Take-Aways Preface on an Allegedly True Story from the Island of Utopia What It’s About Ideal Society and Ideal State

An Entirely Reasonable State Structure

Utopians all wear the same kind of plain and practical, yet gracious clothing, which isn’t meant for representation and is easy to make. The buildings, too, are simple, which reduces the amount of labor spent on them. These factors and the fact that everybody works explains why the inhabitants of Utopia only work for six hours a day and still generate a surplus: There are no idle priests or noblemen with entourages – and also no beggars. There is only useful work. Fruitless labor that caters to luxury and hedonistic vices is nonexistent, as are lawyers, whom the Utopians consider to be manipulators of the truth. And since there are hardly any laws within this reasonable state structure, lawyers are superfluous anyway.

Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretense of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out. (Hythloday)

Pleasure and diversion consist of sitting and being jolly together, or of partaking in popular entertainments such as exercising one’s mind and extending one’s knowledge by, for example, attending public lectures. Utopians eat together in big halls; there’s no drinking, loose behavior or gambling. The nucleus of the state is the patriarchal family, and when a family gets too big, its members give away their children to smaller families, in order to maintain a proper balance. Overpopulation in a city is handled in the same manner: People move to a less populated city on the island or found a colony on the mainland. They only go to war when they need land to provide for their living, claiming unused territories and uncultivated soil from the natives. When the population of Utopia falls below a reasonable number, they abandon their colonies and return to their island.