"True freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth. For as man is compounded of the four materials of the creation, fire, water, earth, and air; so is he preserved by the compounded bodies of these four, which are the fruits of the earth; and he cannot live without them. For take away the free use of these and the body languishes, the spirit is brought into bondage and at length departs, and ceaseth his motional action in the body" (Winstanley, chp 1).
Conversely, in True Levellers, I was interested by the quote: "O thou Powers of England, though thou hast promised to make this People a Free People, yet thou hast so handled the matter, through thy self-seeking humour, That thou has wrapped us up more in bondage, and oppression lies heavier upon us; not only bringing thy fellow Creatures, the Commoners, to a morsel of Bread, but by confounding all sorts of people by thy Government, of doing and undoing." England, as mentioned in More's Utopia, appears as a once-possible hope of a Utopia in these texts. But its has fallen in the eyes of Winstanley and his followers.
I chose these two quotes as they prompted me to think of questions like: Do you believe that a Utopia requires an acknowledgement of or connection to the earth to be equal and fair (as the Diggers believe we are made of it and rely on it)? For all of the Diggers' Utopic vision and practice, it failed. Would it continue to be sustainable if it didn't face opposition from the rich? After all, as the Wiki page mentioned, a significant amount of people were either sympathetic or practically unbothered by the Diggers. What do you guys think?
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I would agree that in order for a utopic society to exist it must be in a healthy relationship with nature. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that any society must be in a healthy relationship with nature if it is going to exist indefinitely. The second is that in a truly utopic society, I feel as though all things must be considered in order for the society to be truly maximizing its potential. Therefore, nature is one aspect of many that must be balanced in order for a governmental system to function as effectively as possible.
ReplyDeleteI think it is kinda interesting to see that one of their arguments was them sort of saying that they have a right to the land because God created it for all (or something like that) and the same argument is used today that is essentially saying "I deserve land and food because I am a human being and we deserve the Earth just as much as you do."
ReplyDeleteI also think that is a really interesting arguement and in a lot of ways I agree with it. It’s interesting to see how the concerns that the diggers had about equality are still pretty relevant today
DeleteAs I noted in my post and in class, most literary utopias arise and are sustained in relative (if not complete) isolation. I think the Digger's plan might have worked had the existing social order not deemed them squatters and driven them out.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for the diggers, their tenets were in direct conflict with the concept of capital property. Landed gentry, who wielded the vast majority of political power in Britain at the time, depended upon the holding of land to maintain their wealth. The diggers may have been more successful if there were more sympathetic voices to them in government, or if they protested in greater numbers.
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