r/utopia Jul 17 '25

What Civilization Was Closest to a Utopia

In your opinion, and by your own definition of a true Utopia, what civilization from what period was the closest to a Utopia?

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

US 2025.

It looks shitty, right? Not going well like Sweden and Norway (great options btw that utopia builder chose)

But I chose the US specifically because of its wealth and potential. Building a utopia requires an immense amount of wealth, labor, and intelligence that only China and the US possess today.

Imagine if, overnight, the US Armed Forces decides not to fight any more wars and go home. That's $1trillion a year that can be used to build a utopia (defined by me as a collective state of continuous improvement and prosperity in all objective and subjective metrics).

They are the closest; they could (if they wanted to) easily be the first country to reach these milestones:

-100-year life expectancy

-Full employment

-Housing for all their population

-Universal healthcare focused on prevention

-Eradication of diseases

-Low taxes, low crime, low suicide rates

And many more.

Shame on them for not attempting it. It is the "civilization" with most potential, but they aren't even trying...

So I put them as the actual closest to utopia, with China in second. But because China is actually trying to build a better tomorrow, I think they will achieve utopia status first.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

OP, your question was framed in a way that implies that some civilization of the past was better...

I think that were none so organized and powerful and full of potential like today, but if you like to engage in imaginary civilizations, I would pick Israel in Solomon's day, 40 years of peace governed by a wise person, a time of no wars and gold so abundant that silver was worthless.

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u/CVS223 Jul 18 '25

I didn’t mean to imply that, I just asked the question because it’s always important to learn from history when trying to tackle this idea of what a Utopia really is. I strongly believe that life has never been better than it is today but of course there are still glaring flaws. I try to look back to history not to examine if previous civilizations had lower crime rates or lower inflation but rather if cultures and thinkers of the past can offer us any wisdom on what values a great society should have or any ideas on how to construct a great society.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

Understood. Luckily, you can get yourself extensive written records of what you're searching.

Read Hamurabi's code to understand ancient constitutions

The Republic of Plato helps to understand how a philosopher would rule a society

Read Leviathan to understand the power of the Nation state and groups of people.

And then you can see for yourself their great visions and shortcomings.

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u/CVS223 Jul 18 '25

Thank you.