Thomas Kelly
A Personal Utopia
The driving cultural force of my utopia is the University. In modifying the outline provided for our Plato’s Republic discussion, I will describe the University’s significance in my society as it applies to that outline’s categories. Further, some of those provided categories and questions will be addressed and resolved as a result of the University’s omnipresence in my utopia’s culture. I have also created simple codes of equality, conduct, and corrections.
It is essential to mention that some of the following precepts were developed in the classroom and involved the ideas and contributions of my fellow students.
When speaking of my utopia, it is helpful to understand that I speak of a world-community; utopias, I think, cannot exist in a socio-cultural vacuum. The forces of economics, the distribution of goods, and ethical or moral rejection will isolate a community – such as an island or other geographic isolate – out of existence. In a modernizing world-community, where interaction with the whole of humanity is becoming the norm, particular cultural and moral standards of behavior will serve to drive isolated communities into extinction. This is not to say that these diverse cultures should completely abandon all of their traditions. However, it is some of the more controversial traditions, for example, female genital excision among tribes in the Horn of Africa, or honor killing in some Pakistani Muslim sects, that may best be recognized for the anachronisms that they are in our modern context, and their practices subsequently abandoned.
The University is the center of my utopia; regional Universities will exist in all geographic locations. All human individuals will be born in the Universities’ hospitals and it is at the Universities that, from the ages of five to twenty-five years (or beyond), all humans will be educated. Primary, secondary, collegiate, and technical/vocational schools will be located within the Universities; all levels of education will be available to everyone, depending on their abilities and desires.
All discriminations – including, but not limited to those based on sex, sexual identity, skin color, spiritual preference, ethnicity, and country or planet of origin – will be eliminated under the adoption of The New Ethics. This ethical standard will include the Difference Feminist idea that women and men have disparate, but equally important ways of evaluating a moral dilemma; the Buddhist ideas of balance, right thinking and acting, and interconnectedness; and the Hindu view that all beings are part of a Substantial, Universal Whole. Women in this society may, through the mandatory and equal education process, find an appropriate and suitable vocation. The choice of a woman’s career will be exclusively her own; she may choose to be a mother or a genetic physicist, an artificial intelligence psychologist, or a forklift operator. The New Ethics will also include provisions for the right and ethical treatment of all living things, plant or animal, as well as that for the ethical stewardship of Earth and its natural resources.
Two sentient beings may choose to “marry” in this society, although the term “marriage” will generally not be a part of the society’s lexicon. Individuals will join in a legally and socio-psychologically agreeable pledge that could include spiritual rites as well. Their pledge to each other may be initiated as early as their eighteenth year; however, procreation will not be possible until both partners have completed educations in their twenty-fifth year. The reproductive systems of both sexes will be physically nullified until this time. This nullification of the reproductive organs will be accomplished through the work of the society’s genetic research facilities, will apply to all humans, and will be reversible. The University will not interfere in any individual or couple’s choice of spiritual endeavor, nor will the University interfere in an individual or couple’s decision to raise the number of children they choose as long as they provide for their children in an acceptable manner. Children are expected to be physically and emotionally nourished, appropriately clothed, and protected from the natural elements and other hazards to their physical and emotional well being. While only women will remain capable of childbearing – a crucial difference addressed by The Code of Equality – they will not suffer discrimination regarding their education, socio-cultural desires, or vocational choices.
The division of labor in this society will be based on an individual’s educational aptitudes or desires. All children in the primary educational grades will be offered an equal education; in the secondary grades, aptitudes will be identified and stressed; at the collegiate or vocational level, those stressed aptitudes will be further developed and a career course will be chosen by the individual. If the individual shows an adequate proficiency in that course of education, they will be employed in that career. The career an individual chooses will determine their level of compensation; for example, professors and engineers will earn more than bus drivers or construction workers. Goods and services will be available at all monetary levels, from the purely practical to the luxurious, and the attainment of these goods and services will be limited only by an individual’s earning potential. Likewise, individuals and families will live in dwellings that they acquire according to their means, living where they choose. All individuals will find their places in the society based on their attributes, skills, and educational achievements. Not everyone in a society can be a civil engineer nor can everyone be a truck driver. The divisions of labor are realized, in my society, through educational merit. Those divisions of labor beget levels of income that beget commensurate buying power.
