I am reading Thomas More's Utopia ( Penguin, 2003, translated by Paul Turner ).
The little book is very readable, and it provides lots of materials for thinking.
One would be surprised to realize that the modern society we are in today is not so different from the one More was in. Many social problems Raphael condemned still exist today, and there are still no good solutions yet.
One might argue that isn't Utopia intended for coping with those social problems? True, Utopia, through Raphael's mouth, was depicted as an ideal world, where Utopians live happily--short working hours, only 6 hours per day, few idle labors and life-long education. It is a society where money, gold and silver lose their values.
Yet, other descriptions about Utopia chill me--you need travel permission to travel, otherwise, it is a capital crime; "Everyone has any eye on you, so you are bound to do good work." In other words, Utopia is an ideal world because there is no need for prisons; on the other hand, it is the worst one since it itself is a whole prison.
The author does not take human natures-- love and hatred, happiness and sadness, sympathy and cruelness--into accounts, so I feel he is describing a world of ants rather than a world of people.
** By the way, the book demonstrates lots of debating skills. I learned a lot about them from the book.
** By the way, Utopia is a world without beers.
