News From Nowhere FInal PDF

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Democracy, Ideology and Utopia - GV 1204

News From Nowhere - Critical Analysis Aoife Flattery-116369016 “CRITICALLY ANALYSE THE FORM OF DEMOCRACY EVIDENT IN NEWS FROM NOWHERE”

A utopia is a community or society that has extremely desirable or almost perfect qualities for those that inhabit it. However, how can there ever be a utopian society if everybody’s desires are different? For example, if one person’s idea of a utopia is one where that person owns 90% of the world’s wealth, then that would render others unhappy. If some are unhappy with the utopia they live in, then it cannot be considered a utopia. To obtain ultimate happiness for all seems impossible, the only way to do so would be to determine how people think and feel about each other and the world, something that can never be achieved. William Morris lived in a monarchy - a system people were forced to believe was best at the time to achieve optimum of happiness for the most amount of people. However, he did not agree with the system that he lived in, one where the people at the top are greedy and the lay people have no say in how their society is run. For Morris, his idea of a utopian world is one where people would not have to enslave themselves carrying out jobs they do not enjoy. He wanted people to be able to spend their days enjoying leisurely activities and creating works of art. He believed that art is not just what you see in museums, but rather a beautiful stained glass window, or a hand crafted wooden bridge, or a piece of music. He believes that art can take on many forms, and anything that is enjoyed can be considered as art. This is so contrary to what we know in the 21st century. We live in a capitalist society where profit drives people and unfortunately, not everybody gets a piece of the pie. A democratic socialist society is one where all people are treated equally. There would be no such thing as the splitting of people into classes such as upper, middle and working. Labour is minimal and the rewards are not hoarded by the landowner like in a capitalist society. Therefore, it relies on a capitalistic society as opposed to communism - which staunchly rejects any notion of capitalism. The book itself discusses Morris’s idea of how a society should work from his point of view. He believes that a system of democratic socialism is the way to

conduct a society and his ideas seem appealing in ways, however, his society would have particular downfalls associated with it. I aim to convey my understanding of this society but also to discuss the flaws I found throughout the book. Another possibility is that of direct democracy which is a democratic society where all decisions of taken by the people as a whole and not by representatives. An example of this is in Switzerland. “The happiest people in the world live in Switzerland” (Rayman, 2015). Direct democracy and democratic socialism have strong influence in many Nordic countries. Based on what I have read about Morris, happiness is one’s aim in life and work should be a core factor of happiness in one’s life. “Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada were the top five happiest countries.” (Rayman, 2015). Another factor of society portrayed in Morris’s book is of a lack of social classes – an idea originally thought of by Karl Marx. This lack of social class, means that no one group of people can control the rest through either resource hoarding, coercion, or payment. The fact that everyone has the same position within society also means that there is no jealousy or subjection of those less well off. This lack of class is essential to the system of direct democracy portrayed in News From Nowhere. In a conversation in Chapter 16, Guest asks Hammond “How matters are managed” since they have no form of government. Hammond explains that each parish or commune have regular meetings called Motes. “the whole  1890, pg. 47) At  these Motes, they raise people is our parliament.” (W.Morris, and discuss matters affecting them so things like should “Should a new town-hall be built; a clearance of inconvenient houses; or say a stone bridge substituted for some ugly old iron one?” (W.Morris, 1890, pg. 56). People will attend these meetings and vote of issues directly. The example in the conversation is of replacing an old iron bridge with a new stone one, if it’s voted on but a minority still oppose it, then the matter will be pushed to the next meeting where again it will be debated and voted on. This can happen a number of times but if there is still some opposition to the idea, those who are opposed to it need not help in its construction. This could however, lead to acts of laziness, after all it is in human nature to sometimes feel lazy, and therefore one could lie about opposing an idea to escape some tough labour. One of the ideas that was proposed by Morris was that men should be valued for their intrinsic value to society rather than their commercial value. Men are needed for physical work and if they are working in a bank or some sort of office job they are not serving a purpose in society, or they are underutilized. This outdated notion of society is one I disagree with, as we see lots of women

working in jobs that would have been considered ‘men's’ jobs. Morris was fond of the Middle Ages and this is clear in his writings. If the time he spent in college had been spent working laboriously his notion of a utopian society may not have been conceived. The idea that machines can be used to do the menial jobs in order to allow people to spend their time on things they enjoy is a thought provoking one. “T he new machine must be invented and when invented he must not use it but be used by it whether he likes it or not“.( W. Morris 1890 pg. 9) It is a very relevant point in the current era where increasing automation is leading to a reduced number of jobs in many sectors, and the jobs. Although that then raises the question of who has to devote their time to supervising the machines and partaking in their upkeep? Who makes sure that they do not breakdown, or fixes them when they do? As it is a grueling job and there may not be enough people to control them, some must sacrifice their time that could be used for leisure, this may lead to conflict among people in this socialist society. Ridding the people of most of the undesirable work by the use of machines  one sense as those people are able to pursue more would be a good thing in challenging and engaging work, but it can also trap people in a cycle of poverty if they cannot upskill and get a different job, as the book does not encourage sending children into education. Therefore, in the current climate- many  machines are resulting in the decrease jobs, leading to higher unemployment. While most machines are not necessarily taking the place of jobs that are particularly enjoyable to most, such as the scanning of items at a supermarket, or collecting change at a toll-the replacement by machines does not open workers in those sectors to any job opportunities that they would actually enjoy, especially as jobs are so scarce at the moment. If we had the opportunity as a society to start again from scratch these ideas would be plausible and could be implemented. Allowing machines to do some of this labour intensive work can also be extremely productive as humans run out of energy, get sick or become bored of repetitive work, whereas a machine can go indefinitely once it is maintained properly. Morris firmly believes that people should spend their time doing leisurely activities and crafting magnificent pieces of art with a minimal amount of ‘work’ to do from day to day. He argues that if people can find pleasure in their work, is it really a hardship? When Guest is asking Hammond about the “incentive to work”, Hammond explains to him that people find pleasure in the work they do and any hard labour “All work which would be irksome to do by hand is done by immensely improved machinery; and in all work which it is a

pleasure to do by hand, machinery is done without. T here is no difficulty in finding work which suits the special turn of mind of everybody; so that no man is sacrificed to the wants of another.” (W. Morris, 1890, pg. 61) In terms of happiness - which seems to be the crux of Morris’s Utopia - people will have more time to spend with the people they want to be with as opposed to being in an office 9-5 every day of the week. A society that puts an emphasis on values such as common good, trust, compassion and companionship is a very appealing idea. There will always be a need for work still as machines will not be able to do everything and even if they could they would need to be maintained. This means it won’t be a society where people are enslaved to work like machines, but to utilize them to create a better society.

References Morris, W., 1890. News From Nowhere, L ondon: Commonweal.

Rayman, N., 2015. Time Magazine. [ Online] Available at: http://time.com/3833081/happiest-people-world/  [Accessed 20 February 2017]....