1. Alexander Watson Ideas and Identities 6 February 2014
Utopias

2. Introduction What is a ‘Utopia’? Thomas More’s Utopia
Utopias in History
- The Anabaptists of the 16th century
- The Russian revolution in the 1920s and 1930s
- ‘Flower Children’ in the 1960s
Conclusion
Woodcut showing Thomas More’s imaginary island of Utopia, from the 1518 edition of his book.

3. I. Etymology
‘Utopia’ (from Ancient Greek topos) = ‘no-place’ or ‘non-place’, i.e. place that does not exist (yet) Also pun on ‘eutopia’ = ‘happy place’

4. Definition
i) utopia [noun] – 1. An imaginary island, depicted by Sir Thomas More as enjoying a perfect social, legal, and political system. – 2. A place, state, or condition ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions. ii) utopian [adjective] – 1a. possessing or regarded as having impossibly or extravagantly ideal conditions in respect of politics, customs, social organization. – 1b. Involving, based or founded on, imaginary or chimerical perfection; impossibly ideal, visionary.

5. Classical Authors Plato (Republic II
Classical Authors Plato (Republic II.369b-372e) Aristotle (Politics VII.i-viii) Method for designing an ideal commonwealth:
Determine what = happiest life for individuals
Derive from these the communal goals, the attainment of which result in the happiness of citizens
Determine what physical and institutional components the commonwealth must include
Determine the particular forms that each component should be given so that collectively they will constitute the best commonwealth

6. II. Key Early Modern Utopian Text: Sir Thomas More, Utopia
Thomas More ( ) – Lord Chancellor, Humanist & Martyr
Published Utopia in 1516 in Latin and 1551 in English
Book I is about 16th century England: attack on moral values and behaviour
Book II = traveller's account of Utopia: description of the ‘best commonwealth’
Comparison of morally corrupt Christian society and laudable pagan society
Sir Thomas More (1527)
Portrait by Hans Holbein

7. III. The Anabaptists
16th century protestant sect in German-speaking lands
Among the heretical views of some influential parts of the sect was belief in Community of Goods
‘All the believers were one in heart and mind. No-one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared every-thing they had.’
Acts 4, 32
Book title page: ‘The Description of the severall Sorts of Anabaptists’

8. Cages for Anabaptists hanging from Münster Cathedral
The Anabaptists (2)
Münster (Feb – June 1535)
- Belief in Apocalypse (Easter 1534). The ‘godless’ were expelled and their property redistributed.
- Community of goods proclaimed. Money economy and records of dues & interest abolished.
Hutterite Communities in Moravia
- The Bruderhof (from late 1530s) with c.40,000 people by 1590s.
- Community, not family households.
Cages for Anabaptists hanging from Münster Cathedral

9. IV. The Russian Revolution
Utopianism unleashed by Russian revolution
1920s efforts to create a rational & equal society
Hardship & repression within system
Under Stalin ( ) Myth of wellbeing, iconography of happiness and cult of benevolent ruler
Soviet utopian propaganda:
‘Every day more and more joyful life!’

10. Hippies attending the Pot Rally at Hyde Park, London, 16 July 1967
V. Flower People
Hippies in the 1960s: style, nature, pacifism, music and esp. drugs
1967 – ‘Summer of Love’ in San Francisco
Flower power – form of non-violent protest
Communalism and anti-materialism
Hippies attending the Pot Rally at Hyde Park, London, 16 July 1967
‘Hippies preach altruism and mysticism, honesty, joy and nonviolence ... Their professed aim is nothing less than the subversion of Western Society by “flower power”’
Time Magazine, 7 July 1967

11. ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon (1971)
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one.
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...
Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people, living for today... Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace...

12. Bhutanese people at the Wangdi Phodrang festival, 2004
Conclusion
Utopias today
- Bhutan and Gross National Happiness
- Utopias and Dystopias
Utopias’ attractions for historians
- Reveal contemporaries’ concerns & grievances
- Testify to the outer limits of the imagination for a society
Bhutanese people at the Wangdi Phodrang festival, 2004