Project Utopia

What is a utopia?Latin word for

“nowhere”A reflection of the person imagining a perfect or highly desirable society.

Plato’s Republic

Examples

Thomas More’s Utopia

An ideal form of government Why?

1. Peace – strict security, strong police force, excellent law management

2. Justice – Uphold the rule of law, equality for all

3. No negative emotions – Happiness is priority, everyone is content

4. No imperfections – hate, anger and greed eradicated in a society

In order to create an ideal form of government, we need to draw qualities from good leaders and try not to emulate poor leaders.

3 different Leaders

Magaret Thatcher - Good

Margaret ThatcherBritain's first female prime minister Served three consecutive terms in office.One of the dominant political figures of 20th century Britain, and Thatcherism continues to have a huge influence.

Major Accomplishments First challenged, then reversed, this national collapse.

Established economic stability, then took on and conquered the unions, creating an astonishing new wave of national prosperity.

Major Accomplishments Transformed Britain's standing overseas.

In 1979, Britain was held in contempt on the international stage, a state of affairs which in 1982 encouraged General Galtieri's Argentina to invade the Falkland Islands.

Thatcher gambled all to retake the Falklands — and won.

As the Eighties progressed, she formed an international partnership with the U.S. president Ronald Reagan that pushed back the frontiers of tyranny across the world.

Foreseeing her future While studying at Oxford, Thatcher took the first steps towards a political career by being elected president of the university Conservative association.

When she applied to work for the chemicals giant ICI after graduating , she was turned down. The personnel report perceptively noted that she was 'headstrong, obstinate and dangerously opinionated'.

Decisiveness She was shrewd and ruthless.

For example, in 1981, coal miners threatened a crippling strike. She backed down, knowing this was not a fight she could win — yet. Her government then began stockpiling coal and preparing for another confrontation, which came in 1984 when the National Coal Board announced plans to shut down 20 unproductive, money-losing mines.

When the miners responded by going on strike, she portrayed them as “Marxists” who wanted “to defy the law of the land in order to defy the laws of economics.” After a year punctuated by violent clashes between strikers and police, the union crumbled.

Decisiveness She showed similar machismo in responding to Argentina’s invasion of the Falkland Islands: Rather than negotiate, she sent warships and took the islands back. “When you’ve spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment, it’s exciting to have a real crisis on your hands,” she said.

Strong Will Together, Baroness Thatcher and Ronald Reagan championed fewer government entitlements, less regulation, a more robust free market economy, British and American exceptionalism, and a foreign policy that had, as its unofficial motto, "might is right".

Charisma Thatcher did not built her own party; instead, she imposed her personal authority over an old one. When she won the party leadership election in 1975, the Tories were an all-male, old-fashioned, patrician-dominated group. Thatcher quickly centralized party power, sacked all the “wets” opposing her course of action, and promoted to ministerial positions ideological fellow travellers and loyalists. Her resolve became dramatically evident at the moment her party expected her to retreat in the face of intense social unrest in Britain’s streets: “U-turn if you want to,” she retorted, “the Lady’s not for turning.”

Charisma “If we were to fail, that freedom could be imperilled. So let us resist the blandishments of the faint hearts; let us ignore the howls and threats of the extremists; let us stand together and do our duty, and we shall not fail.”- A quote by Margaret Thatcher

Aung San Suu Kyi - Good

Introduction•Burmese opposition politician

•Chairperson of National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma.

Political Participation 1990 general election,

NLD won 59% of the national votes

and 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament.

Detained under house arrest before the elections.

House Arrest Duration : 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989

Released on: 13 November 2010

Now one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.

She was under house arrest as long as we were alive on this planet !

Brave WomanSuu Kyi often compared to Fabrice Muamba, war veterans and one student even compared Suu Kyi's fight against the Burmese authorities to one of her parents' endeavours to find her adopted parents.

Source of Inspiration

Whether living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes that could change Burma.

Quote

“I think by now I have made it fairly clear that I am not very happy with the word ‘HOPE.’ I don't believe in people just hoping. We work for what we want.” 

Freedom Fighter Suu Kyi spoke to large audiences representing NLD, defying a government ban on political gatherings of more than four persons

1989- 82 percent seats won by NLD

Military dictatorship refused to recognize the results.

Despite that…She remains a living expression of her people’s determination to gain political and economic freedoms.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi has called on citizens around the world to “use your liberty to promote ours.”

Freedom Fighter Lost her husband due to prostate cancer.

2000 – Under house arrest for a further two years

Conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- America's highest civilian honor -- by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Freedom From Fear "It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy, and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance, and fear. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end."

Muammar Gaddafi - Bad

Gaddafi Commonly known as Colonel GaddafiLibyan revolutionary and politician, de facto ruler of Libya for 42 years. Took power in a 1969 coup d'etat, ruled as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the "Brother Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011, when he was ousted in the Libyan civil war. After beginning as an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist, he later governed the country according to his own ideology, the Third International Theory. He eventually embraced Pan-Africanism, and served as Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010.

A skillful balance Gaddafi's was an enigmatic figure, whose wild remarks, colourful attire and alleged ties to terrorism made him the subject of great fascination. However, it would be wrong to "dismiss his many eccentricities as signs of instability", wrote Cretz. Gaddafi "is a complicated individual who has managed to stay in power for 40 years through skilful balancing of interests and realpolitik methods."

The fact that he ruled with an iron fist helped as well.

Global Pariah Until his last moments in power, Gadhafi exhibited the oddball traits that made him a global pariah. With rebel forces piling into Tripoli, after his own soldiers gave up the fight, he took to the radio waves to implore "all the men and women" to "come out in order to prevent the traitors and those agents to enter Tripoli."

Terrorist Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ghadafi's name became synonymous with international terrorism. He was a major financial backer of the Black September Movement (which was responsible for the attacks at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and which infamously claimed responsibility for the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing), the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am aircraft over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1989 bombing of a French aircraft over Niger.

Conclusion

Our ideal form of government

DemocracyDictatorship

A hybrid between dictatorship and democracy

Advantages Dictatorship – Helps to maintain decisiveness in evaluation and action to ensure that leaders do what is best and not what is most popular for the nation

Democracy – Listen to the people and accept suggestions, leader must be able to empathize with the people and understand them (incorporation of transcendent leadership)

By adding these two together, we get an ideal, or utopia form of government.

Thank you.