Blog #14: Your Utopia

Due: Friday, May 9
Word Count: 400
Minimum Links or References: Two
Remember to use links to resources to help support your thinking. Your claims should have support.

Your Project

No matter which questions you'll answer, please do this. First of all, embed your video from your group so that other people can see it. Don't just link to it. It should look like this:

Copy your video URL from YouTube, click the clipboard icon on the formatting bar, select YouTube video and paste in the link. Hopefully this will work for you.

• Describe your Utopia. Give a general description of the society and the process of creating it. What are the fundamental principles behind your Utopia?

After you have your video and a general description for your society posted, consider the following questions:

• What challenges did your group have in the creation of a Utopian society?
• What were your group's focus questions? How did you address them?
• What did this project make you think about in regards to governments or governing people in general?
• Could people ever create the perfect government or society for themselves or would it be easier for an outside group to create a utopia for someone else?
• What do believe your Utopia really has gotten right? What things do you think wouldn't work in actuality? Why would your Utopia be successful, why would it fail.
• Just go in detail about your Utopia: Its principles, how it'll work, how it will incorporate the key elements of a perfect government.

Updated Questions and Thoughts

After you post your video, you can address the questions above or take on some of the deeper questions we tackled in class discussions. See the details below for more clarification.

Self Actualization and Utopias

Can a classroom, a family, a government, or a school be set up to help people achieve self-actualization? What would that look like?

Can only self-actualized people help others become self-actualized? If self-actualization was a goal, how could a system be created to help it happen for the most people?

Wants, Needs, and Making Good Decisions

Respond to the following statement: “People are driven by their wants more than their needs, and this makes them incapable of making good decisions about government.” 

Write about the way your thinking on these issues may have developed and how you see these things expressed either in the way the world is currently or the way it works in literature.

The Importance of Wellbeing

Respond and expand on the following statement: “The wellbeing of a society should be more important than the happiness of individual citizens.”

How does this relate to your thinking about Government, Utopias, and Dystopias. Can a great government thrive on this principle? Can people create their own happiness in a government that doesn't consider the happiness of an individual but values the wellbeing of the whole society. Does living in a great place mean sometimes accepting unhappiness or discontent?

Other Thoughts

Here's a link to our discussion questions from throughout the week. If you like one or want to combine several, you can. Please remember to find resources you can use as links to support your thinking.