Preview

Essay On Utopian Communities

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
750 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Utopian Communities
What is “Utopia”? Is there a utopia in existence in our world today? According to merriam-webster.com, “A utopia is an imaginary place in which the government, laws and social conditions are perfect.” When it comes to a utopia, there are none in existence since a utopia is a community where everything is perfect. Nothing and no one is perfect in life and flaws do exist. The fact that the definition has the word ‘imaginary’ shows that it doesn’t exist. If a perfect utopia existed then everyone would want to live there and be a part of that specific utopia. This whole unit we have been studying utopias and looking at different communities and how they exist. Two of the communities that we studied were the people of Jonestown and another community was the Omelas community. In this paper I hope to explore the differences and similarities between these two communities and if they have aspects …show more content…
The Peoples Temple was a community led by Jim Jones. This community started out to be very welcoming and the services of the Peoples Temple helped those who had problems with things such as drinking or doing drugs. This community had the essential characteristics for it to be considered a utopia. It had a leader who was very persuasive and was viewed as influential. Trust, togetherness and religion seemed to be common themes that flowed throughout this community. These components were all aspects of what made this community a utopia. Jim Jones preached and one of his messages was that he believed everyone should be included. It was successful because it persuaded people to believe in him, while also giving him their trust. The people’s temple started out as a strong thriving community which was comprised of content individuals; however, it ended with catastrophic results. Many people ended up dying and they never even saw it coming. This proves that this community failed as being seen as a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Utopias are the quest for someone’s perfect society. Usually only one person is happy in a utopia everyone else suffers. Utopias are bad In many utopia there is only one person that does not have it hard. In the story Harrison Bergeron.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the utopian society safety and happiness are supreme and the people are healthy and no one is subjected to any depression or disorders…

    • 57 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “to what extent do the actions of utopian societies in their attempt to create a perfect world rather creates a dystopia”…

    • 4373 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the 1970’s Jim Jones established a church called the Peoples Temple which eventually became a cult. The foundation of the church was based on social and racial inequality for all. The church started small yet eventually grew to 5,000 members. The Peoples Temple accumulated media and political attention which earned Jones popularity; this resulted to his nomination and selection to city commissioner. According to many Jones did not have much and cared little for wealth and fame. Despite his lack of interest for wealth, the church still accumulated a sum of over 20 million dollars due to many financial contributions. His charismatic approach enabled the church to gain fame…

    • 4767 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    On November 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, over nine hundred members of a religious sect called the Peoples Temple died along with their leader Jim Jones. In a related incident, a California congressman and some news reporters died after visiting the religious compound. Jim Jones created and governed The Peoples Temple in Jonestown. Jones was a preacher who started his church group in Indiana, moved to California, and then moved to Jonestown, Guyana. Jones had a “vision of a Communist community” in Jonestown, where each individual could live free of racism, poverty, and social injustice.…

    • 2793 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is but a single key characteristic needed to form a perfect utopia. That is the absence of morality, which for this purpose will be those principles that differentiate between right and wrong. A certain domino effect must be properly and precisely set off in order to create this utopia, failure at any point will result in total systemic collapse at the hands of the governed. To begin, freedom must be completely revoked. Citizens will have all choices made for them by their superiors. This will in turn lead to more sameness, every last person a perfect replica of the last. Everyone’s loss of individuality will result in a singular form of shared morality, dictated by the higher-ups. If each person shares the same morals, not only will…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    More’s Utopian society was a work of fiction with the writer exhibiting what would be considered as an ideal community that differed from the medieval view and adopted a modernist approach. In his book, Utopia, More’s main features highlight an ideal society and has been adopted today, to an extent by the society. In Utopia, the structure of the community about marriage and family is idealized. Premarital sex is severely punished and families adopt a traditional structure with elders at the head of the household. In politics and government structure, Utopians are pacifists and uphold moral and ethical practices that are well defined in the society today (Engeman 140). Work and economy in the modern society are held in high regard with everyone…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim Jones Psychopath

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages

    To the outside world the Temple seemed to be a mixed congregation who were equal with the leader being someone who told what they wanted to hear. For example, African Americans who were oppressed and here you have a man telling he can make your life better if you follow him. In the instance of the women like stated that he gave the women leadership positions in the church in a time where it was rare for women to be in positions of power. “Another issue involved with Jim Jones’ control over these people that many of them came from broken homes and off the streets, from horrible lives which frequently included drug use and abuse, alcoholism and sometimes prostitution, alongside other criminal activities and abuse.” People’s Temple gave these people a second chance a place where they could learn to work hard and stay clean of their past lives. The Temple even inspired young people to try and go to college, better lives and people who cleaned up their lives attributed their success and hard work to The Temple getting their life together. So this worked in advantage for Jones because this organization has turned someone’s life around. Now these people will most likely be loyal to you because they access you and your organization for saving them. The People’s Temple quickly changed from just a church to a civil rights organization, rehab, and retirement…

