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Relevance of community to society
Comparison between traditional and modern society
Comparison between traditional and modern society
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Recommended: Relevance of community to society
Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins presents a society that is a direct satire of our 21st century American society. Percy takes what he considers the negative elements and situations from our society, and reproduces them, distorting them in order to point out the negativity of them. It seems, then, that the society presented in the novel would be distinctly distopian. However, the view that Percy gives us includes many different segments and views of the society, some of which are very utopian. Some of these mini-utopias are actually in the society, but many more are only dreams of the characters. This is an accurate reflection of our society, there are many situations that are utopian for certain people, and every one of us creates utopia in our minds from time to time.
Paradise Estates, where Thomas More lives, is aptly named. Paradise is a place where everyone gets along well, the liberals and conservatives, the unbelievers and Christians, the Northerners and Southerners. The distribution is not even, there are minorities, but the majority groups are open to the customs of the minorities. Paradise Estates is community at its best. It is not an intentional community, but rather everyone is free to do what they want and there is love and respect and little argument.
Intentional community does have its place, however. The Honey Island Swamp is home to a variety of people, including guerrillas, college dropouts, draft dodgers, radicals, and beats. Some of these people, such as Chuck, came from the town, and have given up city, home, family, career, and religion to live in an intentional community. Chuck's community is different from the community of Paradise estates in that there is common ground that holds the community in place, rather than respect for differences. Chuck's community holds ideals of free love, freedom, peace, and God expressed everywhere. This community is very similar to many of the contemporary utopias that can be found in America today.
Normally hospitals are not utopian, but this was not the case for More. More considered his time in the hospital to be "the best months of my life" (p. 90). In his fellow patients, More found love that he was not finding in his life outside of the hospital. Also, while in the hospital, he had the time and resources to do the breakthrough work for his lapsometer, which was his passion at the time.
In the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman there are many different characters, and even some of them cross paths. A community garden was started just by one person therefore everyone follows. They all learn how to get along with other people, how to not stereotype so much, and how to depend on each other in their community. All of them struggle with something, whether it's with family, friends, or feeling stereotyped. They learn the importance of a community, and realize how much they really depend on each other. Having a community is important for all people to incorporate diversity, culture,and unique stories into their lives. You don't realize how much people depend on their community until its gone. The importance
The authors therefor saw the ‘utopian’ societies to be a trap for weak minded publics, and that once in place, such systems would be able to perpetuate indefinitely due to the efficiency at which they protect and propagate themselves. Through fear, diversion and sedation the utopia can maintain a strong grip on the people it encompasses before anyone realizes the sacrifices made. The popularity of these books does rule out the possibility of such a society coming into existence in the future, however. The state of people is not about to change, and their ignorance will continue regardless of the harshness of the wake up calls issued.
One could describe the novel "The Chrysalids" as a dystopian novel as apposed to utopian. The town in which David and the rest of shape-thinkers live is deffinatly not a utopia as well as the new land to which they move, Sealand.
...e of reality, seizes the pleasures in their lives and portrays a loss of freedom. Both their perfect worlds were full of lies and instead of shielding its inhabitants from evil they gave individuals no rights of their own. What appeared in the beginning as a perfect utopian society was actually an imperfect dystopian environment.
Utopia and Il Muqaddimah both show the importance of families and social groups in the civilization they live in. Utopian families all have an equal role in the cities they live in; they are a microcosm of their city and its objective to survive; however, in Il Muqaddimah the subjects have the responsibility to help the ruler prosper. Utopians work and in return share what they earn, while subjects work for their survival. Utopians all have an equal work load and subjects hardships depend on their social status both situations lead to prosperity.
Yet another famous Utopian society that appears to thrive on the surface is that of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. More’s society was ...
A utopia is a society that is characterized by being one in which everything is perfect or ideal. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia, a society where everyday life is less than perfect. These concepts are widely subjective for varying parties, as some may view the utopian society they live in as a dystopia and choose to leave to find true happiness for themselves. This is demonstrated in the novels, Into the Wild, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and The Warmth of Other Suns. These three novels each demonstrate the same underlying themes. The main protagonists in each novel must deal with a realization that they are unhappy with the current state of their lives, they had to leave in search of a better life, and they must deal with the changes brought by there actions as it affects the state of the society they left. These various accounts serve to form a concept for the most ideal utopia within the three texts.
