The+Cockaigne

Land of Cockaigne In the land of Cockaigne, people eat as much as they want, drink as much as they want and dance as much as they want every single day. This marvelous eutopia allows its citizens the pleasure of not having to work or care for anything. Their days are filled with laughter, joy and peace. Nobody has to strain to make ends meet. Since there are no bills to be paid, the people who live at the land of Cockaigne do not have a care in the world. This is the world where there are no dreams because there is nothing to dream of. The land of Cockaigne seems to be an ideal world, but it has many problems including its focus on play to the exclusion of work and its emphasis on materialism.

Although most people work for a living, people play for a living in the land of Cockaigne. In many societies a father or mother will go to work for about seven or eight hours a day and come home to their children who are happy to see them. The father or mother will get a smile on their faces and know that all those hours at work were well worth it. It is a sense of fulfillment that everyone needs in his or her life. a sense of fulfillment that allows a person to keep on living and keep getting up in the morning. In the land of Cockaigne, the only sense of fulfillment that a person experiences is the satisfaction of having had so much to eat that no more can be eaten. This is not the type of fulfillment that people need in their life. If people sat around all day and did nothing but pleasure themselves, the pleasure would be subdued over time. To truly enjoy something like eating a big meal, a person needs to work for it. If someone has worked hard all week and takes his or her family out to a nice big dinner, the sense of enjoyment is much greater because that person knows that he or she worked all week to be able to afford this meal.

The biggest problem with the land of Cockaigne, is that everyone is only focused on material things. Material things cannot make a person happy forever. A medieval poem written around 1315 about Cockaigne states, "Far in the sea, to the west of Spain, Is a country called Cockaigne. There is no land not anywhere, In goods or riches to compare. Though Paradise be merry and bright Cockaigne is of far faire sight..." The problem is that all the land of Cockaigne has is goods and riches. There is no such thing as love or affection for one another in the land of Cockaigne, only love and affection for material things. For people to be able to live a fulfilling life, they have to surround themselves with loving and caring people. People should not only care about themselves, but about other people as well. The people in Cockaigne do not have a good concept of making special connections with other people.

The people in the land of Cockaigne think that they are living spectacular lives, but in reality, they are just wasting their lives away by only caring about themselves and pleasure. In a society like Cockaigne, one might be happy for a couple of years. Eventually, people would get so bored with their lives that they would go insane. Inhabitants of Cockaigne would realize that they were not doing anything with their life. Cockaigne may be a great place to visit, but it would be a terrible way to spend your whole life.

posted by Gulliver (Jay)