On the latest episode of the C-Realm podcast, host KMO had a compelling conversation with Chad Hill (creator of the Hipcrime Vocab blog) touching on dystopia, media, technology, politics, economics, and collapse. As bookends to the show KMO also read a couple of excerpts from essays relevant to the conversation. In the introduction he cites the following passage from a recent op-ed by Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid’s Tale):
There seems to be a tidal wave of bleak futures hitting us right now. “Dystopia” has become a common noun: “Where can I get a decent dystopia?” hopeful readers inquire, as if searching for a pair of socks. By “dystopia” they don’t mean a dictatorial future society but any kind of future that is unpleasant, whether it contains an organised society or not. There’s a wide range of dystopias, so defined, on offer of late – everything from the walking dead to the cindery Road – but then, there has been for a while. Remember the Pod People? Remember 1984? Remember On the Beach and Riddley Walker? Remember, for that matter, The Purple Cloud, not to mention The Iron Heel?
But it’s the recent crop that engages our attention. Why, I am often asked, are young people so keen on writing and reading fictions about gloomy futures? I suppose the short answer would be “Ask them”, as I am not currently among their number. But I’ve heard various theories. Economic conditions aren’t so good for the young, job prospects being what they are, and economic inequality being on the increase. In the 1950s, children could expect to do better than their parents, and were fairly certain of having a job. But the old idea that those who worked hard would inevitably be rewarded has gone out the window, so the allure of zombiehood – no past, no future, no brain, no pain, no mortgage – has therefore increased.
And therefore also, fictions that offer more action than the receiving of job-application rejections appeal. Frequently, the protagonists must battle for survival – whether against a horde of ambling corpses and/or the fallout from societal breakdown, which usually includes a few marauding gangs of cannibalistic warlord baddies (as it would). There’s a noteworthy absence of functioning grocery shops in these futures, coupled with the wish that one had, earlier, learned a few useful skills such as how to kill, skin and cook a squirrel, rather than just lolling around reading dystopias. Perhaps such fictions act as a form of self-testing: in a crisis like this, how would I do? (Realistically: not very well.)
Dim economic prospects aside, the young are also faced with a long-term outlook for the planet that’s not being painted in rosy terms. Not being able to get a job is one thing but not being able to breathe is another; and that would indeed be the result were high global temperatures and pollution to kill the oceans, which make 60-80 per cent of the oxygen in the air. The lack of will on the part of political leaders has not escaped notice, nor has the resolute head-in-the-sandism so heavily promoted by large economic interests. Why is it that those at the top of the heap persist in believing that there will be a special lifeboat reserved just for them? If the planet dies, all die: such are the laws of chemistry and physics. No wonder the young opt for fictions about dilapidated futures: at least there are still people in them, however badly dressed.
Read the complete essay here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cc4a4c26-aaff-11e3-be01-00144feab7de.html#axzz2xC08Dr7U
In closing, KMO read this conclusion of a post on his guest’s blog describing the dystopian nature of contemporary society.
I would argue that if you were to devise a system intentionally designed to drive a primate to psychosis, you would come up with essentially the system we have today. You would downgrade and de-emphasize human social relationships. You would pit people against each other. You would institutionalize children from birth. You would make people live with pervasive fear and uncertainty. You would force them to work at cruel, demeaning jobs with little time off to relax. You would show them unrealistic and unattainable images of physical perfection to make them ashamed of their own bodies. You would constantly show goals that are unattainable for the vast majority of people. You would encourage dissatisfaction with one’s life.
No doubt the technophilia crowd believes that more technology will somehow solve all these problems. When we upload our brains into computers all our depression will disappear. That, or we can all medicate it out of us even more than we do already. Forgive me if my eyes are rolling at this.
I am at a high risk myself. I don’t know what will happen. All I know is that we’re going to lose a lot of good people, and if anything good comes out of something so awful, maybe we’ll start to question the kind of society we’ve made for ourselves.
Read the full blog post here: http://hipcrime.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-are-so-many-choosing-death.html
Both essays are worth reading in their entirety and the podcast is consistently interesting as well.
C-Realm episode 407: Distinguishing Collapse from Catastrophe
After the Crash 