A Dystopia is essentially hell on earth as people are constantly suffering with no way out of their miseries or afflictions.
Growing up I was taught that if you were a good christian and lived a good life, when you die you would end up in heaven. If you were not a good person you would end up in hell. Hell was described as an almost uninhabitable place where sinners would be eternally punished and tormented. In my opinion this sounds exactly like a dystopia. Yes, I know that in a dystopia majority of those who suffer would presumably be your everyday upstanding citizens and not criminals. However, it is the dark, gloomy and inescapable chaos that I think both hell and a dystopia have in common.
In hell, there is allegedly an eternal fire that will burn sinners and torment them forever. In a dystopia the eternal fire would be the destruction of civilization which will result in lawlessness, constant fear, hunger, sickness, and the degradation of man-made environments. Like hell there is no way out of a dystopia. Dystopias in movies and books are often caused by diseases or wars that societies are unable to recover from. In such a world people are left to spend everyday thinking it might be their last. They will surely reminisce about the old world they took for granted. One would even dare to say they look back on their past life often contemplating what they could of done better. This can also be said for sinners in hell. If sinners had a chance I bet they would look back on how they could of been better christians in order to go to heaven. One could even say that if the people in a dystopia had been better citizens by holding those in charge accountable no matter how frightening or hopeless it may have seemed, maybe they would have averted the Dystopia that is a result of their inaction. In the end, one thing is clear and for certain, both sinners and the inhabitants of a Dystopia would be constantly suffering in a menacing and unforgiving world.
NB: I would like to clarify that I am not a religious fanatic. I merely used my religious background in an attempt to creatively define a Dystopia.
