Today I want to share an extremely interesting video clip with you that dissects the vast topic of dystopia into its most important aspects… It contains almost everything that dystopia is about.
So lean back and enjoy ’cause the future is coming…! 🙂
Tag Archive: Artificiality
“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
This saying is not only a guiding principle in George Orwell‘s Nineteen Eighty-Four but also a ground work upon which a dystopian society’s political structure is built.
In dystopian novels, movies and the like the state is most often conducted by a totalitarian regime whose ultimate aim is to exercise permanent control over its citizens. Since it is easiest to control people by gathering every kind of information on them (with that I mean everything, even the most infinitesimal piece you would not even think of being notable), privacy is easily eradicated through stubborn penetration. And this, in turn, is established through political means such as censorship, manipulation, propaganda, surveillance and/or oppression.
Censorship and manipulation are strongly linked to each other as people are rapidly fooled by keeping information restricted. It is therefore a convenient way for the government to align its townsfolk, to make them believe only what the state considers appropriate. Contents that may cause potential threats to social stability are immediately erased while a state’s doctrine is implanted in a person’s head. That is when propaganda gets into the game. What is desired is highly promoted (via media) allowing no space for doubts. Only then can a dystopian system work. And once the order is formed, continuous surveillance (e.g. telephone bugging) and oppression guarantee its persistence.
So, which lesson can we learn from all that?
Totalitarian regimes are by all means violent dangers to a person’s liberty as freedom of thought and expression are strictly forbidden. Hopefully, we’ll never experience actions that go in such a political direction.
Though I don’t think that the ever current discussions in Germany whether the collection of personal data is essential for security matters or just another misuse of data are hazardous when it comes to individual freedom, I still believe that it can happen. I mean, just take a quick look at the media… It jerks us around all the time 😉
What do you think? Fair deal? Certainly not! However, it is indeed what the 1997 movie Gattaca by Andrew Niccol portrays.
It tells the story of Vincent Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke), a young man who is, without any technological interference, born into a society where human perfection and thus genetic manipulation are conceived as top priorities on the agenda.
As chance would have it, his life expectancy doesn’t amount to more than 30 years caused by a high risk of heart disorder. Being constantly exposed to discrimination and prejudices of all kind, Vincent decides to turn his current status of invalidity into one where he is perceived as valid, which means nothing else than having appropriate genetic advantage. Only then is he given the possibility to pursue his epitome of happiness: becoming an astronaut at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
Therefore, he sees himself forced to circumvent law by adopting the perfectly valid identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow (played by Jude Law), a former swimming star. In order to be admitted to Gattaca, Vincent must pass meticulously run genetic tests for which he uses Jerome’s DNA in blood, hair, tissue and urine samples.
Once granted access to the aerospace corporate, his career begins to boost up into the atmosphere. But it does not take long until some severe problems are approaching and Vincent’s life-long dream is at stake.
Since I don’t want to blow the end of this really great film, and as pictures are worth a thousand words, I leave you for two and a half minutes with this:
By the way, its opening titles are…
“Consider God’s handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked?”
Ecclesiastes 7:13
“I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to.”
Willard Gaylin
Now imagine you were living in such a society, embedded by values that are overall driven by genetic engineering and biological perfectionism.
Would you then be willing to give up your own unique identity to find felicity?
…on your religion claims a New York Times article from November 2007.
Nowadays, the vexed issue of human cloning does not only seem to separate scientists from churchmen but also to split the entire world into Asia, a strong proponent of stem-cell research and genetic engineering, and Western societies, who pretty much consider duplicating the human embryo crossing the line and therefore ban the asexual reproduction of human organisms.
Anyways, isn’t the very thought of having an identical twin scary? I mean, there are tons of people who barely manage to distinguish twins even if they know them for their whole life. And these twins still have quite different personalities. They probably do! But your reproduced twin wouldn’t just look like you from head to toe. He or she would think what you think and feel what you feel…
I would never favour a duplicate version of me even though it might be helpful, e.g. when it comes to curing diseases. I want to be unique! Normal but still different from other people.
Thus I believe that equating human cloning with recycling life through reincarnation isn’t justifiable. Cloning always remains a violent interference in nature and in the circle of life. And this point of view doesn’t depend on religion! I am not at all attached to the Bible nor do I go to church regularly. I’m not even baptised 😉
Dystopia 