Society’s Pursue to an Unachievable Utopia

A Utopia is an imaginary world where everyone is respected, and true equality among all humans is achieved. The allure of this perfect theory has led countless individuals to attempt creating such a fantasy. Even though a Utopian society is impossible and does not exist, still, the effort people put into achieving a better civilization is essential and admirable.

Various countries have attempted to develop a perfect world, but have failed for several different reasons. The failure of these social experiments highlight that it is extremely difficult for a society to operate with true equality for everyone. Furthermore, if the total balance is forced on civilization, who is doing the forcing? Are the ones in power ‘more equal than others’ (George Orwell, Animal Farm)? What makes equality challenging to achieve is that everything in the human civilization comes from desire; people always strive for more. Therefore, absolute equality in Utopia cannot satisfy those with greedy spirits. For example, if the same resources and money are given to all citizens, it does not allow an individual to earn more or less. In our world, different jobs have different salaries, such as a doctor and a farmer. Their educational backgrounds are not at the same level, so some would disagree about getting equal pay. Even if people have the same job, if one works hard and other slacks off, it does not seem fair that they receive the same wage. Dissatisfaction between human beings will create conflict and resentment. This is a natural part of human nature, and because of it, a Utopian society is difficult to achieve.

In the flatness of a perfect world, where everyone is treated equally, the exciting parts of human existence will likely vanish. People will not be encouraged to develop their intelligence if they do not feel rewarded for the effort. Furthermore, freedom of choice would have to be limited as a society cannot exist without all kinds of occupations, some of them, such as janitors, are less desirable occupations. If everyone in this paradise gets the same salary regardless of the job they are working on, many will choose not to push themselves to work in essential professions. If that is the case, would a government then have to assign people to various jobs, whether they wanted to work in that field or not? This happened in China just after the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. Even though the government wanted to create a form of a Utopian society, they had to assign citizens to various occupations regardless of what the people wanted. This seems to be counter to what it truly is.

People still insist on trying to improve society in order to have a better quality of life, even though we all know that it is highly unlikely that a perfect Utopia can exist, For example, in the book History of American Socialism by John Humphrey Noyes, the author portrays a world where there is no need to create laws. Instead, the government rewards good citizens as a way of boosting morale among the population. Even though the social experiment of this paradise failed later in the book, its endeavor, to a certain extent, made a significant impact on the ruling class by limiting exploitation and domination. This attempt to have society experience public ownership also provided a fundamental theoretical basis and practical knowledge for the development of socialism. Its failure, however, gives us some additional in-depth insight into a Utopia’s limitations, even though it has left a substantial legacy in the history of humanity trying to create a perfect world.

A Utopia is unachievable, but as long as the process is well thought out, we should not be pessimistic about trying to improve society. In this short life, people can only focus on a few elements, try to gain greater success, and learn from their failures. Although there is no absolute perfection, we can all strive to correct some of the things that are wrong and help to overcome some of the world's weaknesses. The human pursuit of Utopia may never be realized, but the effort may bring a more harmonious and beautiful place for people to live in.