Is Thomas More's Utopia really a surveillance state, as Laura Ashe suggests?

Laura Ashe says the identical cities, uniform clothes, shared meals and the rule that everyone lives under everyone else's eyes look like a sinister surveillance state to modern readers. More, she argues, saw the same features as scaffolding for virtue, which he treated as a habit that is easy to keep when nobody is in want. Cathy Shrank adds that the island keeps slaves, uses Zapolete mercenaries it wants wiped out, and runs male-headed households.

• Joanne Paul argues that what moderns call individuality More would have called pride, the worst sin.
• Women in Utopia work and attend public lectures, but Shrank says they remain subordinate as in Tudor England.
• A prince elected for life can only be removed if suspected of tyranny, a crack the panel says leaves no one to judge.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-15). Read the whole episode summary →

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