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Essay about Man's Quest for Utopia

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Man's Quest for Utopia In 1516, Sir Thomas Moore published his Utopia. He wrote of a perfect world, one where optimal common wealth was acheived, and there was a common satisfaction with the system. Though Moore may have coined the owrd "utopia," this was by no means a new concept. Ever since the dawn of time, man has dreamed of a better world.There has always been a desire to make things better, to create a happier and more peaceful existence. Throughout history, various leaders, terrorists, and commoners have strived to create their own perfect world. However, one conflict has always arisen: everyone holds their own image of utopia. And when these images clash, problems arise that make utopia harder to grasp. By examining history as …show more content…

If one does not, however, wish to expand one's surroundings, but merely improve the existing ones, one turns to reform to seek their utopia. Mao Zedong, Peter the Great, Thomas Jefferson, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr all used reform to try and attain their utopia.While Mao tried to do away with the "four olds" of ancient China and turn toward a Communist society, Peter the Great was more interested in gaining ideas from the west and modernizing to their standards. Both Jefferson and King had ideas of freedom and equality in mind when they presented their reforms. (However Jefferson and King probably had different ideas on equality.) Reform is a more modern tool than conquest. Reform is often geared towards a group utopia as opposed to a personal utopia. Conquest normally satisfys no one but the conqueror, whereas reform is ordinarily beneficial to the general public. Reform can happen on a small scale or a large scale. Mao certainly acheived reform on a large scale by reforming an entire country's governmental system. The theatre department at Newton North High School, however, acheived reform on a large scale when they made the Senior Cup award available to any student, not just athletes. Isolation is another technique that is rarely used, but used nonetheless to acheive utopia. The Native Americans, and Japanese emperor Tokugawa achieved isolation in order to accomplish utopia for their civilization. The Native Americans did not attempt to

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