Dystopia is an idea of a society under complete control and power of those inferior to maintain order and peace.
When hearing the word “dystopia,” the first thing that comes to mind is the notorious films such as Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner. These movies capture the terrible living conditions where hopeless individuals are forced to partake in outrageous tasks in order to survive. Towards the end of most of these films, the main characters discover the truth about how corrupt the world has become and that the governments promote the cruelty that they endure. Thus, a dystopian society is a competition and game of survival, however, those inferior are kept ignorant in order to maintain peace. Superiors, like the government, will encourage behaviors like brainwashing, propaganda, and spreading half-truth statements. Eventually, this will lead to a miserable society where individuals lack knowledge of the truth and any sense of personal identity.
An example of keeping individuals ignorant in order to maintain peace and avoid chaos would be the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, some countries were disproving the severity of the virus as well as withholding the amount of deaths and confirmed cases. Since governments did not want to create panic or be shamed upon for contracting the virus, this led to more widespread outbreaks because individuals were not well-informed to take the necessary precautions. After almost two years of the on-going pandemic and countless debates over vaccinations, as a society we will normalize wearing masks and the never-ending cases of different COVID-19 variants. In a sense, we are living in a dystopian society where individuals are miserable of the constant setbacks from life, work, and school due to the pandemic as well as everyday situations. Like the saying goes, it’s every man for himself.
