Joseph Melanson
Ideal Worlds
Prof. Monte
21 August 2012
Utopia Final
Utopia:
One night I fell wearily into bed,
after a long, busy day, unknowing that within my slumber I would have such a dream, when generally upon
awakening I have no recollection of the substance of my nightly unconsciousness,
but in this one night I dreamt and recalled with more intensity and clarity than was
my usual sleeping experience.
I saw within my dream, an unknown
place, peaceful and serene in its appearance. I found myself within the green and placid suburbs upon the
outer edge of a great city, seeming bejeweled as its various structures of an unknown
substance that shined like glass and mirror, yet retaining a great deal of reflectivity
on their polished surfaces, but in no way becoming harsh in its glare upon the eyes. I moved
forward towards its tall structures, seeming innumerable in their quantity and
quality, curious about that place, knowing that my interest would be more aptly rewarded there than
where I was in this placid and green, yet anonymous seeming suburbs. I saw other
people approaching what seemed some kind of small building, made of what seemed like
glass, seeming to me some kind of transportation system, as a strange light emanated
from it when a person went inside. I intuited that this structure would serve me
in my purpose to find my way to
the city.
I
approached a man heading toward this small building, and asked him about it and how I could most quickly arrive within the place of this
foreign city. He looked at me warily, but gestured towards this small edifice with which I
had interrupted his progress.
“The channel will take you to
whatever destination you choose, all you have to do is say it in the channel, and within the voice of your
mind”, he said, and I followed him towards the building. It had a number of people approaching
it, yet when I entered it was empty. I saw the man with whom I had acquainted myself enter
within its confines, and disappear in light before my eyes.
“To the city”, I said to myself
after within this small structure that was continuously absorbing people into a burst of light, while
also delivering instantly in another part of the building other people in a same burst of
light.
After arriving within the streets
of these enormous edifices, I spotted what seemed to be a popular temple, and made my way towards it,
believing that it would have been one of the more safer places that I could find to help me
get more information about this city, and my bearings within this strange world.
As soon as I entered the temple I was observed
several people and overheard them talking. As I looked around I saw inscriptions upon the
wall that informed me that where I was, was dedicated to a new religion of science in
human development, and it’s emphasis on the attainment of high levels of mastery in all of
one’s various levels and functional capabilities.
There was a video playing on a
screen on one of the walls near me, and I made my way over in order to view it and hear its message more
clearly. After some years of a terrible war the country resumed with the surviving
inhabitants. Later a prophet appeared revealing his visions to the populace and he became an
important architect in the rebuilding of this destroyed civilization, due to the number
of various yet useable ideas that seemed appropriate to this society’s reconstruction.
There were multiple temples that were built in dedication to the salvation of the world’s
surviving knowledge, an attempt to recall and record what was lost, and rebuilding a society
that would not degenerate back into the madness that had been our human tradition. The
prophet developed the workbook Stages and Levels
of Being: Instruction in the Attainment of Your Human Potential, and
this book became an instructional primer expected to be read by children in the first years of their education.
Before his death, this prophet
finished several dozen other works that were published with great success, and the only title that I can
recall from the televised documentary is his The
Use of the Reciprocation Machine: The Study and Practice of Evolving One’s Various
Selves in the Natural World through Education and Technology. Apparently this book provided a means to use several
important methods of accelerating one’s capacity to learn and function within this new
society.
Averting my gaze from the
television, I noticed upon the wall of this temple were written its fundamental laws and tenets that were applicable
to the whole of this society, and offered as practical knowledge to every individual in
the proper participation of their society. If there were any more fundamental rules to this
new religion I cannot recall as my mind does not permit me to recollect any more of them
from the substance of this dream. Here is all that I can recollect:
Laws of (some
unreadable name):
1). All people are equal under God and the Law.
2). Development of the self is the highest goal in life.
3). Development of the self in others is the second highest
goal in life.
4). Development and maintenance of the soul of the community
is the third highest goal in life.
5). Everyone is entitled to food, health care, shelter, and
the wealth of the community.
6). Everyone must play an equal part in the welfare of the
community through work, service, and volunteering.
7). One’s gifts and talents belong to the community from
which they came, as much as they belong to the self which has spent the time and effort
in their development.
I began to think of seeing this
community in action, excited in the need to see the theories of this new religion as they were practiced by its
citizens. I made my way to the temple door desiring to leave and begin my exploration of
the inner workings of the city. When I reached the door to the temple, and upon laying my
hand upon the handle of the door, I awoke instantly from my dream, returned to my
regular life of expectations and responsibilities. I wrote down everything that I could
remember as it was still fresh in my mind. I hoped that someday these words that I was setting
down on paper would bring me some later advantage, and hopefully be useful to people for
ages to come.
Reflection:
1). The most appealing features of
my personal utopia are: the idea of a place without arduous labor, yet offering people several purposes
with which they can expect to live out their life, and a community that had a high value
for the life of the individual.
2) The most significant barriers to
the achievement of this utopian community would be: the cost and expenditure of
creating it, resistance from other people and other social groups, and the dedication to the ideals of the
community by its members.
3) The connection between my
utopian vision and the readings of utopian literature was an influence in several different ways. It
seems that one person’s utopia can be another person’s dystopia. Utopias are often begun with
the best of intentions, yet oftentimes they fall apart as people cannot successfully
maintain a utopia for very long. Utopia needs to function on the local level, as well as the
community level, and the societal level. Utopia is a narrative journey, perhaps a
metaphor for the journey of life that we all take, and perhaps we all should in our own way
contribute towards the development of utopia here on earth.
4) The reading of utopian theory in
Kumar’s Utopianism shaped the
creation of my utopia in several ways. There needs to be an individual
who can function on the level of this new society, and be able to create and
maintain the best qualities of it. Utopian theory needs to be taken very seriously and considered
how it would apply in one area, as well as another, as it seems that utopian
theory is generally a criticism of one system over another, denouncing one set of values for
another.
5). The difficulties in creating my
utopian plan were: what to fill the
utopist structure with, considering how a society truly functions,
and what would be proper behavior for people living in this place. Other
considerations that needed to be developed was the design of a social blueprint, an agreed upon
standard for appropriate behavior, and a community that encouraged this behavior, while
punishing inappropriate behavior without harsh penalties for the individual. One must
consider in creating a utopist plan is whether the state needs to conform to its people, or do the
people need to conform to the state, and what does it mean for both to “conform”?
6). The difficulties of writing my
utopian fiction were: having never considering writing a utopia before, creating a narrative out of my
theories, as well as developing theories for my narrative that did not seem childish or
unbelievable.
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