Differing Utopias Gerry OShea
Sir Thomas
More (1478-1535) is remembered mainly because he was beheaded for insisting
that his boss, Henry V111, was breaching divine law by claiming leadership of
the Catholic Church in England. Sir Thomas could never approve diminishing the
authority of the pope, and, for his bravery and conviction he has been elevated
by Rome to sainthood. Ironically, the Anglican Church, responding to the wheel
of history, has also canonized him.
His most
famous book by far is a novella called Utopia. One of his contemporaries
spoke of him as a man of “marvelous mirth,” and the new word he created for the
title of his book certainly suggests a playful mind. Utopia, based on its
derivation from the Greek, has two distinct and contradictory meanings as the
“u” letter can convey a good or perfect community or it can indicate an unreal
place that is too good to be true. The jokester author seems to be challenging
his readers: take your pick – one or both!
The book imagines
an island where the people live in harmony with nature and with each other. Everything
there is owned communally and shared, from land to housing to food. This island
of dreams conforms to life in Plato’s Republic where private ownership is also
outlawed because he too considered that a community that allowed different
levels of wealth is bound to be riven by divisions and jealousy.
This
egalitarian ideal also sits well with basic Catholic principles. It affirms that the goods of the world belong
to all God’s people, and distribution should be equitably based on their needs,
not on the expectations of the greedy or claims of social importance. In
Christian ethics the demands of the common good are always the pre-eminent
consideration.
Obviously,
this utopian paradise runs counter to the capitalist system which is always
tied to private ownership, so this kind of idyllic living plays no part in
modern communities except among monastic groups. In these brotherhoods and sisterhoods,
satisfying community needs is prioritized over individual acquisitiveness. They
cast a cold eye on the prevailing culture which affirms a different set of
values: greed, one-up-man-ship and cupidity.
For
Christians and Jews, Eden is the beautiful garden with an abundance of fruit
and greenery where Adam and Eve somehow messed up and were banished from that
ideal place. St. Augustine in the fourth century blamed Eve for causing the
divine expulsion and women have fared poorly in Christian churches since.
The coming
of a savior, a messiah, is somehow tied to a salvation story that harps back to
the misdeeds of the first parents. One way or another the pristine beauty and
purity that prevailed in the imaginary garden was lost and can never be
recovered.
An
enchanting Irish lyric, Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff, draws
on the Eden imagery and assures listeners that unequalled beauty can be experienced
if you travel to County Cavan and “turn to the left at the bridge of
Finea and stop when half way to Cootehill.” You will soon come to this
magical paradise, “the grass it is green around Ballyjamesduff, and the blue
sky is over it all.” To make everything perfect requires a human touch in
the person of a wonderful local man called back from exile, “come home Paddy
Reilly to me.”
According to
Homer, the legendary Greek author, the idealized Elysian Fields were located in
the western edge of the earth. They were also known as the Fortunate Isles or
the Islands of the Blessed “where life is easiest for men. No snow or heavy
storm but the ocean sends up blasts of the shrill-blowing west winds that may
give cooling to men.”
The Latin
poet Virgil describes Elysium in even grander terms. It enjoys perpetual spring
and shady groves, with a private sun lit by its own stars. In Paris the
Champs-Elysees still retain their name of the Elysian Fields first applied in
the late 16th century.
For
Buddhists and Hindus, Nirvana is the ultimate destination for perfect peace
where a person may achieve enlightenment. This has no connection with worldly
possessions or natural beauty but represents a perfect state of quietude, of
inner peace. They stress the high value of liberation from attachment and pointless
worrying.
A utopian state in this tradition involves realizing
the individual’s insignificance in relation to the vast universe. This is a
theme also of some Christian mystics who speak about their sense of
unimportance in the light of a cosmos going back billions of years and encompassing
millions of galaxies.
In 1933 an
English writer, James Hilton, introduced us to Shangri-La in his novel Lost
Horizon. This was a Himalayan utopia, an enduringly happy place, an earthly
paradise where the people maintain their youth and vibrancy for hundreds of
years beyond the normal lifespan.
The Pilgrim
Fathers set out from England in the 17th century to build a new
world. John Winthrop articulated a model for Puritan perfection in New England.
His ideal place was an urban hilltop community, living in peace and harmony, an
example to the rest of the world. This wondrous city has three large gates that
are always open to those who qualify as “saved,” which limits admission to a
relatively small Protestant sect.
Aldous
Huxley penned his masterpiece Brave New World in the 1930’s when various
forms of fascism were thriving as democratic governments tried to cope with the
mass unemployment during the Great Depression. He described his book as
portraying a “negative utopia.” It presented a futuristic World State whose
citizens are all engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy. He
provided a frightening vision of future obedient citizens created in test
tubes.
George
Orwell, writing a few years later was greatly influenced by Huxley, and in his
famous work, 1984, the protagonist, Winston Smith, re-constructs history
at his nine-to-five job at the ominously-named Ministry of Truth. His boss, the
ever-present Big Brother, realizes that Winston’s allegiance is problematic.
Even thinking of creating a personal journal or, God forbid, falling in love is
punishable in this dystopian world by death.
Back to
Thomas More who was asked what he thought of the utopian island he created. He
replied diplomatically that he liked some of its laws but not others. He didn’t
know about the allures of Ballyjamesduff!
Gerry
OShea blogs at wemustbetalking.com
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