utopia dystopia

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Utopia/Dystopia Unit Junior English

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Page 1: Utopia dystopia

Utopia/Dystopia Unit

Junior English

Page 2: Utopia dystopia

What is a utopia?

John Lennon’s song “Imagine” describes this idea well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs

The following is a quote by John Lennon on the message of "Imagine", interviewed by David Sheff for Playboy magazine in 1980:

Sheff: On a new album, you close with "Hard Times Are Over (For a While)". Why?Lennon: It's not a new message: "Give Peace a Chance" — we're not being unreasonable, just saying, "Give it a chance." With "Imagine," we're saying, "Can you imagine a world without countries or religions?" It's the same message over and over. And it's positive.[5]

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Nutopia "has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people. Nutopia has no laws other than cosmic. All people of Nutopia are ambassadors of the country. Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of Nutopia."

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Definition Check: Utopian

Utopian refers to human efforts to create a hypothetically perfect society.

It refers to good but impossible proposals - or at least ones that are difficult to carry out.

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Dystopian versus Utopian

Dystopian is the opposite of utopian; it is often a utopia gone sour, an imaginary place or state where everything is as bad as it could possibly be.

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Dystopian Novels

Dystopian novels usually include elements of contemporary society and are seen as a warning against some modern trend.

Writer’s use them as cautionary tales, in which human kind is put into a society that may look inviting on the surface, but in reality is a nightmare.

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Examples of Real Life Utopian Societies

Religious

Communistic

Agricultural

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Religious Utopias

Freedom of religion attracted European groups to America who were persecuted in their own countries.

Some colonists hoped to form Utopian societies, self-containing religious communities, removed from the perceived “vices” found in overcrowded cities.

In these utopian societies, all aspects of people's lives were governed by their faith.

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Examples of Religious Utopias

Example: the Shakers – a religious group who fled to the United States in 1774 to escape persecution. They formed a tight knit community, which required celibacy (no sexual relations) and the separation of men and women in daily life.

Their religious expression included productive labor, peace, the equality of the sexes, and a ritual noted for its dancing and shaking.

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Communist Utopias

The Soviet Union represented the creation of a political utopia on a larger scale than had ever been attempted before.

Communism was seen as the creation of a working society in which all give according to their means and take according to their needs. This aspect promised the future freedom of all people in a world free of oppression and inequality.

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Communist Utopias (cont.)

By the end of the 1920s, the disadvantages of Communism in the Soviet Union were evident.

Joseph Stalin forced peasants to work on the land, forced intellectuals into prison camps, burned books, and contributed to the death of millions.

He used mass media to create a godlike image of himself, and any opponents were executed or deported.

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Agricultural Utopias

In the 1960s, thousands of people formed communes in Europe and the U.S. in an attempt to redefine the institutions of marriage, family and economy.

People headed "back to the land“, questioning the benefits of a society based on technology and competition.

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Agricultural Utopias

While most of those communities disbanded, many have survived, emphasizing economic and social cooperation.

Some communities are separate from the rest of society while others hope to serve as an example of a better lifestyle to the rest of the world.

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What do you think about forming a utopia?

Is it possible to create a perfect world in which to

live?

Journal: Do they work?