Hippity Hoppity

I certainly like the idea of a society without poverty. The fact that More is discussing a way to bring this about in a period where his ideas did not match up with the current societal values is admirable. Yet while his ideas were ahead of his time, I feel as though one of the biggest issues with them is that they do not hold up in a time like ours where crafts and careers have become increasingly complex. Bear in mind, that is not to say that his ideas are invalidated because of this; as we have touched on in the past, any utopic vision is going to be inexorably linked to the societal context in which it was created. That being said, I would argue that our society has advanced to the point where it would be infeasible to create a market where everything is shared, including jobs. The things we have created - from personal art styles to the iPad I am writing this on - are a product of multiple generations of workers devoting the majority of their lives to developing a single craft to the point where they can be considered an expert in their field. On top of that, these same people often develop their crafts so well because they have a passion for that specific type of work. I feel as though interfering with their pursuits would lead to a decline in the quality of their work. Again, I’m certainly not against social structures designed to eliminate poverty; one of my main career goals is to help the development of such structures. Yet I still feel as though, in our current context, More’s utopic vision falls short of being feasible.