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Dystopia Here Now


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2021 Jan 18, 9:28pm   466 views  1 comment

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Ripped and edited from Wiki.

A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopia or simply anti-utopia) is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty.

Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many fictional works and artistic representations, particularly in stories set in the future. Some of the most famous examples are Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science or technology. Some authors use the term to refer to existing societies, many of which are, or have been, totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse.


Looks like we are here.

Spent the day X-country skiing at Royal Gorge. Brought the dog and had a great time. Stopped by my sister's near Davis, who I haven't seen for over a year because of the Wuhan, and had dinner. Minimal masking (just in the lodge to get trail pass) and a break from politics all day. It felt like the old normal.

And now back to the madhouse of working online. Weekends Mornings Nights, Hours of zoom conferences every day, almost complete loss of work/ personal boundaries.

Can anyone believe it has been almost a year since the "2 week flatten the curve" shutdown? And here we are with no real end date and growing tyranny. Where masks were once rare, they are now required. So many people want out of this new normal that they are willing to take an experimental biologic agent in their arm.

I got to get back to work, deadlines.

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1   Patrick   2023 Aug 14, 11:52am  

https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/thinking-points-august-14-2023


Orwell v. Huxley

Brilliant excerpt from Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much [information] that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.

Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”

In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

I love Orwell, but on every account Huxley was more prescient.

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