So Much Dystopia!

in #hive-1063165 days ago

Although I'm not a big television fan, lately we've been watching a number of streaming TV series, culminating with the Apple TV series "Silo" a few days ago.

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I find myself noticing that an awful lot of programming these days seems to have a dystopian slant to it. That is to say, it seems more dystopian than it did when I was a kid. Of course, many of these are independent productions rather than network, which might offer up a wider range of allowable content.

Anyway, if it's not some post apocalyptic reality, we've got the fictional zombie apocalypse, we've got aliens taking over and destroying the world, or we've got the world ending from natural disasters and sometimes I just all find it a bit overwhelming and weary making.

I'm by no means some Susie Sunshine or Pollyanna for whom everything is roses and rainbows type of person, but the constant inference that everything is doom and gloom and we're all gonna die soon does get a little bit tiring after a while. Or maybe depressing is a better word than tiring.

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Of course we don't really have to look much further than just the daily news to ascertain the very reality of this thing that is being portrayed by fictional sci-fi TV.

The world seems beset with conflicts, and wars, and social problems that feel like they have a more negative slant to them than I can remember seeing in a very long time. Or maybe I have just reached the point in my life where memories are filtered through the rose colored glasses of passing time.

I don't know if there is anything in particular we need to blame for this. Well, I suppose we can blame the Internet and the fact that the slightest negative news item that pops up is public property within 30 seconds of it happening, but I'm not sure that's actually an answer to anything.

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Have we simply — as a culture, as a society, as a species — reached the point where we are moving closer to our own extinction, likely by our own hand?,

Or have we always been so obsessed with the end of everything?

When I was a kid, I do remember asking my parents where all the good news was, and the adults around me would mainly shrug or roll their eyes... so maybe nothing has changed!

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Created at 2024.10.31 01:47 PDT

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Dystopian fiction has always been an undercurrent in literature, but a while back, it really exploded in popularity as a subject for Young Adult fiction, and seems to have become more prevalent in the mainstream.

The first Fallout game was released in 1997, but just got a new show recently, making it the rare case of a video game adapted to film that did well. It also released in competition with a lot of other shows though.

I think like horror movies, this trend can be interpreted as a way society views itself and our modern challenges and our recent experiences in COVID, especially since the projects would have started then. Or we can be conspiratorial and say the bigwigs running everything want us in a state of latent fear. This is the internet after all. CONSPIRACY!

Of course, many of these are independent productions rather than network, which might offer up a wider range of allowable content.

LoL, yeah, and now just let's wait until after November the 5th to see with what class of new frightening dystopia they will try to scare us.

Tan real lo que dices, en las noticias en Internet, te encuentras con un conocido en la calle y todo es lo malo que está el mundo,hace un tiempo me he creado otro mundo dentro de este, de ver las cosas hermosas de observar más por donde caminó y atrayendo hacia mi resultado de una mejor vida. Creo que está en cada cual hacer su vida mejor o miserable. Gracias por tu compartir. Saludos desde Cuba.

Overall, fictional literature is a reflection of real world culture. In the U.S., our two major political parties tell a similar narrative. Vote for us or that's the end of Democracy.

There's a general feeling of the world coming to an end soon. Climate scientists warn we are doing ourselves in. Christian fundamentalists proclaim the end is near and the Anti-christ is coming soon. This general expectation of the end is leading to an increase in fictional narratives that mirror real world fears.

That's my general assessment in so many words. Further, because government gains special powers during emergencies, more and more of government is under emergency decrees, and to enable that trick they've got to sell us on the idea that there's some emergency they need special powers to handle.

I think humankind has always been preoccupied by death, and potentially what follows after that. And we have been in our history more involved with wars than we are today, particularly when territorial disputes were ordinary. Just think about how many wars were fought only in Europe... I'm thinking a good part of those are gone now through various treaties. But on the news and movies side, I couldn't agree more, they are painting a dystopian future and an awful present, even when great things remain unnoticed, sometimes probably intentionally.