---
Title: Utopia
Description: An imaginary plan of social reorganization, outside the dynamics and social forces actually present, which is proposed as a universal solution if imposed on reality.
Author: School of Marxism
URL: https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Utopia
---


> An imaginary plan of social reorganization, outside the dynamics and social forces actually present, which is proposed as a universal solution if imposed on reality.

The defining character of utopias is not so much that they are set in an imaginary place as that they are set outside historical time, that is, outside the real movement of society. Utopia is a plan to be implemented, a scheme to be imposed on reality. That is why, from the first appearances of the [proletariat](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Proletariat) as a political class, utopias are necessarily reactionary: they express the desire to stand outside the [class struggle](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Class%20struggle) more than the [communist](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Communism) goal that -with more or less foundation- many of them proclaim.

That is also why [class consciousness](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Class%20consciousness) is "anti-utopian", and "The Manifesto" already takes care to stress this when it characterizes the communists.

> [The communists] do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement, [...] theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.
>
> Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. ["Manifesto of the Communist Party", 1848](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm)