Utopia
Plato in his ‘Republic’ hypothesized a perfect Utopia for humanity. It envisioned a society ruled by an elite set of philosophers, segregated from the rest of the populace by birth on the basis of heredity or rarely, on the basis of intellectual potential. The society left all the decision making to this set of rulers. The preferred way of life was Spartan and people worked not for personal achievement but for altruistic principles. Slavery was encouraged and most of the manual labour was to be performed by slaves. Today’s world would reject this society for being socialist and undemocratic.
The world in the twenty first century has advanced a lot since Plato’s time. Technological progress has transformed the world into a dynamic mechanized entity where most of the populace plays the role of mere cogs in the behemoth that is ‘society’. Most live out their lives in ignominy and are rendered to the annals of history as mere numbers or statistics of the period. Their lives are simply erased by the inevitable stroke of fate that we call death. What purpose would a man deem his life to hold in such circumstance apart from labouring to support the existence of his family and himself? This situation is unlikely to ever change in the future of mankind.
Reading of Plato’s life and work subjected my mind to introspect on the purpose of my life, leaving me in freefall in a void of mental thought caused by the realization that I actually had none. The absence of a goal that is worth one’s entire life spent achieving, from the consciousness of any individual and the lack of thought about it is what drives the countless cogs of society to run out their lives as ignominious drops in an ocean. Some people manage to find happiness and contentment in our society and I would deem them to be a very fortunate; the rest end their ignorant lives in discontent looking back upon their failures. Under present circumstances, I believe that society must chart a course for itself to move towards a time where there may be ascertained for each individual, at least in part by himself, a purpose in life that may be considered worthwhile by him and may also represent a productive contribution to creating a little order in the endless chaos that plagues this universe. It is the attainment of such a state that must be achieved for each individual to truly live up to his potential. As each individual works towards his own goals in life, he would feel within him a drive that would cause him to put his best into his work. An increasing percentage of people living up to their true potential would lead to radical advances in productivity and would spawn a period of unparalleled growth which would in turn liberate countless others from the ignominy of a purposeless life to propel them to achieve what destiny has in store for them.
The society envisioned above would be in no sense perfect and would certainly face many social problems that are rampant in today’s world. It would also have problems of its own. To venture to propose a perfect world, in my view, is a fallacy as the human being is the most unpredictable of all elements that form the world and anarchy would constantly strike at the roots of such a perfect world till its downfall. To deal with this anarchy would in essence require steps that would make the world move away from its perfect stature, by the enforcing of a set of laws, which should not be needed in any perfect world. A perfect society should in theory offer its constituent individuals unlimited scope to work in any direction they choose and the individuals should be in a state where all they do for personal fulfillment would not possibly infringe upon others. The conventional human is by nature selfish and only works to meet his own ends. Thus, the perfect society would be one in which the ends of all its members either overlap or are mutually exclusive to other’s ends, which is a really difficult proposition.
The question of whether society will evolve into a transcendent entity, wiping out suffering for all, or whether it will pummel itself to annihilation can only be answered by the lone witness that will outlive all, TIME.
The world in the twenty first century has advanced a lot since Plato’s time. Technological progress has transformed the world into a dynamic mechanized entity where most of the populace plays the role of mere cogs in the behemoth that is ‘society’. Most live out their lives in ignominy and are rendered to the annals of history as mere numbers or statistics of the period. Their lives are simply erased by the inevitable stroke of fate that we call death. What purpose would a man deem his life to hold in such circumstance apart from labouring to support the existence of his family and himself? This situation is unlikely to ever change in the future of mankind.
Reading of Plato’s life and work subjected my mind to introspect on the purpose of my life, leaving me in freefall in a void of mental thought caused by the realization that I actually had none. The absence of a goal that is worth one’s entire life spent achieving, from the consciousness of any individual and the lack of thought about it is what drives the countless cogs of society to run out their lives as ignominious drops in an ocean. Some people manage to find happiness and contentment in our society and I would deem them to be a very fortunate; the rest end their ignorant lives in discontent looking back upon their failures. Under present circumstances, I believe that society must chart a course for itself to move towards a time where there may be ascertained for each individual, at least in part by himself, a purpose in life that may be considered worthwhile by him and may also represent a productive contribution to creating a little order in the endless chaos that plagues this universe. It is the attainment of such a state that must be achieved for each individual to truly live up to his potential. As each individual works towards his own goals in life, he would feel within him a drive that would cause him to put his best into his work. An increasing percentage of people living up to their true potential would lead to radical advances in productivity and would spawn a period of unparalleled growth which would in turn liberate countless others from the ignominy of a purposeless life to propel them to achieve what destiny has in store for them.
The society envisioned above would be in no sense perfect and would certainly face many social problems that are rampant in today’s world. It would also have problems of its own. To venture to propose a perfect world, in my view, is a fallacy as the human being is the most unpredictable of all elements that form the world and anarchy would constantly strike at the roots of such a perfect world till its downfall. To deal with this anarchy would in essence require steps that would make the world move away from its perfect stature, by the enforcing of a set of laws, which should not be needed in any perfect world. A perfect society should in theory offer its constituent individuals unlimited scope to work in any direction they choose and the individuals should be in a state where all they do for personal fulfillment would not possibly infringe upon others. The conventional human is by nature selfish and only works to meet his own ends. Thus, the perfect society would be one in which the ends of all its members either overlap or are mutually exclusive to other’s ends, which is a really difficult proposition.
The question of whether society will evolve into a transcendent entity, wiping out suffering for all, or whether it will pummel itself to annihilation can only be answered by the lone witness that will outlive all, TIME.
posted by Samir at 1:06 PM
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