The responsibility of the little guy

One of the things that Winstanley (et al), Morris, and Bellamy have in common is the idea that the little guy, the average Joe, the guy on the street (whatever you want to call someone who's not in a position of power) is also responsible for the way that the world works. Not just bringing about change, but also helping it stick. The thinking is this: you can't just wait for the higher-ups to step in and fix a broken system. After all, they are the ones benefitting from said system, so they have little to no motivation to step in and improve it, do they? So that means it's up to the rest of us. 

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We see this clearly as Morris describes the General Strike that began the great change in their society (in chapter 17); without the workers, the prisoners, and so on, the change could never have occurred. (Makes me think of way that air traffic controllers, TSA agents, and other workers affiliated with air travel were the ones to bring an end to the recent government shutdown.)

This is an idea I've struggled with as I've read these texts, especially as it's expressed in the First Digger Manifesto:

So long as we ... doth own the Earth to be the peculier Interest of Lords and Landlords, and not common to others as well as them, we own the Curse, and holds the Creation under bondage; and so long as we or any other doth own Landlords and Tennants, for one to call the Land his, or another to hire it of him, or for one to give hire, and for another to work for hire; this is to dishonour the work of Creation; as if the righteous Creator should have respect to persons, and therefore made the Earth for some, and not for all: And so long as we, or any other maintain this Civil Propriety, we consent still to hold the Creation down under that bondage it groans under, and so we should hinder the work of Restoration.

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When I first read this, I was pretty upset - it felt a bit victim-blame-y to me. But here as elsewhere, when thinking about utopian ideas, I have to challenge myself to reset my thinking. Rather than beginning from a place of skepticism or cynicism, why not begin from a place of empowerment? Isn't it an awesome idea to think that the "little guy," especially in the mid-17th century, has the power to make a change? And they did. Even though the Digger Movement met a sad end, their ideas have had lasting impact.

Personally, I'm still eager for the proletariat to seize the means of production. I'm all for a General Strike along the lines described in Morris' novel. I don't think we'll get the kind of radical redistribution of wealth that the world needs until something like that comes to pass. But as an obvious member of the bourgeoisie, I wonder what my role is in that change. Is it patronizing of me to expect the workers to rise up and do that work when they aren't starting from a position of privilege? Or am I empowering those who might not realize that they do, in fact, have more strength than they might think?

Education and Utopia

These utopian societies just do not want their people to know the truth. Suspicious. Just like the censorship of art, education seems to be on the chopping block as well. This is not about the quality of education, because that's a tangent I do not wish to pursue, but rather about the specificity of education.

In Plato's Republic, only the education of the guardians is worth mentioning.

In More's Utopia, people are educated in their craft(s) and can spend their free time studying language and literature.

Bellamy's Looking Backward mentions education through apprenticeship, and "The schools... of higher liberal learning are always open to aspirants without condition." Each person must learn a trade through an apprenticeship and rise up in the ranks. If people want to pursue higher education, they are able to.

The host in Morris' News from Nowhere is initially confused by the term "school." As the dialogue continues, he says, "I understand you to be speaking of book-learning" and addresses the ways children learn to read, write, and study languages. That's not really the narrator's point either; he wants to know about how these people educate the mind. The people discourage bookishness and find it childish, because work is more important: "so I don’t think we need fear having too many book-learned men." And this was the sentence that struck me.

Why would a society not want its people to be learned? It's fine to learn a trade because that leads to employment and a manner in which you aid the community. But you're not allowed to learn anything else, or at least, it's frowned upon to pursue any other education. Stay in your little box of the craft/profession you've chosen to learn, young one, and don't pursue anything more because it's not good for you to know too much. Because if the people become educated about their ways of life, they might realize what's actually going on. It goes back to control. If a society controls what the people, especially children, learn, then society controls the people and the people become docile, complacent, and, most importantly, malleable. Then the machine of society is in control rather than the people who make up that society. It reeks of 1984 and 2+2=5, or the "fake news" of today. What are these utopias hiding that they don't want their citizens to learn?

Mentality of Utopia-"News from Nowhere"

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.