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jim Jones report

    • 1472 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jim Jones was a well-educated man with degrees from Indiana University and Butler University. By 22 years of age he had already joined the Methodist Church as a student pastor. In 1995, after being involved with several different churches in the Indianapolis region, Jones started his own congregation named “The People’s Temple”. Jones presented himself as a leader for change and a champion for the disadvantaged, organising soup kitchens for the homeless, forming an employment assistance service, providing decent clothes to wear to job interviews for the members of his church to help them find work and supporting multiculturalism.…

    • 1472 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    To comprehend a dystopia, one must initially ask, what is a utopia? Purely gedankenexperiments, utopias are imagined idealistic societies in which every aspect of existence, from government, to relationships, to wealth, to material possessions, to education, to health, to the environment, is…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Utopian communities are societies that strive for perfection in different aspects. Some wanted to reform a certain issue, such as slavery and others wanted to achieve perfection in all aspects. These societies usually had few laws because they tried to diminish all evils from them. Oneida was one of the communities that thought their society was best for human kind. They saw men and women as equals and everyone was married to each other. The utopian community of Oneida had a system that saw women and men as equals but oppressed both.…

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonestown

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A past religious settlement established by Reverend Jim Jones in late 1978 provides examples of persuasive tricks known as fallacies. The majority of the followers in the masses were individuals who were victims of discrimination seeking a better and more positive outlook on life, signifying Jones' selection of people. Fallacies are formed within arguments causing it to weaken by indicating a flaw in reasoning. Jim Jones utilized unique and persuasive tactics, which brought him about a thousand followers, all desperate and in need of a leader who provided them with what they believed as faith healing. However, these people carried traits of emotional vulnerability, causing them to overlook the errors within their leader's bold statements and arguments. Jones created the Peoples Temple known as Jonestown that began with immense hope and aspiration for the people, but ended in tragedy. The foundation of the tragic event was built upon Jones and his multiple arguments, which pertained common fallacies. The fallacies created by Jones consisted of appeals to popularity, ignorance, authority, tradition, incomplete comparisons, and false dichotomies. The mixture of various strategies were enforced upon these weak individuals; though unfortunate, a leader with psychiatric issues achieves success through his uses of persuasion and leads nearly a thousand people to self-destruction.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Jim Jonestown Massacre

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There members began to live and work communally, donating wages and income from outside jobs. The group sponsored several residential homes and outpatient services for the mentally ill and mentally retarded, which Mrs. Jones- administered. James “Jim” Jones continued to preach a socially through group gospel messages of service to the poor and encouraged expansion of the church to San Francisco, where membership grew with the actions of thousands of African Americans. The dynamic minister became a political force in San Francisco in the 1970s, a result of his delivering Peoples Temple members to demonstrations in support of freedom of the press, Native American rights, and antidevelopment efforts. (1) Local, state, and national politicians frequented the Temple, where they were warmly greeted. The Temple also opened a church in Los Angeles, and during the mid- 1970s Jones preached at all three California congregations, traveling the length of the state in a Temple- funded and owned bus. He also led several cross- country caravans, preaching in Philadelphia, New York, and Midwestern cities that would include Milwaukee, and Chicago, cities in which attracted members at every…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utopian Short Story

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Kin stretched out the gaming poster and slotted one end into the stand, he took a look at the pile of posters he had and heaved a sigh. The work was much drearier than he thought and after spending three days in Hewat and hundreds of repetitions of the same activity Kin didn’t think it could get any worse but Kin knew he would rather be efficiently slotting posters all day than having to be the waste collector that removed radioactive liquid from heating cells. He sighed in relief as the meal bell chimed and hurried to the village centre where he lined up for a paper bag of lunch and sat at his usual spot in a corner next to the warm heating vents left over from the war. Hewat was still being cleaned up from the effects of the last world war and although there were still bits of ruins everywhere, the government was making exponential political and economic recovery and growth, unseen before in the world stage.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Can Utopia Exist

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Utopias… Utopias are the “perfect cities” of this world. But I believe they never existed. I believe that Utopias cannot exist. They cannot exist because People might not like the decisions made by the people in charge, People could never be perfect, and People will always break the rules ,even if they don’t mean too.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays