Dystopia -1From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek: δυσ-: bad-, ill- and Ancient Greek: τόπος: place, landscape)
(alternatively, cacotopia, or anti-utopia) is, in literature, an often futuristic society that has degraded
into a repressive and controlled state, though under the guise of being utopian. Dystopian literature has
underlying cautionary tones, warning society that if we continue to live how we do, this will be the
consequence. A dystopia is, thus, regarded as a sort of negative utopia and is often characterized by an
authoritarian or totalitarian form of government. Dystopias usually feature different kinds of repressive
social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions and constant
states of warfare or violence. Dystopias often explore the concept of technology going "too far" and
how humans individually and en mass use technology. A dystopian society is also often characterized by
mass poverty for most of its inhabitants and a large military-like police force. Real dystopias such as Nazi
Germany have existed in history.
Etymology
Dystopia is a modified form of the neologism utopia, which was originally coined by Sir Thomas More in
his book of that title completed in 1516.
The first known use of dystopian, as recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary, is a speech given before
the British House of Commons by John Stuart Mill in 1868, in which Mill denounced the government's
Irish land policy: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called
dys-topians, or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable;
but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable."
Counter-utopia, anti-utopia
Many dystopias found in fictional and artistic works can be described as a utopian society with at least
one fatal flaw,*7+ whereas a utopian society is founded on the good life, a dystopian society’s dreams of
improvement are overshadowed by stimulating fears of the "ugly consequences of present-day
behavior."[8] People are alienated and individualism is restricted by the government.
Society
In the novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the class system is prenatally designated in terms of
Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. In We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, people are permitted to live
out of public view for only an hour a day. They are not only referred to by numbers instead of names,
but are neither "citizens" nor "people", but "ciphers." In the lower castes, in Brave New World, single
embryos are "bokanovskified", so that they produce between eight and ninety-six identical siblings,
making the citizens as uniform as possible.
Some dystopian works emphasize the pressure to conform in terms of the requirement to not excel. In
these works, the society is ruthlessly egalitarian, in which ability and accomplishment, or even
competence, are suppressed or stigmatized as forms of inequality, as in Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison
Bergeron. Similarly, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the dystopia represses the intellectuals with
particular force, because most people are willing to accept it, and the resistance to it consists mostly of
intellectuals. Moreover, in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, the protagonist Dagny Taggart struggles to keep
Taggart Transcontinental (the railroad corporation where she works) thriving in a world that spurns
innovation and excellence.
Social groups
The concept of religion may be under attack in a dystopia. In Brave New World, for example, the
establishment of the state included lopping off the tops of all crosses (as symbols of Christianity) to
make them "T"s, (as symbols of Henry Ford's Model T).
In some of the fictional dystopias, such as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, the family has been
eradicated and continuing efforts are deployed to keep it from reestablishing itself as a social institution.
In Brave New World, where children are reproduced artificially, the concepts "mother" and "father" are
considered obscene. In some novels, the State is hostile to motherhood: for example, in Nineteen
Eighty-Four, children are organized to spy on their parents; and in We, the escape of a pregnant woman
from OneState is a revolt.
Nature
Fictional dystopias are commonly urban and frequently isolate their characters from all contact with the
natural world. Sometimes they require their characters to avoid nature, as when walks are regarded as
dangerously anti-social in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In Brave New World, the lower classes of
society are conditioned to be afraid of nature, but also to visit the countryside and consume
transportation and games to stabilize society.[citation needed] A few "green" fictional dystopias do
exist, such as in Michael Carson's short story "The Punishment of Luxury".
Politics
In When the Sleeper Wakes, H. G. Wells depicted the governing class as hedonistic and shallow. George
Orwell contrasted Wells's world to that depicted in Jack London's The Iron Heel, where the dystopian
rulers are brutal and dedicated to the point of fanaticism, which Orwell considered more plausible.
Whereas the political principles on which fictional utopias (or "perfect worlds") are based are idealistic
in principle, intending positive consequences for their inhabitants, the political principles on which of
fictional dystopias are based are flawed and result in negative consequences for the inhabitants of the
dystopian world, which is portrayed as oppressive.
Dystopias are often filled with pessimistic views of the ruling class or government that is brutal or
uncaring ruling with an "iron hand" or "iron fist".[citation needed] These dystopian government
establishments often have protagonists or groups that lead a "resistance" to enact change within their
government.
Dystopian political situations are depicted in novels such as Parable of the Sower, Nineteen Eighty-Four,
Brave New World, V for Vendetta, The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451; and in such films as Fritz
Lang's Metropolis, Brazil, and Soylent Green.