Karin Andreea SASU, American Studies, 3rd year

Dreams and Visions- Abstract Today, it is hard to find a proper meaning to the word utopia because it constantly changes, it redefines itself thus, the term refers to all political idealism forms, to alternative ways of life described as ideal societies or cultures. Utopian writings appeared in America around the years of 1715 although the Protestants are not considered utopians because they could not share the utopian principles, such as bad things happen because of bad institutions and good institutions will create a perfect living. The most important foreign utopias are: Edward Bulwer-Lytton- The Coming Race, Samuel Butler- Erewhon, William Morris- News from Nowhere, Theodor Hertska- Freeland, etc. And the most cited political document was The Declaration of Independence, which promoted the utopian views. After 1932 when Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World, utopia was replaced by dystopia. The Enlightened utopian man believed in Christianity but not in a deity, he believed in ones power but found industrialization a necessity, he placed reason on top of everything, he is committed to law, order and common sense, thus chance and faith have nothing to do with the utopian world and he is optimistic about the future . The utopian felt the need to relieve himself from the past (with everything is comes with it: beliefs, superstitions or ideas). When one believes in reason the power of God lessens. Science versus religion were disputed often by utopian thinkers. There were utopians, such as William Simpson who gave credit to both religion and science; such utopian believers considered evolution an attack upon the Bible but most utopians stood for progress, reason, order and science. Socialism played its role among utopias, too; one-fifth of the utopian writers could be considered socialists but very few of them would prefer to be called like this. The socialist utopian was a critic of the passive capitalism.