A dystopian society is a well- established society in which there is suffering and can be described using at least one of Young’s Five Faces of Oppression. Young’s Five Faces of Oppression are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. According to Robinson, “dystopias are the flip side of utopias.” I agree with this statement because a dystopia is the “opposite or bad version” of a utopia. The translation of dystopia in Greek means “bad place”. Some would argue that the United States is slowly becoming a dystopian civilization, especially because of the onset of the Corona Virus. I could not agree more, because in the last two years of the pandemic, the rich have been becoming richer, and the poor are becoming poorer. This is an example of exploitation. Items that used to be accessible are no longer easily accessible. Food and gas prices have gone up tremendously and it is hard for a lot of people to afford living at this point. Having good health insurance is not a privilege for all, and this has become more apparent during the pandemic. This is an example of marginalization. Technology is another cause of dystopian societies. Technology has advanced tremendously over time. People in power are taking advantage of these technological advancements by listening to private conversations, recommending ads to people based on their recent history searches, and stealing private information. A sect of technology is social media. Social media is dangerous because it influences people’s thoughts and actions.
Global warming is going to push many third world nations closer to a dystopian society, and I fear that it is coming closer to Western Civilizations as well. I was driving on the expressway the other day and the lady in front of me threw a large pizza box out of her window. All these actions done by careless and selfish people are going to speed up the process of the US maybe becoming a dystopian civilization. Some preventative measures we can take as citizens are recycling plastic, eating less meat and more vegetables, and turning of lights when they are not in use.
