The class has been exploring Utopias/Dystopias. We have talked about different types of leaders and how societies reflect the values of its people. We’ve examined how characters have challenged their societies or tried to establish them.
Now it is your turn to create a society. You may create a Utopia or Dystopia. You can set it in any location or time of your choosing. In order to portray your society you can:
- Write a creative dialogue between two or more people, like we saw in Thomas More’s Utopia or Plato’s Republic.
- You can write a story.
- You can create a brochure of your world
- You can make a slide show.
- You can write a paper.
- You can make anything that fully conveys the list below
- What are the core values your society would want to live by? For example, do you think everyone should be treated exactly the same? Should everyone have a say in how the government is run? Should there be a government? Is hard work and individual effort to be rewarded? Is education, an opportunity, a right, an expectation, or a threat? Is there a greater concern in the society, such as “the environment before the people”?
- Will there be a government? What kind? Will there be a single leader or multiple leaders?
- Will there be laws? Who decides them? Who maintains them?
- What kind of community is going to exist? Will it be filled with technology like today, an industrial community, farming community, trade community, or something like Plato’s philosopher’s society?
- Is there ownership of property? Is there money?
- Is there a physical infrastructure to the society? For example, nearly every town in America has a post office, a police department, a fire department, a library, waste and city management, churches and schools. If there are such things, how do they maintain operation?
- How does language play a role in your society? Is there a national language? Forbidden words? Censorship?
Mr. Pippenger 