The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

UTOPIAdrBamintonALEXANDER WINSTONPLATO FATHERED the first blueprintof a planned society, and hisdescendants still clasp us in asticky embrace while they rifleour freedoms. His Republicmapped out a spartan state runby benevolent philosophers, defendedby a secondary caste ofwarriors, and supplied with thenecessities of life by a mass offarmer-artisans whose only politicalrole was to obey. He did awaywith two obstacles to the orderedstate : private property and thefamily. In the Republic each citizenperforms that task for whichhe is fitted; the lowly toiler'signorance is his bliss; and allparts of the body politic functiontogether in well-oiled harmony.Thomas More's Utopia (Greekfor "no-place") in 1516 gave theA former lecturer in philosophy at Tufts College,Dr. Winston has written extensively in thefield of history. His most recent book is No ManKnows My Grave: Privateers and Pirates,1665-1715.name to this whole type of literature.A spate of others followed:Andreae's Christianopolis (1619),Campanella's City of the Sun(1623); Bacon's New Atlantis(1627), to cite a few; then agrowing flood rising from theFrench Revolution and spreadingamidst the industrial turmoil ofthe nineteenth century (EdwardBellamy's Looking Backward,1888, being the most popular);and on to our own day in suchprojections of the future as H.G.Wells' Modern Utopia (1905) andB.F. Skinner's Walden Two (1948).They number by the score, andtheir variety in detail is as great.The majority rely on rule by anaristocracy of merit, a few try topreserve a modicum of democracy;most are communistic, but one atleast (Hertzka's Freelands, 1890)recognizes self-interest as basicand aims to save capitalism byrestraint on overproduction. They131