In Thomas More’s satirical work, Utopia, he writes about a flawless world with its citizens, the Utopians. The Utopians live an uncommonly public lifestyle as they share a house with other couples and their houses have no locks on the doors. The citizens endure an essential life and are not allowed to contribute to anything that could be considered a waste of their time. Though their life is not without pleasures. The lifestyle that these citizens are taught to maintain is exactly why pleasures should not be allowed in their society.
Now, you may be thinking of why these certain citizens could be considered unworthy of the chance at pleasure. It is simply due to the fact of how they were raised. The citizens are accustomed to using their time efficiently and not doing anything that allows their brains to become lazy.
“All the rest of the twenty-four they are free to do what they like-not to waste their time in idleness or self-indulgence,but to make use of it in some congenial activity”(Book II, pg.56).
If there is a sudden shift in that mindset, one of those shifts being a pleasure, it would be something unnatural to them and they would not know what to do. In the case of being pleasured, whether that be mentally or physically, the Utopians would become too addicted as they are so used to doing an activity that does not necessarily focus on being intellectually challenging. Utopia being the perfect civilization that it is, this imperfection would not be allowed and would contradict everything the citizens stand for. “No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want”(Book II, pg.61). Addiction is the excess use of a particular activity, so this would allow for time to be wasted inefficiently.
Another explanation for my reasoning includes the types of pleasures that are allowed in the Utopian society.In Utopia, they have physical and mental pleasures. The physical pleasures resulting from a conscious sense of enjoyment and a healthy immune system. As for the mental pleasures, they result from the satisfaction of understanding a certain subject.These do not sound like unpleasant happenings, I understand, but where the contradiction comes in is this “perfect society” performing them. If a society thinks they are perfect, they will assume everything else they do is perfect and essential to them. From pleasure results happiness, but only perfect happiness is obtained in our second life when we are with God. I take this idea from the beloved philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas. He states the following in one of his books, Summa of the Summa:
“Wherefore it is impossible to have true Happiness in this life. Secondly, from a consideration of the specific nature of Happiness, the vision of the Divine Essence, which man cannot obtain in this life. Hence it is evident that none can attain true and perfect Happiness in this life” ( Summa of the Summa, pg 394-395).
More’s work here is obviously satirical and supposed to be nonsensical, but if we are thinking about the society realistically, the mayor and citizens are going about achieving pleasure and happiness in the wrong light. The citizens also find pleasure in making fun of those who are mentally deficient which is a whole different issue in itself that I will choose not to discuss.
Dealing with the religion side of this subject, More also presents the Utopians of being a part of many different religions and not pertaining to just one. “Of course, many Utopians refuse to accept Christianity, but even they make no attempt to discourage other people from adopting it..”( Book II, 99-100). I am not saying the Utopians should lack pleasure because they refuse to be Christians, but they can not achieve the perfect feeling of happiness in their earthly lifetime unless they have knowledge of God. A knowledge that will end up benefiting them eternally.
In conclusion, I do not think the Utopians would value the gift of pleasure very much as other societies would and do. They are just so accustomed to the perfect and essential lifestyle, that the feeling of pleasure would set them off the track of the life they want to lead. Also, when they are given the ability to have pleasures, they use them in the wrong means that ultimately make them non-essential. They desire perfection and being useful human beings. If they are to acquire that role, they must follow and know God.
Works Cited:
More, Thomas, and Paul Turner. Utopia. Penguin Books, 2003.
Thomas, and Peter Kreeft. A Summa of the Summa. Ignatius Press, 1990.
