Utopia

This word was used in conversation with an old friend the other day, which was surprising to me for it seemed so old-fashioned a term to use in today’s turbulent world.

My friend had been reading Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (published in 1516), a work illustrating the two principal ways in which historians and philosophers have responded to life since the time of the earliest writings of the Ancient Greeks, which caused me to become suddenly aware of how foreign such a utopian concept of human consciousness seems nowadays.

It is difficult not to appear academic when talking about the concept of a Utopian world as envisaged by More. He describes the two principal mental attitudes which humans display in responding to life, and which tend to vie with each other for dominance in consciousness. There is the one which takes a practical, pragmatic (ego-dominated) and secular outlook, and there is that which displays a more visionary, idealistic, even metaphysical attitude to life.

King Utopus (a fictional creation of More’s) decreed that in his kingdom it should be lawful for man to follow what religion he would so long as he did it peaceably, gently, quietly and soberly, without hasty and contentious rebuking and inveighing against others. They should detest war as a very brutal thing and which, to the reproach of human nature, is more practiced by men than any sort of beasts and that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory which is gained by war. Men should be both troubled and ashamed of a bloody victory over their enemies; and in no victory do they glory so much, as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct without bloodshed.

As we talked, my friend and I, we both agreed that we are in need of those who used to be called wise men who detested war. Here we are in a nuclear age, venturing into space and landing on the moon, developing telescopes that can listen to the dynamic activity taking place in deep space, having the skill in medicine to transplant human organs, becoming aware of the incredibly complex nature of the human genome, and talking about millions of light years, which brings us to recognize that our short life is but a drop in the span of time and space.

Consequently, we are desperately in need of wise men and of having the ability to heed them when they remind us of our brief existence in the cosmos. For I would have thought, as I said to my friend, that in realizing we are all in the same life and death situation together, living the brief span of time allotted, that more of our leaders (as well as the rest of us) would recognize the nihilistic folly in not coming together as both individuals and nations in mutual support. In recognizing that we are all in the same boat, would it not seem reasonable to at least tolerate, if not pool, the differences of upbringing and the national, environmental and political backgrounds that separate us? Would it not seem reasonable to wish all of our fellow travelers well on life’s voyage to the port of no return?

“Dream on,” said my friend as I finally shut up. He was a learned man and he concluded our conversation by quoting Pascal, the 17th century mathematician and philosopher: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” I was about to mention all the significant charitable organizations in the world that are doing their best to bring King Utopus’ legendary ideals to pass, but I had lost heart.