Academic Writings: Utopia Project Essay (2021)

Originally, I was inspired by my own dream of a community I have wanted for a while. A close-knit, self-sufficient community that cares for each other and the environment. This vision grew as I researched for the class; I learned about Biophilic architecture, which is a rising trend in some areas. I imagined a whole community covered in greenery, cared for by the people. A vast collection of images created by either those who documented actual biophilic communities or illustrations of the vision. I also built it’s values around original American ones, along with the International Human Rights laws.

I wanted to bring to light the damage we’ve done to the environment in my vision of a perfect utopia. How we build cities and factories without considering the damage to natural habitats; so far, our only remedy is protected national forests. In the context of utopias, it might seem rather tame because it’s something tangible, and realistic. If we were able to get over our differences, a dream like this could be realized worldwide. Much of the sympathies that I discovered in the course, shaped my economic and political standpoint in the idea of my utopia. Everyone deserves a home, humans and wildlife included so assigned homes, but not cheap-feeling or basic, a place that could feel like a home. Additionally, in a cultural sense, everyone is free to practice their beliefs and traditions as long as they don’t harm another. This even goes so far as to make laws against forcing your beliefs onto others and protecting rights to beliefs while heavily enforcing them.

The community was based one the old fashioned ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ type principles. I know how it feels to grow up feeling alone, and I don’t wish that on anyone.  With closeness comes security, in my opinion. You can lower the rate of danger and crime, if everyone has what they need and we all look out for each other. Additionally, implementing a ‘favor’ system makes it so that even if you are down on your luck, you can still get what you need to survive, without interest. I believe systems likes this could lower poverty and create a close bond between the community’s merchants and the customers. A cap on wealth can also help remove the class system, because I believe that everyone should be on equal terms when it comes to living. It should not be harder for someone to live comfortably because of higher classmen hogging wealth and making the economy rise in price.

Local traditions would be based around original seasons: Spring and autumn equinoxes, and Summer and winter solstices. Reasons being to center holidays onto farming and gardening. If we can equate our success and passions into growing like flora, we are more likely to care for wildlife because it directly affects us. Technically, it already does; but people are stubborn in their ways, so they don’t see the harm. We can encourage this by having children, once a year either on a solstice/equinox or on their birthday, use an environmentally friendly paper and a seed to write a dream/ passion they have and plant it with the seed. With that, they’ll associate the plant or tree they planted with their dream growing.

Alongside the passion I have for environmental conservation, I believe my motivation also came from being raised in the desert. There is a substantial lack of green in the town I grew up in, and I often dreamt of lush forests and massive gardens with fresh edible greens. I know that it’s unrealistic to try and implement my dream in the desert environment. But a part of me is tired of the painted grass lawns and ‘socially acceptable’ decorative plants in my town, and the other desert towns I’ve visited. I’ve slowly become obsessed with my own utopia, as if I was promised it from a young age only to be disappointed by the world we live in. The hate and isolation, the lack of care for the world around us.