Exactly Who's Utopia is This Going to Be?

Before I dig into the political meat of Book One, I'd like to point out something subtly noted in the letter Thomas More sent to Peter Giles. Basically, More admits he didn't ask the first thing most cognitively functioning human beings ask when a location is described to them, "where is it?" Even more conveniently, Raphael Hythloday forgot to mention it, which makes no sense considering the first chapter of Book Two is literally titled "Geography of Utopia." I cheated a little and flipped forward to see how specific the geography gets otherwise, and let me tell you, it's pretty specific. It just makes me wonder - why was the detail of Utopia's exact location left out? I know More actually coined the term Utopia in reality. Was he trying to metaphorically announce that Utopia didn't exist but could exist anywhere?

Sidebar: I just Googled "Raphael Hythloday" (to make sure I was spelling it correctly because I was too lazy to pick up the book) and according to some website called Grade Saver, "Raphael" is the name of a Biblical angel, but "Hytholoday" means "peddler of nonsense." What the heck? Why would More choose this name for the fictional man who's sole role is to explain things that are apparently not nonsense?

Anyways, I read through all of Raphael's political stances, ideas, concepts, solutions, or whatever you'd like to call them, and agreed with some but disagreed with others.

Agree: Capitol punishment is practically pointless because it eliminates the criminals, not crime. In addition, the punishment of death won't stop a thief who steals to put food on the table for his family. The system almost manufactures these kinds of thieves, then blames them, and why should they be punished with the same intensity as murderers?

Disagree: Private property should be abolished and replaced with communal property to create more prosperity. I disagree with this because I study psychology and I understand that private ownership is considered a right to individualistic people, and you would definitely decrease prosperity if you took it away from those who have had it and told those who didn't get a chance to have it that they never will. More also disagrees with Raphael but claims that communal property would leave no room for prosperity because the people will have no incentive to work, then they would disrespect authority. Well, I also disagree with More. There are plenty of societies in history we can look at who have abolished private ownership, and prosperity wasn't dead and gone, it was just equalized among members of society.

I might have this backwards or entirely wrong, but Raphael sounds consistenently liberal throughout Book One while his opposers sound conservative. I wonder if Raphael's/More's Utopia is going to be more liberal than conservative, especially since More wrote himself as a character who expresses disagreement with Raphael's ideas. Isn't Utopia different for every single person anyways?

Remember: Utopia is defined as an "imagined place or state of things"...DEFINED as IMAGINED...

Utopia by Thomas More.