No Better Future: Utopia, Part 1

The word 'utopia' was once brand new, the invention of an English statesman and writer named Thomas More. But it's an ancient idea (e.g. Plato's Republic), and a modern one as well (the utopian socialists, 'intentional communities', etc.). It names the possibility of imagining a radically better society, and even attempting to create it.

Marxists criticize utopia as an unscientific notion, since it detaches our social and political desires from the real movement of history. But early modern utopians like More and Francis Bacon never imagined their ideal cities would be realized. In that sense they were unlike the practical utopians who followed them, and whom Marx and Engels were most interested in challenging. Their utopias rather functioned as expressions their most cherished values, as well as foils through which to critique the real society in which they lived.

More's Utopia and Bacon's New Atlantis both present a harmonious and idealized world, but they also reveal deep tensions in the way each thought societies work. More focuses on social organization alone, going in depth in his descriptions of families, households, and cities. Like Plato, he advocates for a form of communism. But in most respects, his utopia is stuck in the past, with ancient forms of production continuing unchanged. Bacon, on the other hand, places all his hopes on scientific and technical innovations. Though ideal in its way, his utopia is open to the future in at least that one respect.