Dystopia is a state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or posts any form of distraught. From my experiences with life and films like District 9, Platform, and The Hunger Games, I wouldn’t define dystopia as anything “imagined.” I also wouldn’t define dystopia as completely horrible or even perfect either. I believe a dystopian society is simply flawed. Think of our world today. We’ve just entered our almost third year of a pandemic and although things may have gotten better over time with vaccines and proper CDC guidelines, people are still contracting the virus, causing financial burdens from being out of work, academic progress being slowed to prevent spreads and nationwide problems like border closures.
Like I said above, I don’t define a dystopian society as anything imagined but rather what we individually imagine or perceive of it. With everything going on in the world today I believe we as a society have decided to either make the best or the worst of it. Because in all reality these are events we just ultimately have to live with.
Let’s analyze the antonym of dystopia, utopia. Utopia is the exact opposite of what dystopia is believed to be. A perfect world. In contrast to dystopia, I do believe utopia to be imagined. We live in a world with a population of over 7.7 billion people with different perceptions of a perfect world. It would be impossible to meet everyone’s expectations so a perfect world can never be achieved but only imagined, at least on Earth. In conclusion, both of these terms can be used to describe a current state or world but nothing is ever fully dystopian or utopian. Each encounters flaws that prevent them from portraying their definitions.
In your opinion, what is your idea of a dystopian society? What is your idea of an utopian And lastly, do you believe we are currently in a dystopian society?
Junior Psychology major from Port Arthur, TX.
