“Make Utopia Great Again”

 

What makes a country so great? is it their wealth, is it their power, is it their military, is it their values or is it because we are told that it is great?

Many are fortunate to live in a world where everything is handed to them, where they don’t have to worry about tomorrow because they know that everything will still be there. Yet there are those who are less fortunate, those who have to go to bed worrying about what they will be eating the next day, or if they will still be alive.

The author Ahmed Towfik, who wrote the novel “Utopia” gives a great storyline of these two distinct worlds. One called “Utopia” and the “Others”. The Utopians had all the things that society defines as what makes a country great, they had power and wealth. Where as the Others lived in poverty, where you would be considered lucky if you live through another day. These worlds seem so distinct, so different, yet the author lets us know that they are similar in many ways.

“Here and there, we’re both in love with violence.

Here and there, we both love drugs.

Here and there we both avidly watch movies about rape.

Here and there we both talk about religion.

There they take drugs to escape boredom.

Here we take drugs to forget the agony of the moment.” (p. 104)

Perhaps the reasoning of why things are done are different depending of where they live, but the same thoughts and methods are used.

The Utopians believe that they are superior to the Others because of their social and economic status, yet they have so much similarities, it is almost as if it were the same world. So is it really wealth and power that make a country great or superior to others? Or is a country actually great at all? If you take away wealth and power these two different worlds would be exactly the same.

Ahmed lets us know that these worlds are fictional, but is there some truth to it? Can we relate our world to the ones being describe in the novel? What makes America great? is it our wealth, is it our power, is it our military, is it our values or is it because we are told that it is great? What if we had none of these things that society defines as great, would we be superior to any other country? … Perhaps not.