Utopian Societies Fail: Bad Leadership And The Human Condition

The Reason Utopian Societies Fail: Bad Leadership and the human condition.
English
Ms. Zimmerman
Rios, Sergio
30/5/2012

Rios, Sergio
Ms. Zimmerman
English
30/5/2013
The Reason Utopian Societies Fail: Bad Leadership and the human condition. Utopian societies tend to fail because perfection itself cannot be achieved: factors such as discrimination and bad leadership make a utopian society nothing, but a myth. History has proven that humans that have leadership can shift things around, in example Julius Caesar with the Roman Empire. Societies have “grown back” in time proving that one leader can change history. Utopian societies tend to fail because perfection itself is something impossible, where there are humans
Mengele fled to Brazil when the Red Army overcame Auschwitz’s concentration camp, and successfully defeated Hitler. Once in Brazil, Mengele continued his medical experiments with twins in a small town called Candido Godoi. Today, the town is home to several blonde and blue eyed twins, making Mengele’s legacy something hard to forget. Another utopian society that tried to prevail was the Brook Farm Community. This society was made with the intention of doing good instead of doing bad. The motif of the Brook Farm society was to combine both the thinker, and the worker to create a perfect society (Santoso). It was an institution that was created to guarantee liberal thinking, to serve as a sanctuary from conservatives. The Brook Farm was made for cultivated and intellectual people to live freely (Santoso). The experiment was based on a sale of stock, which meant that however bought a share of the institution was now part of the same (Britannica.comstaff). Although the place was made for intellectual people to live freely, many farmers and craftsmen joined in. As time passed the place began to be seen a sanctuary for the intellectual and whoever needed mental refuge. The “colony”, as the members called themselves, began to struggle. Several years later the project was not able to sustain itself, and at the end the properties were, unfortunately,
George Pullman was the man that began this failed attempt of a utopian society. Pullman, who owned a railway, made the town so his employees would stick to the ideas and principles of capitalism and Pullman’s leadership. Like the name itself says, the utopian society ran in a capitalist economy. Pullman also wanted his employees to stick to the proper moral standards of the era. Pullman tried to convince his employees and the world that capitalism was the best way to meet all needed, whether they were material or spiritual ( Thechicagohs.orgstaff). Pullman gave two paychecks to his employees, one was for the rent of the housing he offered them and the other was personal use. Pullman gave better payment and better housing to the good laborers. The less skillful employees were not given as much money as the others, therefore creating class division between the employees. The settlement itself lasted more than any other of the failed attempts of utopian