Utopia vs Dystopia
We’ve all seen movies that portray the future in the form of 2 extremes. Contrasting we see the future of the earth in amazing glory where nature and commerce exist in harmony with the dark over populated scenes of capitalism’s climax and the decent into lawlessness and or totalitarian military rule.
But which is most likely and why?
First of all we need to define what each of them are.
What is Utopia?
Utopia is defined as; An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
As perfect is a completely unattainable state lets look at a slightly more realistic definition.
Utopia is the search for highest possible living standard for as many people as possible achieved through peaceful conflict resolution, fair governance and appropriate resource allocation.
Okay, so what is Dystopia?
Dystopia: An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
Noted author on the topic of Dystopian societies George Orwell is most known for his book 1984 in which an oppressed and controlled society has every move, every word and every thought enforced and even corrected by the thought police and media is modified to only use what is known as NewSpeak which is a limited lexicon of the English language designed to portray the ruling party and it’s actions in the best possible light.
Lets take a closer look at the factors that lead to these assumed outcomes.
Ethics and Technology
The changing face of technology is allowing human beings to do things we never before thought was possible outside of Hollywood. Today we can print human organs from the DNA of the host, we can take stem cells from out bone marrow and return our bodies and brains to their former glory after damage or decay new frontiers are opening daily and we are redefining possibilities all the time.
But technology in and of itself is not good or bad. Technology at this stage is not capable of deciding its own ethics. This is why technology and the next factor go hand in hand.
Policy Making
Policy making dictates the ethics and directions of technology and technology often dictates or limits the capabilities of the policy makers. Given the right technology, the wrong policy makers could create a very dystopian world very quickly.
The science museum in London had an interactive exhibit asking people to consider their own personal level of of information protection. Examples include “Should governments collaborate with medical companies or hospitals to help catch criminals?” and “Should DNA from people who have never committed a crime be on file with the national policy makers for preemptive crimes?”
The real question is not should governments be allowed to do things but do you trust your government enough to:
- Competently store, handle and dispose of your sensitive data
- Not use your data in a way that violates your rights
- Give or sell your data to anyone that would
Social Conditioning
Social conditioning is the collective justifications and opinions of the masses and how they change.
Public opinion is constantly changing, and what is acceptable and more importantly what is not acceptable is constantly evolving.
Society seems to be very easily shocked. But that shock tends not to last very long.
Some of you may remember Mr Snowden, he recently told the world that his former employers (the US government) have been using technology to spy on not only the American public but private citizens in foreign countries too.
There was a huge public uproar and many people even protested during the summer of 2013. Today little is said about the topic and the public have become accustomed to these revelations and almost take it as a given.
Tomorrowland is a great movie that highlights the effects of public opinion. In 1969 JFK managed to convince the entire US population it was a great idea to divert valuable resources to sending 3 men to the moon. Yet today we find it hard to spare any money for non-essential projects.
In the movie Tomorrowland George Clooney builds a device that shows the destruction of the world. So people just think “Hey the world is going to end anyway, we may as well enjoy being the last generation”.
The media, marketing, celebrities, scientists and many other factors have a massive effect every day on the public opinion.
Terrorism
Terrorism has many complex facets. On one hand you have disenfranchised groups of people angry and determined to do whatever it takes to get their voice heard and achieve their goals, on the other had you have a frightened establishment desperately trying to protect the innocent and more importantly their investments.
When the people are so scared of the alternative, they will gladly accept tyranny
With that said there are many people who benefit from the decline in order in society, usually people who profit from repairing it.
The security industry in has seen an increase of 16000% since 1990 making it a $350 billion market in the US alone.
Economics
The current dominant resource distribution system on planet earth is capitalism. Which is a nutshell is a system designed to be complicated and requires constant growth and ever increasing productivity.
Most people are of the opinion that the planet has a finite capacity of what it can produce. On a finite planet constant growth and endless productivity increases will require more and more elaborate ways of progression or figures will have to be manipulated to give the illusion of growth.
Almost all Utopian science fictional movies and TV shows set in the distant future show either no rationing system or an alternative to capitalism based on utilitarianism or need based allocation.
Either way having the ability to pay for the future is a key factor in the direction we take.
Real life initiatives
The Agenda 21 initiative is project devised by the United Nations in an attempt to avoid what they claim is an inevitable Dystopian future. It is often said that the fear of a negative coming is more motivating that the joy of something positive promised.
Many people have criticized agenda 21 for enforcing Utopian ideals through totalitarian activities as its methods of attaining said ideals are less than desirable. Plus there is a growing movement of people who think that having a “perfect world” or even “high living standard for all” is somehow unrealistic and even scary.
One doesn’t have to look far to see signs of real life Dystopia in the making.
War, genocide, poverty, simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation and worldwide economic stress are all indications that we need to change the way we live on this planet.
The above picture is not taken from a movie set in the future but from an actual real life place in the middle east. I think there are few people on this planet actively campaigning for a decent into dystopian society, but there are people who benefit from it and there are people who are so anti Utopia that they would rather blindly walk into Dystopia than the alternatives.
Conclusion
Conclusion: In my humble opinion many things have to change before we can make the move to a positive unified world. Public opinion has a distorted and even warped opinion of what a healthy world looks like.
Any mention of a brighter world is met with condemnation and accusations that you may be a Utopianist or worse “part of the new world order”.
The current dominant economic model does not allow for an abundant, healthy or even fair future. We will undoubtedly need to upgrade our social, political, economic and ethical view of the world if we are to see any positive change for this planet. I have faith.
