What is a Dystopia?

The word “Dystopia” is used to describe a world in which people live dangerous, suppressed, inhumane lives. Often these worlds exist in a post-world war or post-apocalyptic setting in some way. It is important to also note that in these worlds, society is often separated by extreme gaps in wealth and quality of life. Examples such as 1984 and Judge Dredd paint a good picture of life in a dystopia, but the most recent examples that I have seen are the worlds of Cyberpunk 2077 or Altered Carbon. While these examples fall both in the cyberpunk and dystopia genres, they clearly display aspects of a dystopian worlds. The extremely rich live in towers, while the rest of the people suffer in cramped mega cities. Corruption and crime run so rampant that many powerful groups and people fall out of the jurisdiction of the law and the government . I think that the movie, Judge Dredd, displays this concept very well with the gang from the movie has total control over the area they inhabit.