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Utopia / Dystopia

Utopia / Dystopia. In your journal, define “utopia.” Next, brainstorm what a utopian school system might be like. The Novel: Utopia. Utopia by Thomas More Means no-place Written in 1516. No private ownership

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Utopia / Dystopia

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  1. Utopia / Dystopia In your journal, define “utopia.” Next, brainstorm what a utopian school system might be like.

  2. The Novel: Utopia • Utopia by Thomas More • Means no-place • Written 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

  3. Why write about utopia? • 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.

  4. Dystopian Novels - Orwell • 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

  5. Double Think – from 1984 War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength Are these phrases true or false? How could they be used in revolution or to control people?

  6. Newspeak – from 1984 • 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.

  7. Other Dystopian Novels • 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 Lowry • Confusing equality with “sameness” and eliminating painful historic memories.

  8. "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)

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