In which i think too much about an animated movie.

Also, possible spoilers for the two people who haven't seen it yet.

The ideal society: "Zootopia" and political philosophy.

While "Zootopia" seems like a typical simple, happy animated feature with your average feel-good message about everybody getting along and everyone-can-be-whatever-they-dream, if you pay attention (or if you're a typical philosophy type and you think too damn much), you'll realise that there's actually a whole lot more going on.

"Zootopia" is actually a quite sophisticated look at various political philosophies that have sought to answer the age-old question: "how shall we achieve the ideal state"?

The clues are all in the names. Puns abound.

First off, "Zootopia" is a pun on Thomas More's "Utopia", a 16th century work of fiction and political philosophy, which was itself based on, and a critique of, the much older "Republic" of Plato.

Although "Utopia" is today understood to mean "an ideal place", this is a mistranslation: the literal meaning of More's original Greek was "no-place". In other words, More was saying that an ideal society was unattainable.

In any case, like Plato's Atlantis (which was never intended to be understood as a real place, but was intended as a fictionalised exemplar of his ideal state), More described Utopia as an island divided up into several districts - which we see in Zootopia's "environments".

The next clue is in the names of the principal protagonists.

Judy Hopps is a pun on the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Exactly as Judy describes in her opening skit, Hobbes wrote that the "state of nature" was one of anarchic savage competition, a "war of all against all" in which the strong preyed on the weak, and there was no place for industry, culture, art or society: life was necessarily "nasty, brutish and short". In order to avoid this violent state of nature, people engage in a "social contract", in which individuals band together in a "common-wealth", pooling their resources for common security. This necessarily involves a tacit agreement from the strong to give up their natural advantage over the weak, and all members surrendering some degree of freedom to the sovereign (be it a literal sovereign or a sovereign state).

Judy's first name, by the way, comes from the Biblical character, Judith, a daring warrior woman who sets out on a lone mission to save her people from danger.

Nick is literally "Wilde", and represents the Hobbesian state of nature: he is solitary and selfish, waging a one-fox war against all. This is not because Nick is innately savage or evil but because, as Hobbes observed, in the state of nature, even when individuals are not actually fighting, they cannot be sure that others will not try and attack them - thus they live their lives in a constant state of mistrust and on guard against one another.

"Zootopia" also references another 17th century work of political philosophy: Machiavelli's "The Prince". Machiavelli dedicated his book to Lorenzo de Medici, whose uncle was Pope Leo - thus it is no accident that it is Mayor Lionheart who makes the Machiavellian judgement to "do the wrong thing for the right reasons". The theme of Machiavelli's work was political realism: princes should do what is necessary - even if it betrays conventional morality - to hold the state together.

Deputy Mayor Bellwether's name is derived from a term for the leading sheep of a flock, which wears a bell on its neck (as she literally does in the movie), and in political parlance, means something that leads or indicates a trend. Bellwether thus represents contemporary poll-driven politics, or populism.

Yet Mayor Lionheart's actions lead to disaster. So do Judy's. Nick's life is nasty, brutish and short. Bellwether is the most obvious villain of the piece.

So what does the film suggest as the ideal society?

The answer, it seems to me, lies in the work which Thomas More based "Utopia" on: Plato's "Republic".

Plato thought that the ideal society should consist of three classes: the Guardians or Rulers, the Auxilliaries or Warriors, and the Commoners or Producers. At the conclusion of "Zootopia", we see exactly that: Mayor Lionheart resumes his natural place as leader, the Nick and Judy assume their role as Warriors enforcing his rule, and the hoi polloi contentedly take their place as Producers.

Although Plato's society was hierarchical, he also assumed that (a very few) people could, on merit, move between classes. Thus Judy, by virtue of her bravery and intelligence, is able to move from being a Producer to being a Warrior.

However, Plato also believed that most people were simply born to stay in their class. Rulers were born to rule. Producers were born to be common people and nothing else. Plato also believed that people were happiest when they stayed were they were born to be: Judy's parents are happy being simple farmers. The very idea of social mobility is frightening to them.

This is where Plato's ideas - the "spell of Plato" as Karl Popper put it, in "The Open Society and its enemies" - have been so dangerously seductive. The idea that only a very special, selected few (naturally, "us") are born to lead, while the great common herd ("them", of course) are just born to do what they're told has been enormously appealing to would-be authoritarians for thousands of years. Plato has been the well-spring of nearly every authoritarian political creed, from Marxism to Fascism.

Which is why we should remember what Thomas More tried to tell us: "Utopia" is "no-place".

The perfect society doesn't exist.

See? Told you philosophy makes you think too much.