The Utopian Implications of 'The Andy Griffith Show'

Andy is able to be such a good and effective sheriff because he's always looking for consensual resolutions to the problems he has to address.

He's been put into a position of coercion and authority by the hierarchical state system, but constantly avoids using the tools of violence, whenever possible.

I'm not saying he doesn't sometimes yeild to the logic and temptations of his office, the whole pickle contest fiasco will speak to that, but he's by nature a man who dislikes telling people what to do, and that's what makes him great.

I don't know what role he would have in an anarchist society, but such decent men are surely part of the solution to capitalism and patriarchy on the way to a verticalist world.

Andy is a friend, equally, to men like Floyd the barber, and Otis the town drunk, there's no distinction of status between any member of the community of Mayberry in his mind, and that's why Andy's Mayberry is the future of mankind.