The Gray Monk

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March 29, 2004

The New Utopia

Over the weekend I discovered a wonderful short story by an author I have only rarely read - Jerome K Jerome, who, despite his apparently American sounding style of name, is as British as he can be. Apparently he decided if he had to have a silly sounding name, it might as well be exploited.

Most people who have heard of him will recall his "Three men in a boat", a wonderfully funny story of three friends sharing a boat on an expedition down the Thames. However, that is not the one I discovered for the first time at the weekend. The title, "The New Utopia", is enigmatic, but it is a sharp little tale of a man (presumably the author) who attends a dinner with a group of well heeled acquaintences in a London Gentlemen's Club.

Over a suitably lavish dinner accompanied by expensive wines and even more expensive cigars, these luminaries set about setting out an agenda to bring about a new socialist world order in which everyone will be exactly equal in everything. The superb irony of the setting of this debate is a wonderful little reminder that it is so often the case that those who put forward these agendas never seem to see the point that, if everyone is exactly equal, their particularly leisurely lifestyle - that enables them to dream up these crackpot schemes in the first place - will be a prime casualty. Under discussion at the dinner is the need to redistribute wealth equitably, and to ensure that everyone is equally employed and valued. Some pundit at the dinner actually proposes that "The State" should take charge of everything, all property abolished and a maximum working day imposed of three hours for all.

Suitably enthused and, no doubt, bouyed up by the good food and excellent wines, our hero departs for home and bed. Only to wake up a thousand years later in a glass case in a museum. To his delight - at first - he discovered that the wonderful Utopia he and his friends had been discussing, has come to pass. But delight soon turns to horror as he discovers that everything has been bulldozed to build utilitarian dormitories, utilitarian offices and factories, and so on. Marriage has been abolished, so have personal names, and everyone must dye their hair black - because any other colour or variation would create "difference" and that is not permitted.

Everyone is forced to wear identical clothes and all have numbers on their collars - instead of a name you have a state issued number - and families no longer exist, as these are elitist and focus the attention of individuals on people close to them instead of on "The State". Everything is done in the name of something called "The Majority", which has been accorded the status of God. Just as he begins to contemplate committing suicide - he is woken by his landlady hammering on his door.

His relief at discovering it was all a figment of his imagination is comical to say the least.

Interestingly the clothing described in the New Utopia bares a remarkable resemblence to that worn by Moa Tse Tung and his citizen/subjects. The rest of the story, with the exception of the numbers/names and the abolition of marriage, could be a description of any of the former communist run societies. Alarmingly, it could be a blueprint for the society Mr Blair and his cronies are creating with the emphasis on "political correctness" rather than a balanced and common sense approach to building our society.

When was it written? 1900!

Posted by The Gray Monk at March 29, 2004 12:47 PM

Comments

Posted by: Douglas at March 30, 2004 04:35 AM

Posted by: gawain at March 31, 2004 09:14 PM