Utopia. The model of a perfect society. An island of nowhere. Thomas More did not just stumble upon the idea. More calls into the limelight the social issues of his day and age. The great Humanistic awakening, Protestant Reformation, and great thought to the nature of life and society was occurring. When King Henry the 8th passed the Act of Succession and Supremacy, c More resigned as Lord Chancellor under the King. He did not believe that any lord over man had a right to rule as head of the spiritual body of the Church. In this way, his resignation was seen as treason and he was put to death.

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One of the basic assumptions of our modern societies is that there is the possibility to create the perfect, ideal, unblemished civilization. People strive at this, creating rules, governments, and social structures with this ideal in mind. However, More shows not only the readers of his era, but of ours, that such a thing is impossible. Even if we were able to attain such a feat, it would soon crumble. Humanity, like the universe, tends towards chaos. The perfect island cast aside from the rest of the world was not called Utopia for no reason. Utopia means nowhere, which is a clever remark on More’s part. Utopia can be found nowhere, because humanity is a flawed race of beings that will inevitably break down even the most flawless of societies.

Personally I would not want to live in Utopia. In a perfect world there would be nothing left to fix, nothing left to change, and humanity would stagnate. The only way such a society could come about is if people and events ceased to change. You wouldn’t get to know a person or learn new things, see new sights or go to new places, and change as a person and as a society. There wouldn’t be anything unusual, fascinating, or out of the ordinary. Because humanity would live in an endless state of happiness in an ideal world, there would be nothing driving them to become better, to change, and to seek new things. There would be nothing left but endless routine in order to keep hold of the elusive Utopia.