1. In your journal, define “utopia.”2. Next, brainstorm what a utopian

school system might be like.

Utopia by Thomas MoreMeans no-

placeWritten in

1516

No private ownership Women and men work equally –

in agriculture for 2 yrs at a time and must learn one other trade

6 hr working day Scholars rule Households have 2 slaves each

– slaves are criminals Free medical care – euthanasia Community meals Tolerant of religions except

atheism

Journal on the above question…

Early utopian novels expressed self-confidence and hope at a time when man did not posses the ability or technology to feed the world, communicate with masses of people, provide quality medical care, harness nuclear energy.

Why write about a utopia failing? Do you think utopia’s are possible?

1984 by George Orwell (who also wrote Animal Farm) Published in 1949 Is a warning that we may not be strong

enough nor wise enough nor moral enough to cope with the kind of power we have learned to amass… greater efficiency, ease, and security may come at a substantial price in freedom that individual liberties are surrendered and freedom lost. Walter Cronkite

War is PeaceFreedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

Are these phrases true or false? How could they be used in revolution or

to control people?

The basic idea behind Newspeak is to remove all shades of meaning from language, leaving simple dichotomies (pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, goodthink and crimethink) which reinforce the total dominance of the State reducing the need for deep thinking about language. Successful Newspeak meant that there would be fewer and fewer words – and it’s easier to control thought.

In addition, words with opposite meanings were removed as redundant, so "bad" became "ungood". The ultimate aim of Newspeak was to reduce even the dichotomies to a single word that was a "yes" of some sort: an obedient word with which everyone answered affirmatively to what was asked of them.

Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies Brave New World by Huxley

Biological selection, brainwashing, and drugs to control the population

The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood“From each according to his ability, to each

according to his need.” Feminist dystopia Gulliver’s Travels by Swift

Through traveling to different lands, human society is revealed as flawed

The Giver by LowryConfusing equality with “sameness” and

eliminating painful historic memories.

"Utopias seem to be much more achievable than we formerly believed them to be. Now we find ourselves presented with another alarming question: how do we prevent utopias from coming into existence? …Utopias are possible. Life tends towards the formation of utopias. Perhaps a new century will begin, a century in which intellectuals and the privileged will dream of ways to eliminate utopias and return to a non-utopic society less “perfect” and more free.”

Nicholas Berdiaeff (epigraph to Brave New World)