The Cynic's Guide to Utopia

Let the capable rule, lest the less capable govern themselves. One only has to look to history to realize that our full potential as a society can be achieved only when the capable rule. When kingdoms are governed by genealogy instead of wit, nations suffer and citizens fall into despair. Very rarely do the incompetent rule well, and even in those cases it was because of luck. Only those with wisdom may rule well.

Though wisdom is a thing to be valued, it does not have to be inborn. One can show the capability to rule through two means: by being born with able-ruling blood, or by gaining it through practice. People have often made the mistake of believing that the heir of a capable ruler would be capable as well. In this utopia lineage will mean next to nothing, as all humans born will be in the beginning equals. However, differences will become apparent through time, and every person’s social status will be determined by solely themselves.

In this society people will truly decide their own paths. No matter if the parents were magnates or maggots, the children will start off on the same level. If a person has inherited their parent’s intelligence and ruling blood, then they will obviously show these traits at a young age, and will be appropriately distinguished. But the best part comes in that, if a poor beggar’s child also shows the same intelligence as the magnate’s son, that beggar’s child will be seen as the magnate’s son’s equal. Everyone decides their own fate in society in that the hardworking and intelligent of the poorest beginnings will have a higher societal place than the lazy and inane of the richest beginnings. Social classes will be based on merit, not money nor genetics, both fickle measures of true human worth. Only a person’s capabilities and intellect can truly and consistently measure their ability to succeed in the world, preventing society from ever having incompetent leaders who are in office because of their parent’s connections. Social status would be determined based on the person’s own achievements, alone.

This leads us to discuss the prosperity of economy. Safely one can attribute the failure or displeasure at one’s job to solely themselves. When people choose their respective careers, all too often their choice was based off their own liking. This is mistaken. The capriciousness of pleasure is noteworthy in society. What one person likes one day may be carelessly disregarded the next. To base one’s life career based on preference during a certain period of that person’s life is as dependable as offering one’s hand to a pack of hungry wolves. Moreover, when a person realizes that they do not enjoy their job, they will perform consistently worse and cannot serve the greater good as well. This is not to say, of course, that jobs should be assigned by some outside party. Philosophers have often decided that the best way to progress society is to assign random people a set job without concern to the people’s interests. This only proves detrimental to society, first of all by brushing away individual autonomy, second of all by taking the chance of assigning a person a career they do not enjoy, the effects of which were previously discussed. The proposal of this utopia is that instead of letting full autonomy run by letting people choose their own future based on fickle interest, or crushing freedom completely by assigning futures without consideration of one’s abilities, a middle route will be taken, in that jobs will be based on how best a person can benefit society, or, in the vernacular, what they are good at. If a man showed a sharp wit when young, let him become a lawyer; if a person showed great physical strength, let him use his brawn.

The rationale is simple: first, one cannot detest what they excel at; second, one’s careers were once again based upon him or herself, in their abilities. It can never be unpleasant to pursue what one is good at. Even if this talent is not in the field of one’s interests, it will still bring about much pleasure and merit in pursuing this talent, for the individual will surely succeed. A person can do much more if they focused on what they are good at instead of what they wanted to do, because a drive of interest will still be limited by our abilities, and it is most advantageous to pursue our strength. Lastly, we become excellent in certain areas because either we were born with the advantage or we devoted time and practice to improve that area. It would be a pity to put such talent and effort to waste if we do not pursue careers that uses those talents.