Three Paths to Utopia
Achieving utopia through natural development was called Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism was rather unique as far as utopias go, in that it was based on competition instead of morality and harmony, but it did promise the creation of a higher man. Just as the process of natural selection had led to the evolution of human beings, so through natural competition man would eventually evolve to a higher level. Any involvement or interference by government would only deter the natural process and so impede the development of the higher man.
The idea of having the state create utopia and the higher man, through control of all social institutions, is obviously socialism. In the United States, one tends to view socialism as if there were only one socialism. Actually that's not true; there are basically two major forms. On the whole, these two forms are identical in the content of the socialism itself, in the role government is to play in society. The difference is in how socialism is to be achieved. The form of socialism we are most familiar with is Marxian Socialism, based on the writings of Karl Marx. Marx believed that the shape of a social system was not the result of a conscious choice by the people living in it, but rather an outgrowth of the means of production which undergoes a historical evolution through successively higher stages of development, according to his own supposedly scientific "laws" of history. Marx believed that state socialism was a higher stage than capitalism, and that the inevitable process of history would lead to socialist forms of government.
The second, more obscure form of socialism is a so-called "Rational Socialism." Believers in "Rational Socialism" thought socialism was inevitable not because of a historical process, but because people would eventually come to share their view that socialism was a better and fairer system. They felt that rational people would simply realize that socialism could deliver the greatest personal freedom and satisfaction. This distinction between Marxian and so-called "Rational Socialism" is important, because it means that there were two socialist utopias which developed in the 1800's in opposition to Social Darwinism, and there were three distinct ways people in the 1800's thought an ideal world could be achieved: 1. Social Darwinism -negative government and individualism; 2. Marxist socialism; 3. so-called "Rational Socialism".