UTOPIA
WRITTEN BY THOMAS MORE IN 1516
During the time of the Renaissance in Italy, the city states of Florence, Venice, Genoa, and Milan flourished with newfound wealth. This wealth came from the merchant and banking families such as the Medici and Albizzi.
The Renaissance has forever been known to history as a golden age of invention, art, and new concepts. Among the many new ideas shared, was the idea of Utopia, the perfect society. Written by Thomas More, Utopia is a dialogue between himself and a fictitious character by the title of Raphael Hythloday. They discuss this perfect society, and why the model of the economic and political system is so monumental. The system conferred within would later hold characteristics of a Communist government. The Dialogue is as follows:
"...In Utopia, where there's no private property, people take their duty to the public seriously. And both attitudes are perfectly reasonable. In other "republics" practically everyone knows that, if he doesn't look out for himself, he'll starve to death, however prosperous his country may be. He's therefore compelled to give his own interests priority over those of the public; that is, of other people. But in Utopia, where everything's under public ownership, no one has any fear of going short, as long as the public storehouses are full. Everyone gets a fair share, so there are never any poor men or beggars. Nobody owns anything, but everyone is richーfor what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?...the Utopian can feel absolutely sure that he, his wife, his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, and as long a line of descendants as the proudest peer could wish to look forward to, will always have enough to eat and enough to make them happy. There's also the further point that those who are too old to work are just as well provided for as those who are still working.
Now, will anyone venture to compare these fair arrangements in Utopia with the so-called justice of other countries?ーin which I'm damned if I can see the slightest trace of justice and fairness. For what sort of justice do you call this? People like aristocrats, goldsmiths, or money-lenders, who either do not work at all, or do work that's not really essential, are rewarded for their laziness or their unnecessary activities by a splendid life of luxury. But labourers, coachmen, carpenters, and farmhands, who never stop working like cart-horses, at jobs so essential that, if they did stop working, they'd bring any country to a standstill within twelve monthsーwhat happens to them? They get so little to eat, and have such a wretched time, that they'd be almost better off if they were cart-horses. Then at least, they wouldn't be very much worse, they'd enjoy it more, and they'd have no fears for the future. As it is, they're not only ground down by unrewarding toil in the present, but also worried to death by the prospect of a poverty-stricken old age."
ーUTOPIA, Thomas More