Floor Please? Up for Heaven, Down for Hell, There's No Other Way Out of the Elevator

[59Fiat600 Rossa]

As a child, I once heard Heaven and Hell described allegorically by a Baptist minister in a way that I found very pleasing. He described Hell as a large table filled with delicious foods, but the people seated at the table were all starving because their arms had become so long that there was no way they could reach their mouths to feed themselves. When we were shown Heaven, we were surprised to see exactly the same scene that we had seen in Hell. The only difference was in the people seated at the table, who were well fed. Their arms were also too long for them to feed themselves, so they fed one another instead.

Yes, I agree. That was a Utopian dream that did not take individual differences into account. Stop please! I'm allergic to broccoli.

[Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble Philosopher]

Post by 59Fiat600 Rossa
As a child, I once heard Heaven and Hell described allegorically by a Baptist minister in a way that I found very pleasing. He described Hell as a large table filled with delicious foods, but the people seated at the table were all starving because their arms had become so long that there was no way they could reach their mouths to feed themselves. When we were shown Heaven, we were surprised to see exactly the same scene that we had seen in Hell. The only difference was in the people seated at the table, who were well fed. Their arms were also too long for them to feed themselves, so they fed one another instead.
Yes, I agree. That was a Utopian dream that did not take individual differences into account. Stop please! I'm allergic to broccoli.

Hell is where people go hungry. Heaven is where people eat too much and suffer from obesity.

Utopia is where people have a balance of food and exercise.

[59Fiat600 Rossa]

Post by Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble Philosopher
Hell is where people go hungry. Heaven is where people eat too much and suffer from obesity.
Utopia is where people have a balance of food and exercise.

What does the Online Etymology Dictionary tell us about the origin of the word 'utopia'? Well my goodness, Wise TibetanMonkey should be pleased to learn that it leads us to the Tibetan utopia 'Shangri La'.

utopia (n.) Look up utopia at Dictionary.com

1551, from Modern Latin Utopia, literally "nowhere," coined by Thomas More (and used as title of his book, 1516, about an imaginary island enjoying the utmost perfection in legal, social, and political systems), from Greek ou "not" + topos "place" (see topos). Extended to any perfect place by 1610s. Commonly, but incorrectly, taken as from Greek eu- "good" (see eu-) an error reinforced by the introduction of dystopia.

utopian (adj.) Look up utopian at Dictionary.com

1550s, with reference to More's fictional country; 1610s as "extravagantly ideal, impossibly visionary," from utopia + -an. As a noun meaning "visionary idealist" it is recorded by 1832 (also in this sense was utopiast, 1845).

Erewhon (n.) Look up Erewhon at Dictionary.com

"utopia," from title of a book published 1872 by British author Samuel Butler (1835-1902), a partial reversal of nowhere.

Shangri La (n.) Look up Shangri La at Dictionary.com
imaginary earthly paradise, 1938, from Shangri La, name of Tibetan utopia in James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon" (1933, film version 1937). In Tibetan, la means "mountain pass."