The utopia

Pullman's vaguely utopian city brings to question the feasibility of all social projects aimed at improving and equalizing social standards. His city was an experiment in social organization; his perfectly crafted town reflected his ideals, as well as the dream of all Americans to achieve the middle class. His financially crafty idea of a type of rail car gave him the opportunity to arbitrate his own town. Because it was his town eh was free to organize it as he pleased. If you think about it, that concept is scary in and of itself. He had enough money, therefore he could build his own society, where workers were essentially required to adhere to the values he instilled in his community. So much power in one man... And of course, there is a degree of participation on the part of the citizens. They chose to be a part of this community, much like we choose the be a part of the communities we are involved in. But there's something creepy about utopian communities to me. Pieces of life can just be cut out at the overseer's will, like bars and casino's in Pullman's case. While extreme stratification is unfortunate, it in and of itself isn't bad. What's unfortunate is when the system in which there is great socioeconomic diversity isn't set up to support those with the greatest need. So this lack of diversity in Pullman's solely middle class community provides a unification that makes me slightly uncomfortable. I don't know where that comes from; perhaps it's remnants of the red scare, and the fear that purely socialistic tendencies trend towards community's downfall. Again, here we can see Pullman as an example. His own egoism and lack of introspection prevented him from assessing the need of his community as it began to slow down economically. Eventually, this lead to the breaking of the company, and the town as well.