Tevun-Krus #8 - Dystopian SF

A Self-Imposed Dystopia

A Self-Imposed Dystopia

By: AngusEcrivain

'A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia, kakotopia, cackotopia, or anti-utopia) is a community or society that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. It is the opposite of a utopia. Such societies appear in many artistic works, particularly in stories set in a future. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization,totalitarian governments, environmental disaster,or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to real-world issues regarding society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science, and/or technology, which if unaddressed could potentially lead to such a dystopia-like condition.'

***

If it was possible to travel backwards through time without the use of a police call box or a flying DeLorean - which if may well be, who knows? - and you were to head back to, let's say. 1969. It's the Summer of Love. Everyone's high as shit on anything and everything and people are getting jiggy with, well, other people. Bryan Adams even wrote a song about it, although he does leave out a whole lot of what I suspect really went on back then.

Anyway, you've time-travelled back to 1969. Now, head to Woodstock and find a suitable place to park your bottom. Enjoy the music for a while - I hear Jefferson Airplane put on quite the show - and during the breaks whilst various artists move to and from the stage, get talking to fellow festival goers.

Have a wee bit of a chat and partake in some narcotics, perhaps, and then ask them the following question: What is your idea of a dystopian society?

Ask the same question all over the world - of course it'd be 'Hva er din oppfatning av et dystopisk samfunn?' in Norwegian.

***

'...an imaginary society in which social or technological trends have culminated in a greatly diminished quality of life or degradation of values.'

***

The point is, ask the same question all over the world to anyone from doctors and strippers to milkmen and soldiers. Ask the same question and I'd wager that eight or nine times out of ten, you'll get the same answer.

You'd listen to that answer over and over again in countless languages and it would slowly dawn on you that actually, the folk back in '69 are describing a society not too dissimilar to the one in which we live today.

Pretty much every aspect of our lives is controlled or at the very least, influenced, by those with power.

Advertising companies tell us what to eat and wear, what to drink and which unnecessary commodities to buy. They tell us what is 'in' and 'out,' and like helpless puppies we cock our heads, give a little whimper and for the most part, fall into line.

For decades, the radio stations have played what they want us to hear, the music they're going to get paid the most money to play and in turn, the music that will make the record companies a stonking fat pile of cash.

On the television we're told of 'gripping, must see dramas,' and, 'the funniest show you'll watch all year.' Who's to say that everyone is going to find those dramas gripping and that particular comedy show even remotely funny? The thing is, the vast majority of people will do, because they're told they're supposed to.

Newspapers only give us the information they're allowed to give us; mostly bullshit about celebrities we're told to give a crap about but also events that are taking place elsewhere in the world that hold little meaning to the average citizen. Sure, we'll read an article about a turf war in the Middle East and be like, 'well that's bloody atrocious,' before we flick to the sports pages at the back.

Things are covered up, things we want and need to know, but that the Powers That Be don't want us to know. Either they think we can't handle the truth or, and probably even worse from their perspective, they think we can handle it and upon learning said truths we'll turn around and give them the finger and set about stripping their power.

***

'A society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.'

***

Out in the real world, London has between 4 million and 5.9 million CCTV cameras. Great Britain has one CCTV camera for every eleven citizens, which means there is very little we can do without someone knowing about it. Our every move is being watched. I don't know about anyone else but I find it particularly worrying that no one seems to know exactly how many CCTV cameras there are in England's capital city.. Give or take two million seems a little scary to me.

Online, a lot of the surveillance we suffer is self-imposed. Search engines invariably remember your history whether you request they don't or not, which is why you'll generally find the same kind of pop-up ads regardless of the page you're browsing.

Social media is the worst for it though. Millions upon millions of people post every single intimate detail about their lives on Twitter and Facebook, not to mention any number of the other less popular social networks, giving up to the minute updates as to their location, the company they're keeping and what colour underwear they're wearing.

What... Just me?

Even photos uploaded to the interwebs are time and date stamped, complete with the exact location in which they were taken - if you know what you're looking for, of course.

It doesn't matter what we do, online or offline. Somewhere, someone is watching.

***

'A utopia is the perfect place. There is little to no evil, and everything is sunshine and happiness. A dystopia, however, is the opposite. It might not always seem obvious though. A place could seem like a utopia, but all the happiness could be a delusion to distract from the corruption going on.'

***

The fact of the matter is whether we accept it or not, that even though we're not living in a dystopian society right now, we're damn close to it. The rich are getting richer and the poor are - that's right, you guessed it - getting poorer.

Are things as bad as they could be? No, most definitely not.

Will it get worse? Probably. In fact, I suspect it won't be too long at all.

Once it's got worse will it start to get better? Fingers crossed, eh?