While Merriam-Webster defines dystopia as, “an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives.” The definition of dystopia to me, is a place where unpleasant things happen, resulting in a bad environment that involves oppressive societal control which limits people’s autonomy to focus on an illusion of a “perfect” society.
What makes me believe that the world has aspects of a dystopian society is that most dystopias focus on the social, economical and political conditions to make sure their society is ideally perfect. Today, this is present due to the fact that in most places, cities, states, etc., there is an image or set ways of how rules are placed in order to keep peace. In one of my favorite dystopian fiction works, The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas, by Urusla Le Guin, it explains how a community that is perfect and constantly happy and joyful is set that way due to the suffering of one child. While in a literal sense, the world is not the same. But, the overall concept of ignoring those who suffer to shine light on those who are happy, so the society is viewed as desirable is the same. Another example would be in the fictional series, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, in which those who are of lower social and economic stature are depicted with misery. While the higher economical candidates are always happy and see no evil in their world. But, in fact, their world has the most evil known to man.
In theory, a dystopia is a place where people of that society are oppressed in order for those in control to keep control and create a “perfect” society.
