Utopian Occupations

I’m probably not making an unfounded assumption in saying that as college students, the main point of our education is to get a job. Not just any job, either, but a moderately competitive and well-paying job. We go to school to avoid jobs that consist of menial labor – factory jobs and craftsmanship jobs like carpentry, metal work, and working with fabrics. Ironically, these are the jobs or “crafts” that are encouraged and available for workers in a Utopian society. I think this aspect of Utopia alone illustrates the drastic differences between the perfect world proposed by Sir Thomas More and the ideals we hold today.

I found it particularly interesting that every member of Utopia was responsible for doing agricultural work at one point in his or her life. In fact, agriculture is even integrated into their schools. Children learn about agricultural theories and practices as a part of required education. All citizens must work on farms for a minimum two years of their lives before they are rotated out into cities.

This is entirely different from the way our society has progressed. Agriculture is an underappreciated industry. While every Utopian citizen has experience working on a farm, many Americans have little to no experience with farms or the agricultural world. This is particularly ironic since agriculture is responsible for one of our main staples as human beings: food. We have an Agricultural college at our school, but people who get educated in agriculture are not looking to become menial farm workers – which are the positions that More’s Utopia emphasizes.

This goes to show that More focuses solely on occupations that provide a measurable usefulness to society, and all of these occupations are not ones that our society emphasizes today. Our collective mindset is to support ourselves, and though many of us might want jobs where we contribute to the community in various ways, I’m going to assume that very few of us want to contribute to the community in something as menial and necessary as carpentry or metalwork.

It makes sense on paper, to emphasize these necessary jobs first, especially under More’s Utopian model. However, it’s very problematic to our current society. The idea of two years work on a farm followed by another “craft” such as wool-work being the extent of my occupation for the rest of my life is devastating to me, just as it is devastating to many other college students. We’re taught to chase success (usually defined by wealth) and to “follow our dreams.” I feel like ambitious people in our society fall into two categories: “lucrative” work or “meaningful” work. This is oversimplified, and probably not true for everyone, but I feel like our individualistic, capitalist society directs us one of these two ways: to make a fortune or to make a difference. And generally, we don’t think of carpentry or linen-making as either meaningful or lucrative. So while, in theory, Utopia has the premise of being the happiest and most peaceful society ever, to many Americans it reads like a living nightmare. I’m not making any declarations on which ideas are right or wrong, but I will assert that with the way I’ve been conditioned by our society, More’s Utopia is not somewhere I’d like to live.