Utopia

[ClemtheCatholic]

Hi,

Some friends and I are writing on Utopia. I was wondering if you have any knowledge or website links to do with the topic? As far as I am aware, the concept originated with St. Thomas More…?

Do you think the Soviet Union was aiming or a kind of Utopia?

Also, an article (faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/283/283%20session02.HTM) says: The Utopian way centered on communism; Utopians had no private property and led lives which were closely controlled by the state. They also practiced religious toleration, and permitted euthanasia, suicide and divorce. Is this true?

Thanks and God bless,
Clem

 

[Nelka]

Your idea of utopia is different to mine and the next persons.

The worst thing about communism is the atheism.

 

[CruceSignati]

I’m not entirely sure, but I think the Soviet Union was aiming at something like Plato’s Republic.

 

[tawny]

Your idea of utopia is different to mine and the next persons.

The worst thing about communism is the atheism.

Amen.

 

[crystal_waters]

The nearest to utopia that we will experience will be HEAVEN

Utopia can never be achieved on earth as there is always going to be those who kill and injure and steal… the only way any of us will experience a utopia paradise will be in the eternal paradise of heaven which will be better than any earthly idea of utopia

 

[Mustard]

No, the Soviet Union assumed itself to be Marx’s forecast final state of humanity, the “end of history” if you will, where man would finally come into his own. Marx was an excellent social critic of his day (and to an extent, Marxist critiques are still pertinent); where he fell down were in his solutions. He predicted a utopian state evolving in the same way as organic life evolves, and in this he was absolutely wrong. History doesn’t end, it just mutates from age to age. Communism is not in theory hostile to religion per se; the problem for the Soviet Union was that Marx had predicted that religion would just wither and die when his perfect state emereged. When it didn’t, the USSR was faced with the uncomfortable situation of either Marx being wrong or the USSR not being his forecast final state. Either way, the continued presence of religious observance in the Soviet Union was a stone it the shoe, and for that reason the repression started.