Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-04-04
THE POSSIBLE UTOPIA.
HOW TO REACH THE IDEAL STATE
ABOUT WHICH WE DREAM.

HOW TO REACH THE IDEAL STATE
ABOUT WHICH WE DREAM.
Human Nature Is Rich in Resources, and
Needs Only to Be Cultivated Properly
and Lifted Up-The Forces of Religion,
Philanthropy and Culture.
Apropos of the current discussion respect
ing a Utopian state of society and the way to
reach it, we wonder whether any one has
thought of calculating the results which
would rapidly follow if every individual
would honestly try to do the best he knows
how to do in the sphere in which he is placed.
Human natere is exceedingly rich in re-
sources, and its vast powers have never vet
been half utilized. Every one is conscious of
being able to do q great deal better than he
ever does. Most of us choose our tasks I'M
wisely, we waste time, we loiter and we daw-
die, we do but imperfectly what we might
do in such a way that it would bring us
credit and advancement. Then there is the
large number of people at the top of society
who are beyond the necessity of labor, and
who only amuse themselves in life, and the
larger number at the bottom of society who
are too indolent or too vicious to do any USE
full thing. 1t is evident that if every indivi-
dual would find some useful occupation, such
as he is naturally fitted to succeed in, and
would perform all it's duties to the best of his
powers, society without going aside from its
present lines of development would rapidly
approach that perfect state, of the ultimate
coming of which Isaiah prophesied and Plato
dreamed.
In the first place, we should instantly get
rid of our police forces and standing armies,
all prisons, most asylums, the larger part of
our law courts and all those forces and insti-
buttons which are occupied with keeping GER
tain classes in order and in settling the dis
putes of others. Most of the non-producing
professional men, the lawyers, the doctors
and the judges, would lose their employment
and could go about some better business in
the world, which would have few disputes to
settle and less and less diseases to heal as time
goes by. Tho great army Of idlers would be
at work, either increasing production or short
enlng the hours of labor Of those who are now
industrious. The poor, except in the compar-
atively few cases of accident or misfortune,
would have enough and to spare through the
practice OF the virtues Of industry and econo-
my. There would be no idle women and no
lazy men living a useless life upon the inter-
est of Inherited money, for each would find
some nobler task, either of self culture or in
the unpaid service of the arts or the sciences.
Business, exempt from its present losses
through dishonesty and fraud, would be car
rled on with a freedom and profit now i'm"
possible; every manufactured article would
be better made and every purchase would be
cheaper, the public gaining immensely there
by.
A thousand conveniences would be possible
in a society in which every member was in
dustrious and the most were we'll to do, even
Mr.. Bellamy's ~fanciful picture Of social pros
perity and happiness being surpassed. The
intellectual life of mankind would be won
drously quickened. The sciences would re-
veal a thousand yet undreamed of truths, in
vention would adapt the laws of nature to
the use of man in directions yet undiscovered,
what sermons we might hear in the churches
from clergymen now using only half their
power, and then free from the necessity Of
spending so much time in exhortation to do
the things we so well know ought to be donel
What books might be written by authors
who now trifie with their powersl What
editorials we might read in every mornings
paper, the result Of accurate knowledge and
perfect style, acquired by years of patient
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times more delightful as man discovered the
resources of his intellectual and moral being,
and learned to find his recreation in using the
higher gifts of hisnature instead of the lower.
In order to the realization of an ideal state
Of society like this it is not necessary that any
new direction be given to human progress.
All the panaceas that nave been reported to
date, the naturalization Of land, or the vari-
GUS phases Of socialism, are deficient in the
same fatal respects. They take no account of
human nature. The defects in the existing
state Of things lie not in society but in indi-
viduals. They exist in men who make no
wise or good use of powers md opportunities
which they now possess, and would undoubt-
edly act in the same way amid other con-
dltons. Ideal surroundings would be of little
use to men who have the disposition to be
idle, or incorporate, or vicious, or to prey
upon their fellows. No reform in institutions
can ever remove the consequences of these
vices. 1t Is the vast number of parasites,
that prey upon the social body and sap its
vital forces, that retards human progress and
prevents it from reaching the ideal of which
1t Is capable and which has been in the minds
of its poets and philosophers since the world
began. Without saying that present con-
ditions are all that they should be, it is per-
fectly evident that any one of sound health,
using his forces and opportunities at their
best, whatever his sphere in life, may find
happiness enough and a sufficient degree of
wealth. What humanity needs is, not to listen
to the fanciful teachings of idealists, but
some inspiration which will lead its individ-
uals to use their present resources.
It is this inspiration which the combined
forces of religion, philanthropy and culture
are seeking to impart. Varied in their lines
of effort, they are all working to this end.
The time has been when religion was too
much occupied with the concerns Of another
life; but it is being more clearly recognized
that, as Epictetus said, the concern how to
live wisely in this world is the great and mas
ter thing; that, indeed, any other possible
life is dependent upon the kind Of life that is
lived here. Clear now in its perception of
this fact, the best religious influences of our
time arc uniting with those of philosophy and
culture in teaching men and women how to
use this life to the best advantage. What
ever hopes of progress society has lie in the
success of these efforts. Their sphere Of labor
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