ENGELS UTOPIA MIDTERM ESSAY

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENGELS UTOPIA MIDTERM ESSAY (5 pts)

Utopias are envisioned societies where human beings live a best possible life. Utopias are here distinguished from dystopias. Dystopias are envisioned societies where the structuring of society is tragically wrong, bringing human suffering, misery, and difficult to overcome barriers to a decent life. The movie Hunger Games is an example of a Dystopia, with 2 variant dystopias depicted. We will not be dealing with dystopias in this assignment.

INSTRUCTIONS In this assignment you are to construct an Engels-Inspired Utopia. Such a utopia will have 3 main characteristics: 1. A highly developed technologically driven global society 2. Completely devoid of capitalism 3. With minimal if any government PREPARING FOR THE ASSIGNMENT You begin by reading my Engels notes and the Engels reading.( attach below, also read

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/bellamy/ch17.htm… and http://www.utopianfiction.com/development.html ) Then you can begin considering elements in our current society that suggest the ways that technology is making the need for capitalism obsolete. This should give you a general sense of how to construct an Engels Utopia. Next you should consider some currently important areas of society that you might find most feasible to extrapolate as elements of this futuristic Utopia.

WRITING THE ASSIGNMENT You must choose one of the possible areas below, writing a long paragraph (at least half a page, single spaced) describing what that area might be like in an Engels non-capitalist technologically driven future. • ART AND/OR ENTERTAINMENT • GOODS: DURABLE & PERISHABLE • TRANSPORTATION • FOOD SERVICES • MEDIUMS OF EXCHANGE • WELFARE: SAFETY/LAWS • COMMUNICATION