A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia, kakotopia, or anti-utopia) is an imaginary community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated as "not-good place", an antonym of 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.
Examples
Famous depictions of dystopian societies include:
- R.U.R. (which introduced the concept of robots and the word "robot" for the first time)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, which takes place in a totalitarian invasive super state
- Brave New World, where the society’s energy is forcibly directed into drug-addled consumerism and hedonism in place of traditional morality
- Fahrenheit 451, where the state burns books to create apathy and disinterest in the general public
- Minority Report, where deterministic technology is used by the police to prevent crimes before they happen
- A Clockwork Orange, where the state uses psychological torture to reform violent youths
- Blade Runner in which engineered "replicants" infiltrate society and must be hunted down before they injure humans
- The Matrix, in which the human species is trapped in a virtual reality world created by intelligent machines
- The Hunger Games, in which the government controls its people by maintaining a constant state of fear through forcing randomly selected children to participate in an annual fight to the death
- Logan's Run, in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching a particular age
- Soylent Green, where society suffers from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, a hot climate, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green"
- Internment, the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without trial
- The Giver, An isolated society where emotion, arts, free will and even color are sacrificed in favor of productivity and efficiency.
The concept of a machine-dominated society entrapping humanity was also explored within the Dune universe in the context of the "Butlerian Jihad".
Jack London's novel The Iron Heel was described by Erich Fromm as "the earliest of the modern Dystopia".
Etymology
Dystopia is derived from the term Utopia, which was originally coined by Thomas More in his book of that title completed in 1516. "Utopia" is derived from the Greek words ou (οá½), "not", and topos (τόπος), "place". In the 17th century, the term came to be applied to any place or society considered perfect or ideal, possibly by confusion with the Greek prefix eu- (as in eutopia "good place"), which would have coincided in English pronunciation.
Dystopia was coined as the antonym of this latter meaning developed by Utopia to refer to an "imagined bad place", replacing the prefix with Greek Ancient Greek: δυσ- "bad". It was first used by J.S. Mill in one of his Parliamentary Speeches 1868 (Hansard Commons).
History
Decades before the first documented use of the word "dystopia" was "cacotopia" (using Ancient Greek: κακόs, "bad, wicked") originally proposed in 1818 by Jeremy Bentham: "As a match for utopia (or the imagined seat of the best government) suppose a cacotopia (or the imagined seat of the worst government) discovered and described." Though dystopia became the more popular term, cacotopia finds occasional use, for example by Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, who said it was a better fit for Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four because "it sounds worse than dystopia".
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."
Common themes
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 at the root of fictional utopias (or "perfect worlds") are idealistic in principle and successfully result in positive consequences for the inhabitants, the political principles on which fictional dystopias are based, while often based on utopian ideals, result in negative consequences for inhabitants because of at least one fatal flaw.
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". These dystopian government establishments often have protagonists or groups that lead a "resistance" to enact change within their government, as is seen in Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.
Dystopian political situations are depicted in novels such as Parable of the Sower, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451; and in such films as Metropolis, Brazil, Battle Royale, FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, and Soylent Green.
Economics
The economic structures of dystopian societies in literature and other media have many variations, as the economy often relates directly to the elements that the writer is depicting as the source of the oppression. However, there are several archetypes that such societies tend to follow.
A commonly occurring theme is that the state plans the economy, as shown in such works as Ayn Rand's Anthem and Henry Kuttner's short story "The Iron Standard". A contrasting theme is where the planned economy is planned and controlled by corporatist and fascist elements. A prime example of this is reflected in Norman Jewison's 1975 film Rollerball. Some dystopias, such as that of Nineteen Eighty-Four, feature black markets with goods that are dangerous and difficult to obtain, or the characters may be totally at the mercy of the state-controlled economy. Such systems usually have a lack of efficiency, as seen in stories like Philip Jose Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage", featuring a bloated welfare system in which total freedom from responsibility has encouraged an underclass prone to any form of antisocial behavior. Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano depicts a dystopia in which the centrally controlled economic system has indeed made material abundance plentiful, but deprived the mass of humanity of meaningful labor; virtually all work is menial and unsatisfying, and only a small number of the small group that achieves education is admitted to the elite and its work. In Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun, there is no want of any kind - only unabashed consumption and hedonism, leading the protagonist to begin looking for a deeper meaning to existence.
Even in dystopias where the economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New World, the state often controls the economy. In Brave New World, a character, reacting with horror to the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that everyone works for everyone else.
Other works feature extensive privatization and corporatism, where privately owned and unaccountable large corporations have effectively replaced the government in setting policy and making decisions. They manipulate, infiltrate, control, bribe, are contracted by, or otherwise function as government. This is seen in the novels Jennifer Government and Oryx and Crake and the movies Alien, Avatar, Robocop, Visioneers, Idiocracy, Soylent Green, THX 1138, WALLâ€'E and Rollerball. Rule-by-corporation is common in the cyberpunk genre, as in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (as well as the film Blade Runner, loosely based on Dick's novel).
Social stratification
Dystopian fiction frequently draws stark contrasts between the privileges of the ruling class and the dreary existence of the working classes.
In the novel Brave New World, written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley, a class system is prenatally designated in terms of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, with the lower classes having reduced brain-function and special conditioning to make them satisfied with their position in life.
In Ypsilon Minus by Herbert W. Franke, people are divided into numerous alphabetically ranked groups.
Family
Some fictional dystopias, such as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, have eradicated the family and deploy continuing efforts to keep it from re-establishing 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, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the escape of a pregnant woman from One State is a revolt.
