Utopian socialism is the belief that social ownership of something that is useful to a group of people can be achieved by voluntary and peaceful surrender of the rights of the ownership of the resource by the groups owning them (Taylor, 1982). The name Utopia was used by Thomas More to describe a society where all conflict and problems were overcome. He described it as a society that every man has the right to everything. Thomas blamed waste, poverty and greed on personal property (Guarneri, 1991).
To save the situation he hence introduced the utopian kind of society. Utopian socialism emphasizes that there are three things that would happen if all people would adhere to socialist ethics; it looks forward for the oppressed to have a better future and improve their life standards, it emphasizes how socialism is very ethical and gives a clear and full meaning to the aims of socialism. Utopia describes collective ownership of property to eliminate greed, promote personal growth, democracy and cultural enrichment (Taylor, 1982).
The utopian socialists differ from the other socialists because of the way they carry out their issues. Utopian socialism is more dogmatic and moral (Guarneri, 1991). They provoked both ridicule and inspiration in the people. Saint Simon, one of the founders of the utopian socialism viewed suffering as resulting from individualism which was as a result of breaking of order and hierarchy. He did not see the importance of individuals whose main objective was to pursue personal interests (Taylor, 1982). He did not also believe in free markets as they were points of oppression of the poor in the society.
In the modern times, socialism is seen as a failure. There is a group of socialists that argue that socialism should have an extend to which it stops (Guarneri, 1991). They argue that such things as major decisions for the whole society cannot be done by anyone. Major societal decisions are seen as important, hence need to be done by people with leadership skills. Utopia is now being used to refer to unrealistic ideas suggested by people. Yet on the other side, there is a group of socialists that argue that it is only the capitalists that control political issues and leave no other means of getting equality but only through violent revolutions (Lipow, 1982).
Utopian socialism however has its disadvantages. It does not give guidelines on how to achieve its objectives (Guarneri, 1991). It only highlights its vision and no action is taken towards the goals. The opposite of utopia is dystopia. Dystopian vision is to give warning about dangers in the society. It is viewed as a good ideological weapon. In modern times there is increasing distrust of progress and this makes utopia unconvincing to most people in the modern society (Guarneri, 1991).
Utopian socialism had a number of impacts to communities in the 19th century. One of the main impacts in the wave of the feminist movement. This resulted from the issue about equality in the society (Taylor, 1982). Feminist movements sprung up fighting for economic equality and power equality between men and women. Many organizations also came up to fight against gender based violence and discrimination. Laws regarding percentages of women in leadership positions started to be formed. Women were now to be represented at least by a third in most of the parliaments and organizations (Lipow, 1982).
In the sector of industrial revolution, utopian socialism improved women’s thinking in terms of work and leadership (Guarneri, 1991). Women began to go to work and make their own money. By mid 19th century, many women were working in factories and even some were leaders and were overseeing over their male workers (Lipow, 1982).
At the same time, utopian socialism encouraged the existence of trade unions for workers (Guarneri, 1991). Workers had their rights and cold lounge complains if at all there were any.
Cooperative stores and societies also came up in large numbers to deal to help individuals set up firms and businesses. This was due to the belief that all people were entitled to equal rights; the poor and the rich (Taylor, 1982). The poor had to think of ways of improving their lifestyles so that the gap between them and the rich narrows.
Utopian socialism also had an impact on the church and missionary work. It is the base that motivated preachers go around the world to spread the truth gotten regarding equality. This can be seen from Fourier’s achievements in mobilizing movements to protest against poor salaries (Guarneri, 1991). As a missionary he mobilized his followers to preach equality in all the continents.
Among the churches, it also caused divisions as those who believed in equality had to go their own way while those that did not believe in it went their own way (Lipow, 1982). As an addition, utopian socialism helped to set up such things as orphanages, food aid to those suffering from hunger, relief food and clothing to those affected by calamities and donations to churches. All this was to fulfill the terms stated as equality among human beings. This is a good action as put forward by utopian socialism (Taylor, 1982).
In its pursuit of equality, utopian socialism also introduced such things as gay marriage, lesbianism and lack of marriages. The utopian socialists viewed marriage as making women look like captives. They thus took to celibacy as a means to survive (Lipow, 1982). It also helped reduce cases of child labour (Taylor, 1982). Child labour was seen to look down on the children as they are weak in society.
In some cases, utopian socialism brought about laziness and people started to reject work. This was so because those who worked under a supervisor began to look forward for equality, a condition that could not be achieved in a place of work (Lipow, 1982). Many people turned to laziness and continued to demand or equality in terms of property allocation. Countries that tried to embrace this kind of socialism have been left hind in terms of development and industrialization (Guarneri, 1991).
In conclusion, utopian socialism is seen to have two main ideas, equality of human beings and unrestricted use of natural and community resources (Lipow, 1982). This kind of socialism is good as it helps solve some tragedies in the society but on the other hand has its disadvantages. In the modern society, these cannot be achieved (Guarneri, 1991). This is due to the poor economic conditions of the society that forces individuals to struggle on their own. If one sits back and waits for justice and equality to be implemented then he or she will probably go hungry.
Utopian socialism is thus not a good kind of reform to be practiced in society because it does not have good guidelines on how these reforms affect different classes of individuals. Its collective nature brings much more adverse effects to the society (Taylor, 1982).
