“Eutopia”, More Wars, and the First Libertarians

   Utopia is a place that mankind will never get to.  This “eutopian” idea came to be known in the fifteen hundreds.  But why at that time and not earlier?  The Thirty Years’ War was started by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, who wanted the whole Roman Empire to be believers in just one religion – Catholicism, but Bohemia, the country he formerly ruled, did not agree with him.  The English Civil War had to with Charles I and Parliament wanting to have absolute rule of England or just to keep things the way they were.  The Levellers were the first Libertarians — a name which has been used inappropriately today.

Utopian Religion

   By writing Utopia was Thomas More making himself a target for persecution by the church?  My first thought is no, but then the more I think about it, it seems that my answer would be more like “maybe”.  Utopia is a book of fiction and most likely satire and Thomas More seems he was just wanting to write down a book about a fictional place.  However, it is sometimes unsure if More did not believe in what he wrote.  Therefore, let’s continue and see if my answer “maybe” turns into “yes” or “no”.

The Utopian Persuader

Thomas More

 

   Utopia, a fictional book of satire written by Thomas More, is about a traveler named Raphael who is not only opposed to a lot of things but at the beginning of the book seems to support some sort of reformation.  However, later on, he then seems to not be a reformer, but he seems to become a persuader.  He tries to persuade people to come to Utopia, a fictional place, where everything is perfect.