today’s TEDx presentations the analyses
of social norms political landscapes and
scientific fields and a general time
frame of the next ten years today I want
to understand these trends I want to
find out where they lead to where their
ultimate destination is to find out
whether they have a goal to them and
whether or not we can reach those goals
when species evolve they incrementally
augment their features to try and
achieve perfection yet today we humans
have created an object more so a
phenomenon that today supersedes
biological evolution in both priority
and importance to mankind it
demonstrates similar patterns and
processes of progression that out of the
former a phenomenon we call society one
can easily see the striking similarities
between the two the incremental
developments in different parts that
create constantly changing creature that
tries to achieve perfection yet as we
know all species have their faults a
similar line can be drawn towards
society that their ultimate goal too is
to achieve perfection to achieve a
community where as would be agreed upon
by various realistic thinkers and
fictional authors alike people are
provided with healthy challenges and
means to overcome them while still kept
at harm kept at bay from all forms of
harm to add meaning to their lives a
society where there’s a healthy
cooperation between the people leading
to an operational economy a functional
society and a high quality of life a
community where the organizational
system has a political religious and
economic ideology that suits everybody
completely fulfills the requirements a
society where the physical environment
is not only aesthetically pleasing but
functional as well providing spaces for
recreation productivity residential
industrial and commercial constructions
but is this goal possible can we
this is such a society and if we can how
can we find out as is often been said to
understand the future we must first
understand the past and that’s exactly
what I’m going to be doing today despite
its numerous requirements there have
been multiple attempts at creating such
a perfect society throughout history one
of the first if not the first of these
examples would be the Garden of Eden
with Adam and Eve here was a society
with an physical environment which was
aesthetically pleasing but provided
shelter food and water for its
inhabitants there was no requirement for
a large operational system because there
are only two people two people who
cooperated together to live and they
were provided challenges go up the trees
to find food look in the ground to find
vegetables so that their lives were at
least meaningful it was perfect however
the society was destroyed when Adam and
Eve both had the apple of knowledge of
good and evil because they were tempted
by a snake they do so but the thing is
temptation is not a one-way deal it’s
something which both parties must be
agreeable on so why would Adam and Eve
want to eat the apple even though they
were forbidden to do so that would be
because humans are animals and naturally
animals have a tendency to try and rise
to the top of their local food chains
this tendency this instinct is what
caused Adam and Eve to try and have that
Apple so they can rise above the
simpleness of being equal with the
animals being equal with vegetation
utopia utopia is defined as an imagined
place or state of things in which
everything is perfect
it’s derived from the Greek oh you
suppose meaning no place but its
definition more closely lies with the
Greek EU you thought was meaning a good
place this term of course was coined by
Sir Thomas More in 1516 in his book by
the same name to show that a perfect
place is not possible he presented us
with a society based on rational thought
great productivity
communal property religious tolerance no
discrimination no crime no poverty no
social classes it was in all terms
perfect a paradise but there are two
main reasons for which such a society
will not be possible to create the first
would be the instinct I recently
described and its extension into today’s
greed and competitiveness the second
would be the fact that we are all
individuals we are different we have
differing preferences different beliefs
ever since animals have evolved into
something that could be defined as a
human we have always wanted to try to
climb to the top of the food chain this
extends today’s greed and this greed is
one of all-cause members of such a
society with communal property to try
and rise above the equality and create
socio-economic ranks that put them in a
position of power position of wealth but
the more outrageous of the two
requirements would be a complete
cooperation no discrimination no crime
this is because people’s experiences
shape their preferences and beliefs and
is those preferences and beliefs which
are discriminated against and in a
society of any considerable size there
would be preferences that clash
head-to-head like communism and fascism
communal property and capitalism atheism
and religion in a society where beliefs
exist like these there would be factions
factions of people who dislike each
other because their preferences their
beliefs are different they clash and
therefore in a utopia with any
considerable size there would be dislike
there would be discrimination it would
dissolve into a regular Society but
perhaps the most prominent example of a
perfect society would be that of
communism developed by Karl Marx and
Frederick angles on the 21st of February
1848 they defined communism as the
antithesis capitalism capitalism itself
being an economic ideology based on the
private ownership of means
production and distribution of goods
characterized by a free competitive
market and motivation by profit this of
course is useful towards economy because
it uses humans greed humans want for
profit and it uses that to motivate them
to try and improve the economy it allows
for individualization for people to earn
monetary rewards based on their efforts
in their work but it also leads to the
definition and spreading of social
classes it leads to discrimination
through classism and this is where it
lacks Karl Marx himself defined two
different working-class do different
social classes the first was the
proletariat the working-class here are
the people due to a perverse childhood
owned only their ability to work and
could sell only their labor this led to
a perverse adulthood and therefore a
continuing self-fulfilling cycle of
poverty from generation to generation
however there was also the bourgeoisie
the rich business class upper class men
who had a fulfilling education during
their childhood due to wealth and data
that they would grow to earn more money
than their parents creating a much
different self-fulfilling cycle where
they would continuously increase their
monetary wealth from generation to
generation Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels communism sought to solve that
problem by removing social classes and
adding communal property this would
allow for the same education same salary
same jobs same housing to be given to
everyone but still was enough
individuality the people would be able
to work together to build facilities
improve the economy improve technology
for the betterment of the society it
would be a joint force under the banner
of a country but as we know the two
largest communist countries they failed
in communist China it’s no longer
communist and the USSR
well that country no longer exists
common property soon led to a common
state of poverty except for the elite
few closest to the soup
leader of these countries it was a case
as described in the animal farm a book
representing the USSR of all animals are
equal but some animals are more equal
than others why did these societies fail
that would be due to greed greed caused
Mao Zedong to try and purge 1.5 million
impure people out of China by executing
them just so he could keep his seat as a
chairman of the People’s Republic of
China after his Great Leap Forward
failed greed is what caught is what
caused Stalin to use underhanded
techniques to drive his political
opponents out of the USSR turning the
peaceful communist state into a warrant
inclined to tell a Korean nightmare that
required Adi Stalin ization the cleanup
so far we’ve recognized that there are
too many reasons for which a utopia
cannot exist greed and individuality but
there’s another fictional work that
provides a different perspectives on
utopia but gives us the same results
that would be The Giver by Lois Lowry it
described a society with white picket
fence houses lush gardens outside a
functional government and economy that
was never power-hungry or corrupt it was
by all regards perfect to perfect and
that’s what we realized when its main
character Jonas earns the job of the
receiver of memories here he discovers
what the society was like before it
converted itself into sameness he
discovers emotion he discovers color he
discovers the beauty of the world before
everything became the same he
understands that his society functions
so much like a well-oiled machine
because it was not run and lived in by
people but rather machines it was a
closed factory with no inputs no outputs
not a utopia from these analyses we have
recognized that there are two main
primary reasons for which a utopian
society cannot exist the first would be
the national tendency to try and rise
the top of the local food chain which
has now become competitiveness greed it
causes us to try and earn more power
more money more knowledge than an equal
society would lend us and the second
would be individuality the fact that
everybody is different it would lead to
factions to be created within a utopian
society that would fight against each
other that would not cooperate but is it
really a bad thing that we will never be
perfect because we will always be
competitive they’ll always try and have
a better economy more technology more
comforts more luxury make our society
better and will always be different
there are always be factions reasons for
which people are divided and we will try
to prove that another group is worse
than us by improving ourselves whether
that be separated by school company
religion country or socio-economic
ideology and while we may never be
perfect we will always strive to be the
best we can be
thank you [Applause]