Human sacrifice killings is a horrific but devastatingly true reality for some that come too close to the jaws of the Matamoros cult. People usually think of a utopia as an amusement park or just an amazing dream. The dictionary version is often defined as “any visionary system of political or social perfection” (“Utopia”). A dystopia is quite the opposite though. Think of your worst nightmare and that is exactly what a dystopia is. The professional definition is “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding” (“Dystopia”). As it goes in 1984, the whole book is based on a dystopian society. Citizens have horrible lives which leave them dehumanized by the central government. They are also being under
Historically (before 1880s), only few hospitals were originated in some big cities of U.S. Initially, the hospital system mainly run by religious organization and it served a primary purpose of palliation. According to Shi and Singh (2010), the function of hospitals at that time was more of “social welfare” (such as taking care of homeless people and helping those without families) than practicing medicine (p.56). Over the years, the functionality and the services offered by the hospitals has changed dramatically. However, it’s primary function to treat sick individuals has remained the same. Nowadays, hospitals also function as a research center, a medical educational institution, and is a major source of employment in the community (Sultz
... you’re there to help them get back up. I couldn’t imagine the feeling you can get when you see your patient making really good progress and knowing you helped them regain their life. Not only that but the job has decent pay, the schooling isn’t too long, the job outlook is great, and you get the make the lives of people so much better. It may be a lot of work but at the end it can totally be worth it.
In Milton's Paradise Lost, the two images of sex in Books IV and IX sharply contrast one another in order to show the dichotomy of love and lust. The first act of sex is seen in Book IV and represents holy love. Before going into their bower, Adam and Eve make sure to praise God. This awe for their maker is seen when Adam and Eve "both stood,/Both turned, and under open sky adored/The God that made both sky, air, earth and Heav'n" (IV. 720-2). Even the heavens are in unison with Adam and Eve's love. While Eve decorates their "nuptial bed," there are "heaven'ly choirs" singing the "hymnenean sung" (IV. 709, -10). This love of Adam and Eve's is not "loveless, joyless, unendeared" but instead is "loyal, just, and pure" (IV. 766, 755). After their sacred act of sex, Adam and Eve are enraptured with joy and peace. They are "lulled by nightingales" and fall asleep naked, embracing one another (IV. 771). All is perfect in Paradise, but not for long.
I believe everyone has an ideal of a perfect society. No one wants to live in a society where there is violence and evil. In my opinion, a utopian society would consist of very few government mandated laws and a desirable constitution. People would get along, and everything would be perfect. In order to achieve such an ideal, people must do anything in their power to manifest what they have envisioned. Human nature, like any other animal’s nature, causes us to become competitive, especially with each other. In practice, the attempt to have a perfect society leads to the creation of a dystopian society where people are unhappy, afraid, and not treated fairly.
To explore the concepts of Utopian theory, both political and social, one must first engender a concrete definition of what Utopia means. Sir Thomas More, the original creator of the term Utopia, signifies it as “no place”. However, More’s clever play on words seems ultimately to suggest that ”no place” is just no place right now. That is to say that Utopia is “an ideal place that does not exist in reality” yet (Murfin and Ray 529).
Houyhnhnm’s Land is a society unique to Gulliver’s adventures because he encounters not only horses reigning over society, but also that these supreme animals think more rationally and intellectually than the Yahoos and even Gulliver himself. Gulliver’s stay in Houyhnhnm’s Land represents the “perfect”, but emotionless and detached conventions of utopia. According to Dr. Joyce Hertzler’s The History of Utopian Thought, utopians hold a false view of society so that when developing their “perfect” social order they think nothing of “…over-riding natural affections and balking natural desires and impulses” (304). Life is really nothing but a systematic social order if devoid of all emotion, causing one to question the “perfection” of utopia. If one looks beneath the surface of the Houyhnhnm’s culture, one will find that Gulliver’s final journey does not describe an immaculate society, but rather a visionary world, meaning a world that is purely speculative and out of reach.
The Utopians also observe that the citizens others countries have a fixation on gems and precious stones and that they take a great amount of pleasure if they can buy one that is extraordinary and even greater pleasure if it is a kind that is highly sought after. The jeweller selling a gem must swear that it is authentic, even though a passing glance would not be able to distinguish if it was a counterfeit or a real one. The Utopians also find that those who take pleasure in amassing wealth for no purpose other than to possess it are also succumbing to a false sense of joy. Accordingly, it is just as reprehensible to hide one’s fortune away out of fear of losing it, which prevents it from being useful both to the individual and to the rest of mankind (More 80). In their own nation, the Utopians have reversed the veneration of precious metals like gold and silver that they would not inspire jealousy in people so that they would not sacrifice the interest of the public for their own private needs. They eat and drink out of containers out of clay or glass and they make chamber pots and other containers used for unpleasant purposes in public halls and private residences to be made out of gold or silver. They also make the chains that slaves wear to be made out of gold or silver, which are made to be a symbol of infamy. The Utopians find pearls on the seaside, and diamonds and carbuncles on their rocks, but they do not go searching for them. If they find them by chance they polish them and give them to their children to wear and when they grow up and see that the other kids are no longer wearing such trinkets they willingly give them up, because they would be ashamed to continue to use them because they are nothing more than toys (Mor...