Poetry+Slam+ChrissyE09 + 

Under Construction

Topic: Utopian Communities

Focus: Shakers, Onedia, New Harmony (used as examples)

Reason for choice: Utopian Communities are interesting because thier rules are outrageous.

What's your point? (thesis): If a Utopia is a place that is perfect then why don't we all live there. (point out things that went wrong)

What three reasons do you have that will back up your point?

1. How long the communities last. (Why they don't last)

2. Even places that were supposed to be Utopia's still had problems (they weren't perfect).

3. Different Views.

What is your first reason and three to five facts to support it?

1. Utopia's don't work out well because they are based on one person's view of a perfect place. 2. There are only about 18 people left of the Shaker Utopia. 3. New Harmony lasted only 3 years because of a single problem.
 * New Harmony, Onedia, and the Shakers all had this in their community.
 * The Shakers were one of the most susecssful communities and if they didn't last then how will anyone else's community.
 * That problem is that they lacked the motivation to reach that point of perfection.

What is your second reason and three to five facts to support it?

1. The Onedia had a policy called mutual criticism. 2. The New Harmony Utopia was lacking the commitment that was needed to fulfill Robert Owen's vision of a perfect community. 3. What is your third reason and three to five facts to support it? 1. Robert Owen (New Harmony) had a strong Christian Belief, but he rejected it. 2. Ann Lee (Shakers) was extremely Christian. When she died she told everyone in the shaker community that when 5 people were left of the shakers there would be a renewal of the community. 3. John Humphrey Noyes (Onedia) was Christian. He based his community mainly on his faith. He was intently concerned with what God had planned for him. That is why he created the perfect community so that he wouldn't be rejected to heaven because of his sins.
 * The members of the community all pointed out the errors of others in their community in hope to improve the people in thier community.
 * The members didn't want to fulfill this vision because the vision wasn't their's it was their founder's.
 * That's why the community lasted only 3 years.

Based on your research, what conclusions would you make and how does your research connect to your life? I conclude that Utopian Communities will never work out correctly because everyone has a different view of what a perfect community should be. Because these communities will never work out we can't live there because they will never exist.

Ideas on how you are going to present? Involve the class? Be exciting? Interesting? Wow? Huh? Ahhh? My ideas for my presentation: Make a "poem" using inticing phrasing to intice the audience.

Poem: I have, but two words for you, Utopian Communities, if they are so great and soooooo perfect then why don't we all live there. I'll tell you why. And that's because we all have different views on what a perfect place should be. (point to audience) Mine is different from yours, his/hers is different from his/hers, and his/hers is different from his/hers. Let's take the (airquotes) Utopian Community (unquote) of New Harmony. Because he had such a WONDERFUL vision of what a perfect community should be, he made people join his "Utopia". Those people, like us, had different visions of a perfect place. Therefore they didn't have the motivation to fulfill someone else's vision (point to audience) like I don't want to fullfill yours (and so on).

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