Why America will never be a Utopia

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   Heaven, the Garden of Eden, nirvana, Elysium, bliss, Shangri-La, paradise, Utopia. Utopia is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as, "a place of ideal perfection, especially in: laws, government, and social conditions."

   A Utopian society would be one void of all injustice, crime, unfairness, poverty, economic disparities between people, - and depending on who is asked - unhappiness. In short, a Utopian society would be a perfect society.

   So, is it possible to make the United States a Utopia? The answer is no, not in a billion years.

   What a Utopia would require is reminiscent of George Orwell's ultra-authoritarian government written out in his novel "1984." It would firstly require no crime, at all. Ever. The only way to prevent people from ever committing crimes, would be to have the government watching them, at all times. The individual would have no right to privacy, as - like in 1984 - thought crimes might become punishable as real crimes. As long as there are people, there will be criminals among them. Of course, there are way that criminality can be minimized.

   To eliminate economic disparities, the government would have to find some way to make everyone in the society equal. Emphasis is on make because that's how it would be done, by governmental force at the barrel of a gun. In politics, this is called socialism. Painted out in the "Communist Manifesto" by German philosopher Karl Marx, socialism has been implanted with the best of intentions, often with promises to the people of granting them a Utopia. It has also been implemented in all of the most successful countries in world history: The Soviet Union, Vietnam, East Germany, Venezuela, Laos, North Korea, Nazi Germany, Communist China, Cambodia...

   Okay, maybe they were not that successful after all.

   There was even a form of socialism that was called Utopian Socialism. Adding the word "Utopian" before "Socialism," sadly, does not change the nature of socialism. The nature that is pure, imminent, failure. This form of socialism was slightly different than most, because it believes that people will go to socialism willingly, without the usual violence that was observed in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, for example.

   This not to say that we cannot achieve great things as a society, and many would argue that we have. As far as the United States goes, there's no law prohibiting any religions from being practiced - in fact, there's the opposite in the separation of church and state clause of the first amendment. Slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment, after only existing in our country for just under 250 years. (246 to be exact, from the first shipment of 20 slaves to Jamestown in 1619 to the ratification of the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865) This may seem like a long time, but also consider how short of a time that is, compared to other countries world-wide that had slavery for a millennia or that still have it to this day. 

   Women have the ability to vote, thanks to the 19th Amendment. Almost anyone can start a business and get wealthy, and getting out of poverty has been proven by the Brookings Institute to be as simple as following three simple steps. (Those steps being: graduate High School, don't have children before marriage, and to have a full time job.)

   Are things perfect in the United States? Of course not. People get in literal riots if their team loses a sports game - or even if they win. Celebrities are in a never-ending struggle of virtue signaling with each other to see who is most morally just, when in reality they're equally morally bankrupt. Politicians are becoming less and less connected with the people they're supposed to represent, and people hardly ever truly speak to one another. This is all without even covering the political system. Clearly there are issues in - not only the American - but in every society.

   However, the answer to these issues is not to have government swoop in, and rob the people of their freedom in some attempt to make a perfect country in a not-perfect world. The answer is in fact the opposite. The answer to the issues that people face, is to have society help them, not the government.

   As Thomas Paine said in his famous pamphlet Common Sense, "Society in every state is a blessing. Government, even its best state, is but a necessary evil. At its worst state, an intolerable one." The solution to the problems faced by society should be solved by society, not by the force of government.

   This is all also assuming the term of Utopia is strictly objective, not subjective. As, one person's Utopia is another's Dystopia. Some people dream of a world without Homosexuals, others of a world without religion, so on and so forth.

   The main point is, no matter how the hypothetical Utopia is achieved - if at all - then someone will end up being or feeling wronged. There will always be someone or some group that has issues. The rich and middle class will feel like they're being robbed, the lower class will feel like they deserve more, one group will always hate another for an identity they can't change, the list is nigh endless. There will always be issues. Instead of a dream of Utopia, society - not government - should strive for the fixing of these issues. 

   In conclusion, a Utopia is not possible. Not in America, or anywhere else. Pretending otherwise is little more than pandering to the imagination and overarching dreams of the normal person. This is likely why the Merriam Webster dictionary also defines Utopia as, "an imaginary and indefinitely remote place." The only way Utopia can be achieved is for the Government to rule over the people with an iron fist, making the terms "freedom" and "individuality" little more than forgotten words of a bygone era. Is that, a world without individual choice and freedom, really worth calling Utopia?