Yearning for Utopia

Our instinctive understanding regarding Truth lies buried deep within us under fear-driven distractions. We suspect that the human condition could be much better than our current experience but can’t seem to find a way to talk about it. The very word utopia comes from Sir Thomas More’s treatise of the same name. More (1478-1535) hoping to humanize 16^th century English society suggested, for example, the abolition of the death penalty for theft and religious freedom in Catholic Tudor England.

“How to make a better world for men to live in has fascinated the minds of thinkers in every age. From Plato to the present day, men have been thinking and writing about what the world would be like if men could create an earthly paradise.”

The reforms that we would talk about today would show that we have surpassed More’s ideal in Utopia but have yet to create a fair, just and sustainable global society. It is always helpful to have as a goal an ideal that might seem unattainable but as we know stretches us to put forth our best efforts. Simple Reality is such a goal but unlike Utopia is based on four hundred years of enhanced human understanding in science, psychology, and philosophy plus experience in government, religion, criminal justice, education and health care. Surely we are ready to design a human community that is sustainable and compassionate even if we might fail in implementing it. We have everything to lose by not considering such a venture.

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References and notes are available for this essay.
For a much more in-depth discussion on Simple Reality, read  Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival,  by Roy Charles Henry, published in 2011.