This is a point of view that I extend to government. I don’t think there is anything wrong with our governmental structure, just the manner in which individuals are elected to public office. In my society, a public servant will be identified in the same manner that a physicist or a carpenter would, through the identification of a political aptitude by the professorial staff of the University. The structure of my utopia’s government will be the same as that of the United States, with a representative, an executive, and a judicial branch. Local Universities will choose the candidates for public office; the winners will be selected based on their intellectual and socio-cultural proficiencies, not on their ability to campaign and raise funds. Here I defer to the creators of our government: Jefferson, Jay, Hamilton, and others whose ideas about government are sound, but whose intended process has been corrupted.
With a combination of ethical ideas based in Difference Feminism and Eastern moral theories, our founding fathers’ governmental ideas, and an intense emphasis on extensive education, I have endeavored to design a society complete with a simple judicial code of conduct, a selection process for public officers, and an ethics of equality. My utopia places a particular emphasis on that which I think to be most lacking in our society: education. With an adequately educated population, sound social, economic, and political theories have an operational chance beyond abstract theory.
Appendix I: The Code of Justice and Ethics
The Code of Justice and Ethics is a distillation of the Bible’s Ten Commandments. The number of rules has been reduced to three as there is some redundancy in the Commandments. For example, coveting one’s neighbor’s wife may be emotionally harmful to a human being and is addressed in Rule I of The Code. Those Commandments regarding taking the Lord’s name in vain and keeping the Sabbath holy are not addressed by The Code as they are based in the metaphysical or spiritual realm and do not apply to my system of justice and ethics. While spirituality is accepted and encouraged in my utopia, it will remain a part of the private sphere.
The Code of Justice and Ethics
I. Do not intentionally take the life of or physically or emotionally harm any human being, other than for the purpose of self-preservation or immediate safety of any other human.
II. Do not remove from another human being any item or right belonging to that being, except where the removal of a personally guarded item or right may be useful for self-preservation or for the justified good and immediate safety of any human being.
III. Do not speak untruths, except for self-preservation or for the justified good and immediate safety of any human being.
Appendix II: Addendum to The Code of Justice and Ethics: The Code of Equality
The Code of Equality
¶ As all human beings are regarded as equals and are further determined by The New Ethics to be a part of a Universal, Substantial Whole, with like access to health care, education, information, and social goods and protections, they shall not be judged regarding their genetic attributes or traits, but shall be accepted and nurtured within the guidelines set forth by the University and The Code of Justice and Ethics.
¶ In regards to a female’s unique ability of childbearing, she and the other genetically responsible party shall be given adequate opportunity from the University – the extent of which shall be determined by those same parties – to bring forth and sustain the product of conception in such a way that is in accord with the social outline set forth by The Code of Justice and Ethics.
¶ That unique ability of the female of the human species discussed in Paragraph Two of this Code of Equality shall stand to bear no impingement on those rights and privileges set forth by Paragraph One of this Code of Equality.
Appendix III: Addendum to The Code of Justice and Ethics: The Code of Corrections
The Code of Corrections
¶ Those sentient humans found to be in violation of the first (I) Code of Justice and Ethics shall be confined with the University’s Health Division. Violators will be deprived of their social privileges – except the privilege of public information gathering and that of monthly visitations – and they will fall under the purview of the Director of Sanitation. Violators who took the life of another human will permanently perform duties related to the removal and disposal of human and medical waste; those violators who otherwise physically or mentally harmed another human will perform those same duties for such a period of time as thought necessary by a jury of twelve (12) professors.
¶ Those sentient humans found to be in violation of the second (II) Code of Justice and Ethics shall – in addition to reimbursement to the victim(s) in cases of the removal of personally guarded items – temporarily be confined with the University’s Economic Division. Violators will be deprived of their social privileges – except the privilege of public information gathering and that of weekly visitations – and they will fall under the purview of the Director of Warehousing. Violators will perform merchandise warehousing and custodial duties for such a period of time as thought necessary by a jury of seven (7) professors.
¶ Those sentient humans found to be in violation of the third (III) Code of Justice and Ethics shall temporarily be confined with the University’s Justice Division. Violators will be deprived of their social privileges – except the privilege of public information gathering and that of weekly visitations – and they will fall under the purview of the Director of Investigations. Violators will perform information verification and custodial duties for such a period of time as thought necessary by a jury of seven (7) professors.