BABATUGON, LOUIS ROY VINCENT A.

TANEDO, CONNERRY

IS220 (PHILOSOPHY)

Don’t we all want to live in a better world, A world filled with peace, equity, unity, happiness and
prosperity for every man, woman and child? A perfect example for that is Utopia, First things first what is
Utopia? It is an imagined community that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its
citizens, basically a society that surpasses aggression, war, hatred and crime while establishing a peaceful
and organized community. That seems to be the greatest place to be, but the real question is, “Is this
realistically possible in any country?” Throughout the books Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
and 1984 and Animal Farm, by George Orwell, utopia is just about impossible and the answer to that is
simply no. There are two main reasons behind this: humans cannot live without struggles and worries,
and the concept of human nature.

Daily life struggles enables people to appreciate the good things in life, which help us cope with
stress. If our society had nothing terrible to offer, we would not appreciate our favorite sports event or our
favorite sustenance, no matter how great they were! Another bad side affect our present lives offer us is
worry. Worry allows us to become responsible as we mature, because as we age, more things tend to
worry us. Imagine nobody worrying about work, with people skipping important projects, just because
they weren’t responsible about doing it. Or ending up with ignorant and non-intellectual students
that cannot, or do not even work because they never bothered to study for their tests and do their
educational activities! The world would be merely put in a state of disarray.

The struggles found in our present day world allow us to be happy. In Brave New World, John the
Savage demands the right to be unhappy (Huxley 246). Because of the way the human mind is built, it
would be impossible to tell what happiness was without experiencing misfortune or unhappiness!
Struggles in our lives, make sure that we appreciate the good things in life even more! In a utopia,
everything should be “perfect” which makes me think that, do we really need a perfect society in our
world? Would that not mean there was no bad? And if you did not know what bad was, then you could
not be happy. If the society was to be perfect, then you would have to feel happy. In order to accomplish
this, the society would need to have ways of making you feel unhappy at some time. And because of this,
it could not be called a perfect society, and hence, no utopia.

One example of an unhappy utopia lies in Animal Farm. The farm animals in the book are forced
to work very hard and seem to be happy, but are also tired because of their tasks (Orwell 45). Not only
should a utopia be a place where a person should not be forced to do anything, but they are threatened of
their farm master’s (who they drove out) return ("Animal "45)

Another perfect instance, dystopia in 1984, is not classified as a perfect society because it is focused on
dread, and I believe that a perfect society should depend only on happiness, peace and joy. When
something that a person does not like is in effect, they try to change it, or at least be against it. The
problem with a dystopia is that because it relies on everybody’s cooperation, which is impossible because
fear is the main utensil of the 1984 dystopia and people are bound to be against it. “It is impossible to
found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty...It would commit suicide.” (Orwell "1984" 221)

The second problem with creating a utopia is the lack of worry. As stated above, worry results in
responsibility, as well as feelings and compassion. In other words, worry builds character. This important
factor is non-existent in a perfect society because there is nothing to worry about. As a result of the lack
of worry, some catastrophic results such as the ability for the community to self-sustain itself would be
lost! .In addition the assumption that humans are perfectible invariably contributes to errors when it is
intended for an ideal species to be "a perfect society”. There is no better way to reside because the way
people want to live is so diverse. Therefore, there is no perfect community, just endless variations as
defined by our existence on a variety of concepts.

An economic reason for why a utopia is impossible is that there has to be a top and bottom,
economic rungs so to speak. If everyone was equal then that would suggest that technology has reached
such fantastical levels that zero work is required by the people. In this case, a utopia would actually
represent humans no longer advancing in any meaningful way since everything is taken care of for them,
which could ironically be thought of as a dystopia by some. Thus is how a utopia could actually be a
dystopia as well. It is also important to understand that it is possible for society to advance ever more, but
that does not necessarily mean it would approach a utopia. Utopia is also impossible psychologically, as
what is a utopia to one person is a dystopia to another. 100% satisfaction among the people would be
impossible, and without a perfect people, a perfect society is impossible. The inherent subjectivity to the
matter renders the idea impossible.

Despite all the other traits that would be lost if no worry was to be found in a society, responsibility is the
most important of them all. Responsibility includes doing the work asked of you and helping the
community. If no work was to be done, lack of food would be very common. Food rations would have to
be reduced to try and save up the remaining food left. “…the chocolate ration was to be reduced from
thirty grams to twenty at the end of the present week (Orwell 36)." In addition, homes would be broken
down, streets filled with garbage, and pests left alone to breed at their content. This would be a huge
health hazard which would promote disease, lowered age expectancies, and of course, people would turn
unhappy about all this and so the utopia would once again fail to succeed!

In addition to responsibility, character (including feelings and compassion) would fail to be

something found in a utopian society. Worry for someone, or something, allows us to feel remorse,
melancholy, or sympathy for that someone or something. If we felt nothing towards anything, how could
we, once again, feel happy for something?

It is simply impossible for a society to reach the state of a utopia simply because human nature did
not intend perfection and everything would have to stagnate to remain at that point. Humans would not be
able to live with that. In addition to the lack of worries and struggles a human requires, the way a human
thinks and acts, also known as “human nature” is a huge factor in the downfall of all utopias. Although
human nature is extremely important, the subject is much too long and difficult to be discussed at the
moment, and should require its own essay to be thoroughly explained. All that must be stated about
human nature is that a non-perfect human cannot create a perfect society.

It is almost certain that anybody would love a perfect place for themselves, but it is simply not
possible. Worries and struggles are the key to our survival. We humans are happy in our miserable world
because we have things to live for. Minor inconveniences such as taxes or a canceled vacation are ignored
because of the positives that come our way. We manage to enjoy our family and have a great time with
them, take pride in our work, and realize our responsibilities to ourselves and others.

So lastly, it has to be apparent that no worries, pressure, hardships, and also all the adverse aspects
of life enable us all to cherish the incredible things life has to deliver. It ought to be evident why utopia is
merely not feasible. No human can grasp the feeling of something without experiencing the complete
opposite, such as feeling happiness without feeling woe, and so lifelong happiness is not possible. And so
as a final thought, because continual happiness is non-existent, the state of utopia will never be reached.
Perhaps in ten thousand years, or ten million, when human behaviors and requirements for happiness have
modified, perhaps then, a utopia will be in progress
BABATUGON, LOUIS ROY VINCENT A.
TANEDO, CONNERRY
IS220 (PHILOSOPHY)

OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Definition of Utopia
 Body
 Reasons why it is impossible to achieve utopia
 Conclusion
 It is impossible for any country to achieve utopia. Because it is supposed to be
the ideal or perfect society. Society is made up of individuals however, so to
have a perfect society, it would then therefore have to be composed of the
perfect people. And as it is self-evident enough, there is no perfect person, let
alone an idea of what a perfect person would even be.

REFERENCES
Huxley,Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Row. 1946.

Orwell, George, Animal Farm. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1946

Orwell, George, 1984. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1949
(2016, April 15). The Problems of Utopia. Retrieved from
https://blog.richmond.edu/fysutopiasspring2016/2016/04/15/the-problems-of-utopia/