Utopian+Socialism

=UTOPIAN SOCIALISM=

Utopian Socialism is a term used to define a system based on the idea that if capital voluntarily surrendered its ownership of the means of production to the state or the workers, unemployment and poverty would be eliminated. Utopian socialism define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen, which inspired Karl Marx and other early socialists.

Utopian socialists establish a set of ideals or goals and present socialism as an alternative to capitalism, with subjectively better attributes. Therefore, utopian socialism is the opposition to classical liberalism.

A key difference between “utopian socialists” and other socialist is that utopian socialists generally don't feel class struggle or political revolutions are essential to implement their ideas.

Utopian socialism does three things: it inspires the oppressed to struggle and sacrifice for a better life, it gives a clear meaning to the aim of socialism, and it demonstrates how socialism is ethical.

The problem with Utopian socialism is that it does not concern itself with how to get there, presuming that the power of its own vision in sufficient, and instead of deriving its ideal from criticism of existing conditions, it plucks its vision readymade from the creator’s own mind.



Quotes
//"What ideas individuals may attach to the term “Millennium” I knew not; but I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and not obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal."// -Robert Owen

//"It is therefore, the interest of all, that every one, from birth, should be well educated, physically and mentally, that society may be improved in its character, that everyone should be beneficially employed, physically and mentally, that the greatest amount of wealth may be created, and knowledge attained, that everyone should be placed in the midst of those external circumstances that will produce the greatest number of pleasurable sensations, through the longest life, that man may be made truly intelligent, moral and happy, and be thus prepared to enter upon the coming Millennium."// -Robert Owen

//“Eight hours' daily labour is enough for any [adult] human being, and under proper arrangements sufficient to afford an ample supply of food, raiment and shelter, or the necessaries and comforts of life, and for the remainder of his time, every person is entitled to education, recreation and sleep.”// -Robert Owen

History of Utopian Socialism
Between the 1820s and 1840s, individuals who believed in the perfectibility of the social and political order and political order founded hundreds of "utopian communities" These communities being called utopian communities because they provided blueprints for an ideal society. The utopian society displays in history are: Founded in 1776 by “Mother” Ann Lee, an English immigrant, the Shakers believed that the millennium was at hand and that the time had come for people to renounce sin. The two most striking characteristics of the Shaker communities were their dances and abstinence from sexual relations. They attempted to replenish their membership by admitting volunteers and taking in orphans. Today, the Shakers have all but died out. Fewer than 20 members survived in the first decade of the 21st century.

Robert Owen (1771-1858)’s experimental community at New Harmony, Indiana, which reflected the influence of Enlightenment ideas. He believed that people are shaped by their environment, and wrote about his ideas in his book “A New View of Society, which was published in 1813. Although Owen contribute to idea that human being have the free will to organize themselves into any kind of society they wished, the community lasted just three years, from 1825 to 1828.

Some 40 utopian communities based their organization on the ideas of the French theorist Charles Fourier (1772-1837), he hoped to eliminate poverty through the establishment of scientifically organized cooperative communities called “phalanxes.” Members were set up in “joint-stock company,” which profits were divided according to the amount of money members had invested, their skill, and their labour. In the phalanxes, women received equal job opportunities and equal pay, equal participation in decision making, and the right to speak in public assemblies. Although Fourier’s community lasted for 18 years, but most were unsuccessful.

The radical of antislavery thought inspired Frances Wright, a fervent Scottish abolitionist, to found Nashoba Colony in 1826, as an experiment in interracial living. She established a racially integrated cooperative community in which slaves were to receive an education and earn enough money to purchase their own freedom. Publicity about Fanny Wright’s desire to abolish the nuclear family, religion, private property, and slavery created a furor, and the community dissolved after only four years. 

John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886)’s Oneida Community. In Putney, Vermont, in 1835 and in Oneida, New York, in 1848, Noyes established perfectionist communities that practiced communal ownership of property and “complex marriage.” Noyes left the community in 1879 and fled to Canada to escape prosecution for adultery. As late as the early 1990s, descendants of the original community could be found working at the Oneida silverworks, which became a corporation after Noyes’s departure.

Relation to liberalism
Utopian socialism opposes classical liberalism because classical liberalism opposed government intervention in social programs and economic affairs, whereas utopian socialism needs government to impose citizens' equality and happiness.

Reference
History Online.//Digital History//.Updated on March 06, 2012, from [] Wikipedia //. Free Encyclopedia//. Modified on March 03, 2012, from [] Marxists Internet Archive. //Utopian Socialism//.Updated on March 06, 2012, from [] Dictionary//. Dictionary//.Retrieved May 04, 2011, from [] Robert Owen//. Address to the Inhabitants of New Lanark. Retrieved// Jamuary 01, 1816, from [|www.robert-owen.com] //Socialism vs. Liberalism.// April 29, 2009, from []