Thomas More lived five hundred years ago. Scientific communism portrayed Utopian scholars as soft-bodied, fantasizing people. Is it true? According to the memoirs of a contemporary of
Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More accepted his death for his convictions without fear, without asking for mercy, without bowing his head. In 1535, a fifty-seven-year-old writer, humanist, philosopher refused to swear allegiance to the English king, thereby remaining faithful to the primacy
of the Pope. His faith did not allow doubleness. Thomas More walked calmly to the scaffold, the darling of all London, an unsurpassed speaker, respected for his subtle wit, civic stance, decency, able to stop the rebellion with his word.
From the pen of just such a person (a humanist, but not a revolutionary!) The legendary book Utopia appeared. Thomas More addressed it to the monarchs and scholars, especially for this purpose writing it in Latin as a novel-reflection, a novel-appeal to a humanistic reconstruction of society based on social justice. 150 years later, Utopia was translated into all European languages.
The novel begins with an elegant “bridge” between truth and fiction - this is the plot of the book created by Thomas More, Utopia. Its content is the traveler’s story “about unknown lands”. Real historical character - Peter Egidius introduces the author to the fictional character Portuguese Rafail Gitpodey, a companion of a real traveler
Amerigo Vespucci. In the mouth of Raphael, the writer puts all his thoughts on the arrangement of an ideal country of the future. Consistently conveys the ideas of a new
social system in his book, Thomas More - Utopia. Its summary can be described as a description of an unknown state - an island lost in the Indian Ocean. The political structure of Utopia is a federation governed by the Senate, with the capital Amaurot, uniting 54 sovereign cities. Morality, in essence, corresponds to Christian-humanistic principles. Utopia is completely ideologically tolerant, guided by the principle of
freedom of conscience.
Note that the idea of ​​the book as a vision by scientist Thomas More of the foundations of a future democratic society was born in conditions when the feudal lords executed for disobedience and the nascent bourgeois system was no less bloody, the mechanism of "wild capitalism" ruthlessly sent more and more thousands of peasants to the brink of poverty. It is how the scientist’s Christian protest against such oppression creates his novel Thomas More - Utopia. Summary - a state project where discrimination is impossible in principle. To this end, Mor decides to deprive this society of the foundation of inequality - classes. Also, the philosopher equalizes citizens both in rights and socially. The principle of state arrangement is “full internal consent”. People volunteer for six hours on weekdays. Society cares so that they can enjoy life in their free time, gain spiritual freedom and education. At the same time, the immaculate life is the social standard. What is the "primary social unit of Utopia"? It is determined by the writer on the principle of an averaged factory workshop. Every 40 peasant families, according to Mohr's theory, constitute a "family" (commune). "Family" specializes in a particular craft, and the "transition" of a person between families is allowed.
Moreover, each utopian is trained, except for his craft, in farming and is obliged to engage in peasant labor for a certain time in a year. Peasant labor is the primary foundation of the welfare of the state, says Thomas More (Utopia) in his novel. The summary of the book clearly outlines the contours of a future democratic society. All power is elective. 30 families choose a philarch. 10 philarchs are under the control of a protophilarch who elects a scientist. Protofilarchs form the city senates, choosing the prince (mayor). The most important economic and political issues are decided by city meetings. At the same meetings, officials are elected and their periodic reports are heard. Clergymen, ambassadors, protofilarchs, the head of state are chosen from among scientists.
The humanist is convinced that private property is evil. This conviction came to Thomas More through his rich legal practice. He could not judge in general, but in specific cases, that it was private ownership of land that determined the genocide of peasants because of the benefits of sheep husbandry ("sheep ate people"). To rule out such an injustice, the author of the novel suggested that the means of production should belong to society. Accordingly, the measure of the distribution of national wealth in the new society should not be private property, but the expended labor of family-craft enterprises. Can we say that Thomas Mor (“Utopia”) gave the first formulation of the principles of socialist society in history? The brief content of the book indicates that it, of course, is not ideal, but predictively illuminates aspects of the organization of a future democratic society. Much of the foundations of future socialism are “not invented,” which is not surprising, because the novel was written five hundred years ago! For example, in the society of the future there is practically no personal life of citizens. Trips from city to city must be accompanied by “deregistration of a citizen” and “registration”. It looks somehow unconvincing.
However, let us ask ourselves: “Have Utopian ideas gone into oblivion (according to the Bolsheviks)?” Answering it, we turn to the present: the Swedes, for example, believe that their state is socialist. Of course, private property is also present there, but at the same time Sweden declares the creation of collective capital, a non-discriminatory labor market, social security, and universal employment. But all this is present in the "Utopia" of Mora!
A riddle from Thomas More - the name of the book. What subtext is encrypted in the name of the invented state (literally - “a country that does not exist”)? Could be a passive person whose life is faith and burning? Most likely, the title of the book hides the hope: “There is no such country, but in time it will be!”
Four hundred years later, Mohr's ideas, enriched by the mechanism of socialist cooperation, were proposed by Professor Chayanov as applied to the Russian peasant Christian community. He argued that peasant agricultural cooperation was more beneficial to the state than large capitalist farms. In Russia then they chose an alternative path - Stolypin reforms. However, there is a real, visible implementation of this project. At the turn of the current and past centuries, the countries of Latin America, largely thanks to the cooperation of Chayanov, raised their agriculture to the level of world standards.