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: Dictatorship
“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 😉
Dystopia 