Information AboutUtopianism |
|
Utopianism refers to the many various social and political movements, and a significant body of religious and secular literature, based upon the idea of Paradise on earth. See Utopia . VARIOUS CONCEPTIONS OF PAST AND FUTURE PARADISE In many cultures and societies, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state, but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. In those days, the various Myth s tell us, there was an instinctive harmony between man and Nature . Men's needs were few and their desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundance provided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever for War or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work. Humans were simple and -- with the exception of the Land of Cockaygne (see below) -- Pious , and felt themselves close to the gods. These myths of the earliest stage of humankind have been referred to by various names, as the following examples will demonstrate: Krita Yuga The Krita Yuga, the First and Perfect Age, as described in the '' Mahabharata '', an old Hindu Epic : : Men neither bought nor sold; there were no poor and no rich; there was no need to labour, because all that men required was obtained by the power of will; the chief virtue was the abandonment of all worldly desires. The ''Krita Yuga'' was without disease; there was no lessening with the years; there was no hatred or vanity, or evil thought whatsoever; no sorrow, no fear. All mankind could attain to supreme blessedness. [... Golden Age The Golden Age as depicted in Ovid 's '' Metamorphoses '': :Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo :sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat. :Poena metusque aberant {Link without Title} The golden age was first; when Man yet new No rule but uncorrupted reason knew: And, with a native bent, did good pursue. Unforc'd by punishment, un-aw'd by fear, {Link without Title} Arcadia Arcadia , e g in Sir Philip Sidney 's prose romance ''The Old Arcadia'' (1580). Originally a region in the Peloponnesus , Arcadia became a Synonym for any rural area that serves as a pastoral setting, as a ''locus amoenus'' ("delightful place"): : Does not the pleasantness of this place carry in itself sufficient reward for any time lost in it, or for any such danger that might ensue? Do you not see how everything conspires together to make this place a heavenly dwelling? Do you not see the grass, how in color they excel the emeralds [... ? Do not these stately trees seem to maintain their flourishing old age, with the only happiness of their seat being clothed with a continual spring, because no beauty here should ever fade? Doth not the air breathe health which the birds (both delightful both to the ear and eye) do daily solemnize with the sweet consent of their voices? Is not every echo here a perfect music? And these fresh and delightful brooks, how slowly they slide away, as, loath to leave the company of so many things united in perfection, and with how sweet a murmur they lament their forced departure. Certainly, certainly, cousin, it must needs be, that some goddess this desert belongs unto, who is the soul of this soil, for neither is any less than a goddess worthy to be shrined in such a heap of pleasures, nor any less than a goddess could have made it so perfect a model of the heavenly dwellings. [...] See also Arcadia (utopia) The Bibilical Garden of Eden The Biblical Garden Of Eden as depicted in ''''' Genesis ''''' 2 ( Authorized Version Of 1611 ): :And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. {Link without Title} :And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. {Link without Title} :And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; {Link without Title} And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. The Land of Cokaygne The Land of and thus a foil for the innocent and instinctively Virtuous life that is depicted in all the other accounts mentioned above. Cockaygne is a land of extravagance and excess rather than simplicity and Piety . There is freedom from work, and every material thing is free and available. Cooked larks fly straight into one's mouth; the rivers run with wine; sexual Promiscuity is the norm; and there is a Fountain Of Youth which keeps everyone young and active. There is a medieval poem (c. 1315) written in rhyming Couplet s which is entitled "The Land of Cokaygne": :Far in the sea, to the west of Spain, :Is a country called Cokaygne. :There's no land not anywhere, :In goods or riches to compare. :Though Paradise be merry and bright :Cokaygne is of far fairer sight.... FINDING UTOPIA All these myths also express some hope that the Idyllic state of affairs they describe is not irretrievably and irrevocably lost to mankind, that it can be regained in some way or other. One way would be to look for the earthly paradise -- for a place like ''' Shangri-La ''', hidden in the Tibet an mountains and described by James Hilton in his Utopia n novel '' Lost Horizon '' (1933). Such paradise on earth must be somewhere if only man were able to find it. Christopher Columbus followed directly in this tradition in his belief that he had found the Garden Of Eden when, towards the end of the 15th century, he first encountered the New World and its peoples. Another way of regaining the lost paradise (or '' Paradise Lost '', as 17th century English poet John Milton calls it) would be to wait for the future, for the return of the Golden Age . According to Christian Theology , man's Fall from Paradise, caused by man alone when he disobeyed God ("but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"), has resulted in the wickedness of character that all human beings have been born with since ( "Original Sin" ) and, consequently, in the mediocre world full of crime and Vice we are still living in. The Christians believe in a Future that is radically different from, and much better than, the here and now. In other cultures and religions, there are similar beliefs. THEORISING WESTERN UTOPIAS The idea of a Utopia has existed since Plato and continues to the present day. While there is little to suggest a conscious development of a single Utopian ''strand of thought'', there is enough influence present in the writings and lives of Western Utopists to show a ''tradition'' of Utopian theorising. (Kumar 1991) The tradition can be described as a ''heretical tradition''. In its broadest form, this is a philosophy of rejection of a current system based upon observation of its workings, and suggestion of a new system that may question the methods or even fundamental values of the writer's time and place. (Manuel and Manuel 1979) For example, Plato's description of Socrates (who featured heavily in Plato's Republic , a work that was to influence Utopists in future) is evocative of this archetype. In More's Utopia , More explicitly wrestles with this idea in Book One, where he debates the merits of a philosopher - or Utopist - entering public life, where his views might be compromised. One of the interesting developments in Western thought about utopia has been the shift from spatially distant regions to a distant future. That made them more 'real', as people found it now easier to think about that as something that can be achieved.(Habermas, 1989 {Link without Title} ) The End of Utopianism? While rarely considered mainstream in the first place, the reputation of Utopian thought suffered greatly following the Second World War . Thinkers like Karl Popper lambasted the grand designs implicit in a Utopia, while Dystopias such as Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four became the primary method of Utopian expression and rejection. (Kumar 1987) Still, post-war era also found some Utopianist fiction for some future harmonic state of humanity (eg. Demolition Man (film) ). SEE ALSO REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|