Utopia: Book 2

This book talked a lot more about Utopia itself than the last one. So this post will have a lot more to talk about. Firstly, page 21-22 talked about the cities of Utopia. The fact that all the cities look and act the same would make the society more equal so nobody felt superior of someone else. Each city sends three representatives to the capital to discuss island-wide policies. This is similar to our Congress which works well in our society. Each city concerns itself with cultivating the land it owns rather than worry about how much land it has. This is good because it would prevent one city from trying to gain more land from another and fight wars. I did disagree with the fact that the houses of Amaurot do not have locks. I would not feel comfortable with some stranger being able to walk freely through my house. The fact that every city has a system of administrators making the community decisions is a great way to keep order but prevent tyrannical rule. As for the fact that every citizen has a job to do and that nobody is allowed to be lazy seems too harsh to me. I agree with the concept in theory, but I believe that nobody should be forced to work. The Utopian day is divided into 24 hours with 6 dedicated to working and 8 devoted to sleeping. This is a great idea because it leaves a lot of free time to do whatever except for debauchery and idleness. The Utopians focus on constant upkeep of the things they build. This is contrasting to the Europeans who build, wait for it to deteriorate, then rebuild. The Utopian way is much more efficient and requires less resources. I did disagree with the concept of family limiting. I feel that families should be as large or as small as they want. These were just some of the concepts that I found interesting during my reading. Feel free to criticize them.