In Robinson’s essay, “Dystopia Now”, he touches on four types of thinkers that one can be: Utopian thinkers, Dystopian thinkers, Anti-Utopian thinkers, and Anti-Anti-Utopian thinkers. I think would place myself as either Anti-anti-Utopian or Dystopian. I like to situate myself as someone who believes that everyone should focus on the future could turn out, like a Dystopian. I also tend to focus too much on the injustices in our society and how they seem to rapidly involve which leads to anxiety over something that inevitably cannot be fixed by only me. However, I do not want to seem as only Dystopian as I do not have their distinct pessimism nor do I believe that a Dystopian universe is one we should just acknowledge and something we don’t want. On the other hand, A Utopia doesn’t even consider a Dystopian future as possible, which is arguably worse, as it guarantees a more terrible future than the one envisioned. Due to this, I believe that an Anti-anti-Utopian is a term I follow the most.
In this way of thinking, we acknowledge that a dystopia could be in the near future but that we have to do whatever we can to combat it. I like that this is not a matter of motivation – we do not have to be motivated to create a perfect, we have no choice but to be hopeful and do just that. With that, there is not any reason to give up; it is our responsibility if we want to continue to live in a functioning society. However, the hopeful and optimistic nature still remains. This is because we still believe that our world can be salvaged. We still have the optimism that Dystopian thinkers lack and the knowledge that Utopian thinkers refuse to see.
