POST 24: The United States compared to More's Utopia

Thomas More's Story Utopia stands for nowhere or no place when translated. The perfect Society! But can the United States be compared to Utopia? Many have seen it as a criticism of Contemporary European Society. But Utopia was also seen as the perfect society, something which would and can never happen because perfection in an entire country is not so easily achieved.

Though most things might not be realistic,some are more or less true in the United States today. For example in Utopia it says those "who were of the nobility of their country, were in cloth-of-gold, and adorned with massy chains, earrings and rings of gold; their caps were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other gems—in a word, they were set out with all those things that among the Utopians were either the badges of slavery, the marks of infamy, or the playthings of children. It was not unpleasant to see, on the one side, how they looked big, when they compared their rich habits with the plain clothes of the Utopians..."(326)In Utopia people wore special clothes and a special hairstyle to distinguish what part of society they were part of. Meanwhile, in present-day America, convicted felons tend to have that information in their records for the rest of their lives, and may have a hard time voting in some states. In prison they were Orange. They're barred from a number of jobs, as well as holding public office or serving on juries, and their civil rights may be otherwise curtailed. More than anything else, though, someone who's been convicted of a felony is labeled forever.

Lastly the people in Utopia believe in Euthanasia, "They are almost all of them very firmly persuaded that good men will be infinitely happy in another state: so that though they are compassionate to all that are sick, yet they lament no man’s death, except they see him loath to part with life; for they look on this as a very ill presage, as if the soul, conscious to itself of guilt, and quite hopeless, was afraid to leave the body, from some secret hints of approaching misery..."(329) Euthanasia is the killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease. The Utopians believed in taking care of their sick but when it happens that a person is suffering and is known to be beyond hope of cure, he is visited by the priests and magistrates, who encourage him to end his misery. Today this is a very controversial topic in the United states, but in a way Advance directives such as  "Do not resuscitate" are becoming more popular among patients who are terminally ill.