My definition of a dystopia is an oppressive setting that relies on harsh rules made by a government wherein a society lies, one with little resistance from the majority of the population, in which lessons are placed for the current society to learn from. The definition is similar to the one I created in the beginning of the semester, but with some changes. The article from Kim Robsinson explained that the point of a dystopia is to hope to kill the societies they depict, and I wholeheartedly agreed with that. I think that dystopias are meant to warn people to make a change, or to make an attempt for change at the very least. They give any individual an understanding of just how bad things could get, but after watching, people realize that as exaggerated as it may be, our current society isn’t that far off. Dystopias put things into perspective, so that people can leave the fuzzy haze that they’ve been living through, to truly understand the problems our society faces.
An article from Shauna James and Amy Atchinson titled Are we living in a dystopia stated that a dystopia is a frequent warning that a major crisis can unravel everything in democracy that we feel prevents us from ever truly living a dystopian society. It’s true, any time there is a crisis, liberties and freedoms are at risk, regardless of the fairness. Sometimes, if the crisis is strong enough, these drawbacks can become permanent, which is why you must remain vigilant and aware of the possibilities before they occur. If you can get ahead of the problem, you stop it from coming to fruition. I think a dystopian society is what the world fears, but I don’t know if that fear will be enough to keep these things from evolving more than they already have. Intense governmental control, extreme regulation of personal freedoms, privacy, individualism, it’s slowly slipping further down the drain, and eventually it’ll be too far to reach.
