Do we live a dystopia?

I believe that the present world has many ingredients of classical dystopias. But because they are mixed together and do not respond to any of the stereotypes, we get confused and think we are safe...

Let's sort them out a bit.

Classic dystopias

The word distopy is constructed in opposition to the word Utopy, the title of a work by Thomas More, where it represented a no-place in which positive values were maximized. Thus, distopy refers to a society that realizes an undesirable order, and that maximizes some negative aspect of life, for some or all of its citizens.

The classical dystopias are the three great works of science fiction

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Brave new world by Aldous Huxley

To which I would add one more

• The space merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth

Surrounded as we are by propaganda, complacency and denial, we can believe that today's world is more like a utopia than a dystopia. And yet, perhaps we should analyze it a little more:

How much does today's world look like these stories?

Reality and fiction

• In 1984 dystopia is authoritarian.

  
  Big Brother (Fair use)

  Citizens lose control over all aspects of their lives, and live at the service of the state machinery in the hands of an authoritarian elite. The regime's propaganda is overwhelming, omnipresent, crushing.

  The present world shares many aspects of 1984. While repression abounds in certain social strata, and vigilance and intimidation are increasingly worrisome, the key point is posttruth: "Oceania was never at war with Eurasia" could be a headline on any newpaper any Sunday morning.

• Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which the paper ignites, and burns.

  
  Montag and his boss (Fair use)

  This is a distraction dystopia. Citizens have a limited understanding of reality because they are deprived of information, distracted by television, and denied the necessary cognitive resources.

  Books are forbidden because they stimulate critical thinking. Fire trucks load kerosene and burn them wherever they are found. The rulers initiate wars and persecute opponents, while the citizens do not find out, and entertain themselves watching trash TV programs 24 hours a day.

  The life we live today has a lot of Fahrenheit 451. Dumb TV shows fills the lives of citizens. Worship and the promotion of ignorance are the norm. Books don't burn, but the school does a good job of generating phobia towards them.

• Brave new world is the designed dystopia.
  
  Brave new world (Fair use)

  Citizens are artificially bred, trained from embryos to accept their social role and be happy on it. Those who will be manual workers are idiotized, those who will do more complex tasks are conditioned. The repetition of slogans throughout life completely washes the brains, of those who were allowed to be born with one.

  Everybody claims to be happy, but only because they were formatted from conception to believe so. There is no freedom, but this causes no problem because no one wants it!

  Today's world has two aspects in which it undeniably refers to Brave new world: the conditions of gestation of the lower classes cause the intelligence of future workers to be diminished. The repetition of slogans 24 hours a day by all means creates truths, and redefines happiness.

• The space merchants is the neoliberal dystopia.

  
  The space merchants (Fair use)

  The world is sinking into an extreme and irrational capitalism. Social classes are divided into producers, executives and consumers. A minority of producers and executives live in abundance, while consumers live in total and absolute poverty.

The ecology is crumbling. While the rich pedalise in their Mercedes-Benz, the poor rent a shared bed by the hour, or even a step on the stairs of a skyscraper, in order to rest. Big business control the world, leaving a nation's president unattended, sitting in a waiting room.

Today's world is almost literally The space merchants. One would say that arriving at the most sinister aspects of that dystopia is, on the current path, merely a matter of time...

So...

Read the dystopias, and do it with a critical sense. If you think we're lucky not to live in a world like that, or not having gotten there yet... go a bit slower and analyze them a little more. They may be more similar to today's reality than what we would like to accept...