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

Hythloday Reports on the Island of Utopia

The name “Utopia,” says Hythloday, goes back to the explorer Utopus, who colonized the peninsula and, together with the natives, separated it from the mainland to create an island. Its 54 cities are all equally well-built. Amaurot is the capital and seat of the island’s senate. Every city is allotted sufficient arable land for its needs, and the land is farmed by country families. Each family has at least 40 men and women, as well as two slaves. The town magistrates supply the farming groups with equipment and harvesters, and the Utopians generally produce a surplus, which they give to neighboring towns in need.

But in Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich.

Every two years, half of each country family moves back into town, and 20 city dwellers move to the countryside. Every Utopian thus acquires expertise in both farming and a trade, and the cleverest are designated to become scientists. The Utopians are advanced in crop cultivation, animal husbandry and technology and their research is state of the art. In the towns, you never come upon shut doors; everyone is welcome everywhere. Thirty families choose a magistrate, the Philarch, and the Philarchs in turn elect the Archphilarch as their representative. The people name some candidates for the position of Prince, whom the Archphilarchs elect. The Prince holds office for life, unless he strives towards establishing a dictatorship, in which case he is deposed. Princes and Archphilarchs meet every three days in the senate and decide the island’s policy matters. Nothing is ever debated on the day it is first proposed. Utopians prefer to sleep on issues to avoid ill-considered actions and decisions.