Religion
Religious groups play the role of the oppressed and oppressors. 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). Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, takes place in a future United States under a Christianity-based theocratic regime. One of the earliest examples of this theme is Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World, about a futuristic world where the Freemasons have taken over the world and the only other religion left is a Roman Catholic minority.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? humans on Earth practice Mercerism, employing "empathy boxes" to connect to each other in a way that emphasizes their humanity and their difference from the androids, which are incapable of empathy.
In The Notre Dame de Paris Mosque by Russian author Elena Chudinova the Muslim immigrants become the main demographic and political force in the European Union and transform it into Sharia Eurabia.
Identity
In the Russian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, first published in 1921, people are permitted to live out of public view twice a week for one hour and are only referred to by numbers instead of names.
Some dystopian works, like Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron", emphasize the pressure to conform to ruthlessly egalitarian social norms that discourage or suppress accomplishment or even competence as forms of inequality. Similarly, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian society represses intellectuals with particular force.
Violence
Violence is prevalent in many dystopias, often in the form of war (e.g. Nineteen Eighty-Four); urban crimes led by gangs (often of teenagers) (e.g. A Clockwork Orange); rampant crime met by summary justice or vigilantism (e.g. Mad Max); or blood sports (e.g. Battle Royale, and The Running Man). The Hunger Games and Divergent are recent examples of dystopias centered on war and violence. Also explained in Suzanne Berne's essay "Ground Zero", where she explains her experience with the aftermath of 11 September 2001.
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, as well as within Bradbury's short story "The Pedestrian." In C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, science coordinated by government is directed toward the control of nature and the elimination of natural human instincts. 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. E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" depicts a highly changed global environment which forces people to live underground due to an atmospheric contamination.
Excessive pollution that destroys nature is common in many dystopian films, such as Avatar, Robocop, Wall-E, and Soylent Green. A few "green" fictional dystopias do exist, such as in Michael Carson's short story "The Punishment of Luxury", and Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. The latter is set in the aftermath of nuclear war, "a post-nuclear holocaust Kent, where technology has reduced to the level of the Iron Age".
Technology
Contrary to the technologically utopian claims, which view technology as a beneficial addition to all aspects of humanity, technological dystopia concerns itself with and focuses solely on the negative effects caused by new technology.
Typical Dystopian Claims
1. Techs reflect and encourage the worst aspects of human nature. Jaron Lanier, a digital pioneer, has become a technological dystopian. “I think it’s a way of interpreting technology in which people forgo taking responsibility,†he says. “‘Oh, it’s the computer that did it, not me.’ ‘There’s no more middle class? Oh, it’s not me. The computer did it’†(Lanier). This quote explains that people begin to not only blame the technology for the changes in lifestyle but also believe that technology is an omnipotence. It also points to a technological determinist perspective in terms of reification.
2. Techs harm our interpersonal communication, relationships, and communities.
- decrease in communication within family members and friend groups due to increased time in technology use
- virtual space misleadingly heightens the impact of real presence; people resort to technological medium for communication nowadays
3. Techs reinforce hierarchies - concentrate knowledge and skills; increase surveillance and erode privacy; widen inequalities of power and wealth; giving up control to machines). Douglas Rushkoff, a technological utopian, states in his article that the professional designers “re-mystified†the computer so it wasn’t so readable anymore; users had to depend on the special programs built into the software that was incomprehensible for normal users.
4. New techs are sometimes regressive (worse than previous techs).
5. The unforeseen impacts of tech are negative. “ ‘The most common way is that there’s some magic artificial intelligence in the sky or in the cloud or something that knows how to translate, and what a wonderful thing that this is available for free. But there’s another way to look at it, which is the technically true way: You gather a ton of information from real live translators who have translated phrases… It’s huge but very much like Facebook, it’s selling people back to themselves… [With translation] you’re producing this result that looks magical but in the meantime, the original translators aren’t paid for their work… You’re actually shrinking the economy.’â€
6. More efficiency and choices can harm our quality of life (by causing stress, destroying jobs, making us more materialistic). In his article “Prest-o! Change-o!,†technological dystopian James Gleick mentions the remote control being the classic example of technology that does not solve the problem “it is meant to solve.†Gleick quotes Edward Tenner, a historian of technology, that the ability and ease of switching channels by the remote control serves to increase distraction for the viewer. Then it is only expected that people will become more dissatisfied with the channel they are watching.
7. New techs cannot solve problems of old techs or just create new problems. The remote control example explains this claim as well, for the increase in laziness and dissatisfaction levels was clearly not a problem in times without the remote control. He also takes social psychologist Robert Levine’s example of Indonesians “‘whose main entertainment consists of watching the same few plays and dances, month after month, year after year,’ and with Nepalese Sherpas who eat the same meals of potatoes and tea through their entire lives. The Indonesians and Sherpas are perfectly satisfied.†Because of the invention of the remote control, it merely created more problems.
8. Techs destroy nature (harming human health and the environment). The need for business replaced community and the “story online†replaced people as the “soul of the Net.†Because information was now able to be bought and sold, there was not as much communication taking place.
See also
- Alternate history
- Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
- Cyberpunk
- Societal collapse
- New world order (politics)
- New World Order (conspiracy theory)
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- Social science fiction
- Soft science fiction
- Utopian and dystopian fiction
References
External links
- Dystopia Tracker, predictions about the future and their realisations in real life.
- Dystopic, dystopian fiction and its place in reality.
