Even the most developed countries like Denmark and Norway are far from perfect. Many philosophers have attempted to describe perfect societies since the time of ancient Greeks. Two of the well-known models that emerged as a result of this exercise in the realm of imagination are Thomas More’s Utopia and Plato’s Republic. The concept of utopia has been imagined, reformed, and recreated many times. The gazillion rupee question is whether we have the mental capacity to imagine a perfect society.
Caution must be exercised while attributing the title of perfect to anything and then attempting to describe it. As an example, try understanding utopia in the context of the theory of social contract. According to this theory, people in modern societies sacrifice some of their freedoms to come under the safety net of society. Without the fetters of laws, an uncivilised person might do things that would be deemed inappropriate or even criminal in a modern social setting. For some people, there would be no room for this social contract in a truly utopian society and its citizens would enjoy absolute freedom. At the same time, crimes would have to be obsolete in a perfect society. Consequently, individuals would have the freedom to kill but no one would be hurt even if they do so. It is only natural for such contradictions to sprout out of the unfathomable concept of perfection. Ergo, if taken literally, utopia is a paradoxical place.
Also, there are bound to be billions of definitions of utopia because the world is inhibited by billions of people and all of us have our own notion of what a perfect society should look like. As the saying goes, one man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia.
Despite so many odds stacked against us, let us suppose that Plato’s theory of Forms is true and all things we see and feel are imperfect reflections of perfect things in a perfect world. Now allow me to extend this concept to society while leaving some room for minor imperfections. In order to keep it realistic and viable, we should shun all farfetched goals, such as creating flawless human beings through genetic engineering, and only consider development goals that would be within our reach in the near future.
To remove subjectivity from our nearly perfect society and to make it as objective as possible, let us consider the development goals that have been adopted by countries across the globe under the United Nation’s development agenda.
Like life, our exploration of this nearly perfect society begins at birth. In this society, the infant mortality rate is almost zero and mothers have easy access to free maternal health services. There is no child-labour and all children have access to free education. In addition, the nutritional needs of all children are met.
Every grown-up has life-long learning opportunities and there is an abundance of decent career opportunities. Through sustainable agriculture, everyone has plenty of nutritional food. Poverty is a concept of the past and a great deal of scrutiny is needed to detect inequalities among individuals and countries.
All individuals live in harmony with nature and cherish sustainable development. As stated by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), sustainable development enables society to meet its present needs while ensuring that the ability of future generations to meet their own needs is not compromised. Measures are taken to ensure sustainable consumption and production.
Gender equality and human rights are finely knitted into the fabric of our nearly perfect society. There is no discrimination against any group and all segments of society coexist peacefully. Through effective rule of law, crimes are rare and all individuals have equal access to justice.
Universal health coverage is enjoyed by individuals and epidemics of all sorts of diseases are ancient history. Well-being for all is also made certain through the provision of clean water and pollution-free environment.
Terrestrial, marine and costal ecosystems are conserved. Concrete steps are taken to combat climate change and provisions are made to protect people from various sorts of natural disasters. Human settlements and infrastructure are built to be safe and resilient.
With global partnerships, scientific research and development of new technologies, sustainable development is accelerated rapidly.
One essential indicator that should be included in this development agenda is happiness. Only by measuring happiness can we determine whether the effective implementation of these development goals ensures a nearly utopian society. Rather than just asking people how happy they are, we need to measure it objectively. To do so, we can gauge indicators such as a decline in the sale of antidepressants.
Even though, to many, the concept of utopia has become synonymous with unrealistic idealism, we are capable of creating a society that is nearly perfect. No country in its current form can claim to be utopia. However, there are many places in the world where at least some aspects of society such as education and healthcare have been developed beyond our expectations. For example, Nordic countries offer universal health coverage and free education. Dozens of countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Cuba and Tajikistan, have a literacy rate of nearly 100 percent.
While some claim that Nordic countries are utopias, others such as Michael Booth, a British journalist, are of the opinion that they are far from perfect and have many flaws, including a large ecological footprint, opposition to immigration and high rates of murder and suicide. So, our approach should transcend the steps and models adopted by these so-called utopian countries. Perhaps, if we keep our hopes high and focus on achieving the aforementioned development goals, we might just succeed in creating a society that can be regarded as nearly perfect.
The writer is a freelance columnist and can be contacted at obed.suhail@gmail.com.