothing, wearing loose-fitting garments (mostly of leather) that are durable, lasting for approximately seven years.
Utopian society is highly patriarchal. Reference to governmental organization implies exclusive leadership by men. Men clearly head the households. Premarital sexual relations are discouraged and even punished by law, for men as well as women. Marriages are monogamous. Divorce is rare, occurring mainly in the case of adultery and only very seldom because of mutual discontent with the marital union. A first case of adultery is severely penalized; any second case is punished by death.
People of Utopia are eager readers and learners who before contact with Raphael and his party had come to many of the same philosophical conclusions as the Greeks; they avidly responded intellectually to the philosophical ideas of Plato and especially Aristotle; the historical accounts of Thucydides and Herodotus; the medical treatises of Galen and Hippocrates; and to natural scientists such as Theophrastus (On Plants); brought by Raphael and the others.
Those of Utopia take great care in matters of nutrition and health, with an emphasis on prevention. Euthanasia is encouraged and when selected by the gravely ill person supported with comforting environments at the end of life.
Good citizenship and behavior are cultivated by intellectually stimulating education and vigorous discussion of public affairs and morality. Public honors are extended to and statues are built honoring paragons.
Prevention over intervention is emphasized in foreign affairs, as well. War is studiously avoided but all male citizens are prepared to serve as soldiers as necessary, although if war looms service is voluntary until the numbers required demand conscription. To avoid the latter circumstance, Utopians employ mercenaries, especially those drawn from a particularly ferocious people known as the Zapoletes. The Utopians go to war only if their well-fortified island is attacked or if other peoples request their assistance in deposing a tyrant; in repelling an unwarranted invasion; or for other morally compelling reasons.
Religion of the Utopians before the arrival of Raphael and group included those who were animists or who worshipped legendary heroes, but most worshipped a Supreme Deity or Divine Nature named Mithra. Many Utopians were receptive to Christianity, recognizing many similarities between their original theism and the religion brought by Raphael and crew. Different religions are tolerated as long as a paramount deity and an afterlife are recognized. Those who are given to lives dominated by good works and vigorous labor are admired, as is the monastic life of meditative devotion. Each city has thirteen priests who preside over services and consider an important responsibility the cultivation of character in male children. Utopian religion incudes no animal sacrifice. Incense is utilized and rituals are performed for creating an atmosphere of spirituality and holy solemnity. Priests may marry; women may serve as priests but tend to do so only if elderly or widowed. The first and last days of the month are observed as holidays of reflection on events and behaviors of the month past and contemplation of the best moral responses and productive activities in the month ahead. The last day of the month also includes spiritual confession to priests, but also by wives to their husbands and children to their parents.
Though room for individual preferences and talents abides, the collective spirit dominates life on Utopia. At the end of More’s book, Raphael extols the economically egalitarian ideal and the unmonetized economy of the Utopians and discusses at length the multifaceted harm caused by the economic equality and the pursuit of money prevailing in Europe.
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I have been reading especially widely and abundantly--- even more ravenously than usual--- these past several weeks, most of the books read informing in some way my ruminations as to societal perfection, both as realistically attainable as possible in the near future and then looking farther into the future at a time when human beings have developed a much more elevated communal consciousness.
I will be discussing those many books of my recent fascination and the ideas engendered in articles to come.
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