Is such a concept possible?
Can it be achived without big government?
Would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
Would you want to live in one?
Is such a concept possible?
Sure the concept is possible. But can the concept be implemented realistically? I think not. For example, both communism and socialism were meant to bring utopian societies and one only needs to look at the former USSR to see how well that works. Personally, I think communism is a great idea, but does not work well IRL, and so the idea must be abandoned.
Can it be achived without big government?
I don’t think so. The very definition of a utopian society, IMHO, assumes a “perfect” society, or at least on in which all its inhabitants are happy/content – an idealized life. By that very definition, I don’t think it can be achieved at all, since we all have a different definition of what a perfect society would be like. Minor example: birds singing and flowers blooming are pre-requisites for a utopian life. Fact: many people find birds irritating and/or are allergic to pollen and may want neither in their ideal life.
Would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
It would be a bad thing if the Utopian Society was based on your definition of an ideal life. It would be good if it were based on my definition! For me.
Would you want to live in one?
Only if I get to be in charge!
More importantly, I think you should back up and ask, “To you, what constitutes a Utopian Society?” Let’s come to an agreed-upon definition first, then we can answer your questions more intelligently. This may mean you have to ask the mod. to move this post to Great Debates…
Yes, I think it is certainly possible and is being done. A wise person with good problem solving skills can create a utopian life for him/herself and his/her family. The nature of the Utopia will vary depending upon what the person values of course. And this would only be a small “society”, but it is definately achievable today.
Is this possible on a large scale? I think so. Basically all we need to do is elect George Bush president, outlaw abortion, reinstate prayer in school, and stop making wealthy people pay taxes. Ok just kidding about that last part.
Ok,yes I do believe it is possible to have utopian societies, or at least so much better then the current US that they appear virtually utopic. I have read tons of Utopian novels and one of the most interesting is “Walden Two” by BF Skinner. That is sortof communal ideal living with some rather riske’ psycological stuff. There is a commune roughly structured like Walden Two that has been around for some 30 years. It is called Twin Oaks and is one of the coolest places I have ever visited. Diverse community with almost every conceivable religion and value system, yet living communally. <a href=“http://www.twinoaks.org/”>Twin Oaks</a> If you are near Virginia it is a fascinating place to visit. They do a Saturday 3 hour walk around tour.
Then another really interesting one is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Her ideal is pure laizze Fair capitalism and also very interesting. There are people trying to actually create such a society on a man made island down in South America. It is called New Utopia. Gotta love em for trying.
Of course a lot of modern politicians might claim they have a vision for a virtually utopian society, but most of them are…stupid IMHO. (Ok forget the H)… But one guy who I find almost inspirational is Harry Browne of the Libertarian party. You could read some of his writing for yet another radical departure from current governmental thinking.
In the end though, yes it is possible, but whenever you try and do anything really good and rational on a large scale you have to address the problem that most people are a bunch of raving idiots who will lynch you if you suggest change…
Maybe if we expand out into space people will get the chance to start new societies based upon some new political ideological systems…
On a large scale? Absolutely not. Why? Because in every large society, there will be group whose idea of a utopian society is one or more of the following: anarchy/totalitarianism/being an asshole. Unless large amounts of Prozac are included in the bylaws of said society, such a creature cannot exist to the extent that I imagine the OP was inquiring about.
Small societies? Sure. They always have been, but never for a sustained period of time (30 years is good, but still very young).
i think any society is going to be a continually evolving system and i think a group of reasonably like minded people could create a society moving in a utopian direction. i doubt that it can be made by people stuck in the capitalist-communist dichotomy thinking.
Dal Timgar
I think that this topic would be better suited in Great Debates.
Congrats! 
No.
Every person has a different idea of what a utopian society would be like. To implement a utopian society would perforce be to raise one person’s ideal over everyone else’s, completely and permanently. And then, for the others, it wouldn’t be a utopia, and unrest would extinguish the utopia.
There’s a reason why utopia is Greek for “nowhere”.
We will never have a utopian society. People are inherently evil. That second that a perfect, peaceful, caring society was formed, some psychopath would want to destroy it. Some people would only see a society without violence as an opportunity to seize control of it. The only solution would be to kill all the violent people and found a utopia with the survivors, and a utopia based on slaughter doesn’t seem like a true utopia.
A large scale utopia does not need to include all of humanity…it simply needs to be a society in which all members are thriving and happy.
If “Utopia’s” ever manifest, they will consist of groups of humans who all come together to live in accordance with a set of likeminded ideals and values. People will live there as a matter of free choice, and people who decide they do not value the same things will leave. And of course the society will have means of addressing people who try and dissrupt and destroy it. On the other hand, a utopia will most likely have far better systems in place for helping people learn, thrive, and grow into happy emotionally fufilled adults. It would also IMHO have a far better system in place for dealing with “criminals” and “psychopaths”, such as meaningful rehabilitation and then “banishment” or perhaps the death penalty when necessary.
As I said before, I have seen here on Earth places that almost resemble utopia. Twin Oaks (see previous post) is an impressive example to me. New Utopia will be interesting to watch. What humanity needs are more opportunities to found societies based upon new types of political, sociological, and economic theories. Most likely, the only way humanity will get this opportunity is to expand into space. Give humanity a few thousand opportunities to start new societies on space habitat’s, satellites, moons, and planets, each with different value systems, and you might start to discover a few large scale societies where virtually every member thrives.
(Naturally, peaceful coexistence of the societies will always be a challenge because some people will always have the value “You gotta believe what I believe or you are going to Hell!”)
No.
The very word implies unachievability.
Sorry to nitpick. I’ll get me coat.
in a way culture is really social-psychology. people normally talk about art, music etc. being culture, but how most people think and behave is the culture. since children are raised to conform to the culture, any group of people choosing to strive to create a better culture have to concentrate on psychology and social psychology. so it would have to be a consciously self aware culture. a metaculture.
Dal Timgar