In Utopia, by Thomas Moore power is addressed throughout the satire. Utopia is a philosophical analysis of power, it explores who should obtain it, the ways in which that they obtain it, and the ways in which they should utilize it. The satire was composed throughout a duration of time when King’s and Queen’s existed in positions of power obtained complete and utter dominance over the societies they controlled. This proves to not be surprising at all being that Thomas Moore addressed and praised the satire to the King of England, his boss.
However, maintaining power in a Utopia is interesting because the social organization and hierarchies that exist are very different from how they commonly are in society’s. In a Utopia there rarely a class system and their are no hierarchies. People are also stripped of material wealth, as no one is allowed to have private property. Hythloday one of the main characters in the satire states that because there is no wealth and there are is no class system everyone is happy, because there is no greed that exists.
In the satire Hythloday states that the governmental well-being of Europe is always in jeopardy if King’s and Queen’s without any profound morals remain in power. In terms of war, it is often seen as barbaric and should always be averted at all costs. In terms of religion there are various religions that the utopians are able to follow, meaning that there is not one single doctrine that they are forced to follow and everyone believes in immortality. Consequently, promoting a widespread positive outlook on death.
Hythloday believes that the Utopian system does its best for the people and attempts to assure lawfulness for every citizen. They attempt to do this through the sharing of everything, which Hythloday concludes in having a positive effect on the nation consequently leading the citizens of the Utopia to be content. Therefore, in Utopia by Thomas Moore, he and the rest of the utopian society believe that power does inevitably result in corruption as this is mainly seen through material wealth and greed that people that maintain positions of power obtain.
