While reading "News from Nowhere" my attention was primarily drawn to the attitude of both the narrator and the guide. Propriety and politeness seemed to be two big concerns for both characters. Throughout chapter two both characters seemed to have concerns about the other person's interpretation of their actions. This was extremely apparent during the conversation on money and labor. By the second passage from this reading, there was an apparent pattern of politeness.
In chapter 12 the guide explains that:
"It is easy for us to live without robbing each other. It would be possible for us to contend with and rob each other, but it would be harder for us than refraining from strife and robbery. That is in short the foundation of our life and our happiness.”
Initially, I assumed the consideration and politeness came from living in a utopia. However, this quote led me to ask whether utopia is made possible by this mindset or if this mindset is caused by life in utopia.
I think this is an important question - I do think it would be hard for everyone to get along in Morris' utopia to be sure, so I think you'd have to adjust your mindset rather than the society naturally making you that way.
ReplyDeleteTheir kindness is so great but I do wonder about the overwhelming nostalgia of their way of life. Morris was part of a group of artists who believed that the key to happiness lay in the "simpler" non-industrial past. Part of me wants to believe in the past he conjures up, but it's rather at odds with the strictly hierarchical world of the real Middle Ages.
I think that the Utopia is made possible by the mindset and I'm basing this off of what Plato would agree with because he thought that how people perceive the world controls how they act throughout life which is why Socrates focuses so much on censorship and what the Guardians can and cannot read in the "Republic" which relevant to the utopia of "News from Nowhere."
ReplyDeleteI think it's a chicken or egg question. The first generation decides these values are what they wish to found their society on, their children are raised with those values, and after that the cycle becomes self-perpetuating.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the same idea while reading Becca's post but didn't know how to express it into words and just abandoned the idea, so thanks for doing what I couldn't *insert thumbs up emoji here*
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ReplyDelete(Edited for grammatical error, whoops). I'm definitely on team "utopia via mindset" rather than "mindset via utopia". I didn't read News from Nowhere though, so maybe I'm just being opinionated.
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