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Dystopian Future

GeoGeo
edited April 2008 in Everything Else
Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of 1984,The Giver, or Akira? How do you feel about this what-if situation?

Personally I've been thinking that the way our country is being run now, there is almost certainly bound to be a cataclysmic event that will forever change our world. I don't know why I feel this might happen, I just do. I think that this war which has absolutely meaning or justice to it will escalate into something a lot worse than what is going on now.

Comments

  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984?
    Yes.
  • GeoGeo
    edited April 2008
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984?
    Yes.
    What is your reason for thinking so?
    Post edited by Geo on
  • AndrewAndrew
    Personally I've been thinking that the way our country is being run now, there is almost certainly bound to be a cataclysmic event that will forever change our world.
    Haven't people been saying this since the beginning of time?
  • JasonJason
    edited April 2008
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984,The Giver, orAkira? How do you feel about this what-if situation?
    Of course not. We've ended slavery, segregation, and sexual discrimination. Technology has increased our leisure time. Medicine has expanded our life expectancies. The middle class has grown, and despite the popular truism that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor, the poverty line has risen significantly. We're eliminating disease and finding stopgaps for ones we can't cure. Wars are taking fewer casualties than ever. Globalization is developing the underdeveloped nations. The global literacy rate continues to increase. We're preparing for manifest destiny to the moon and Mars.

    It's probably the best time in all of human history to be alive.
    Post edited by Jason on
  • SailSail
    The Giver is a really good book. I had nearly forgotten about it. Although, stay away from anything else by Lowry, she really only had one good book in her. The rest of it is pretty mediocre.
  • NeitoNeito
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984?
    Yes.
    What is your reason for thinking so?
    He's HungryJoe. He's been thinking that since we elected the first pope.
  • ΣπεκωσποκΣπεκωσποκ
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984,The Giver, orAkira? How do you feel about this what-if situation?
    Of course not. We've ended slavery, segregation, and sexual discrimination. Technology has increased our leisure time. Medicine has expanded our life expectancies. The middle class has grown, and despite the popular truism that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor, the poverty line has risen significantly. We're eliminating disease and finding stopgaps for ones we can't cure. Wars are taking fewer casualties than ever. Globalization is developing the underdeveloped nations. The global literacy rate continues to increase. We're preparing for manifest destiny to the moon and Mars.

    It's probably the best time in all of human history to be alive.
    It is one of the best times to be alive, however along with the benefits come the increase in the number of apocalypse-inducing weapons. The more longevity and happiness increase, the easier it is for technology to enable a button press to raze human civilization.
  • GeoGeo
    It is one of the best times to be alive, however along with the benefits come the increase in the number of apocalypse-inducing weapons. The more longevity and happiness increase, the easier it is for technology to enable a button press to raze human civilization.
    True that.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984,The Giver, orAkira? How do you feel about this what-if situation?
    Of course not. We've ended slavery, segregation, and sexual discrimination. Technology has increased our leisure time. Medicine has expanded our life expectancies. The middle class has grown, and despite the popular truism that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor, the poverty line has risen significantly. We're eliminating disease and finding stopgaps for ones we can't cure. Wars are taking fewer casualties than ever. Globalization is developing the underdeveloped nations. The global literacy rate continues to increase. We're preparing for manifest destiny to the moon and Mars.

    It's probably the best time in all of human history to be alive.
    Compared to Jason, Pollyanna sounds like a jaded, cynical, world-weary bitch.
  • StarfoxStarfox
    Compared to Joe, Murphy sounds like FDR.
  • gomidoggomidog
    We've ended slavery, segregation, and sexual discrimination
    We have? Who is we? America? Not the world, that's for sure.
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    We've ended slavery, segregation, and sexual discrimination
    We have? Who is we? America? Not the world, that's for sure.
    And the latter two have only really been ended officially.
  • jccjcc
    edited April 2008
    Do you think that our world will somehow end up in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic future similar to that of1984,The Giver, orAkira? How do you feel about this what-if situation?
    No. Even if the US and Europe got involved in some sort of crippling war, and both were razed to the ground, nobody would bother Morocco or Tasmania. :)

    It wouldn't be the end of civilization, it'd simply be the end of political dominance by the countries involved.
    Post edited by jcc on
  • RymRym
    And the latter two have only really been ended officially.
    We've at least ended the legal and institutionalized discrimination. The closely held beliefs of individual people are much more difficult to eradicate.

    Still, I think we're doing a bang-up job altogether. The world's gotten better pretty-much every day since the fall of Rome (excepting those few dips in the 1930s-40s, but we eventually got around to fixing that).
  • spiritfiendspiritfiend
    edited April 2008
    Personally I've been thinking that the way our country is being run now, there is almost certainly bound to be a cataclysmic event that will forever change our world.
    Forever is a long time. Even if something cataclysmic occurs, chances are that society will eventually recover. Things happen that change our world forever happen every day.
    Post edited by spiritfiend on
  • Johannes Uglyfred IIJohannes Uglyfred II
    edited April 2008
    And the latter two have only really been ended officially.
    We've at least ended the legal and institutionalized discrimination. The closely held beliefs of individual people are much more difficult to eradicate.

    Still, I think we're doing a bang-up job altogether. The world's gotten better pretty-much every day since the fall of Rome (excepting those few dips in the 1930s-40s, but we eventually got around to fixing that).
    Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

    Human beings are screwed. I'll rant why when I get out of class.
    Post edited by Johannes Uglyfred II on
  • FunfetusFunfetus
    And the latter two have only really been ended officially.
    We've at least ended the legal and institutionalized discrimination. The closely held beliefs of individual people are much more difficult to eradicate.

    Still, I think we're doing a bang-up job altogether. The world's gotten better p

    That's definitely true -- I do believe that for all its problems, the world in general is a lot better off than it's ever been.

    However, I think that while racism and sexism and most of the other isms are outlawed in an official capacity, it's more than just the attitudes of individual people. It is institutionalized to some degree. It's a cycle. And that IS a much more difficult problem to solve than just making laws that say "don't do that".
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited April 2008
    We've at least ended the legal and institutionalized discrimination. The closely held beliefs of individual people are much more difficult to eradicate.

    Still, I think we're doing a bang-up job altogether. The world's gotten better pretty-much every day since the fall of Rome (excepting those few dips in the 1930s-40s, but we eventually got around to fixing that).
    I'll bet that for every one good thing you say happened in a particular year, I can name ten bad things that happened that same year.
    Personally I've been thinking that the way our country is being run now, there is almost certainly bound to be a cataclysmic event that will forever change our world.
    Haven't people been saying this since the beginning of time?
    Yes.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • BronzdragonBronzdragon
    Yes, I do think that given enough time, we will come to a Dystopian future. But I don't think that it will be anytime soon.
  • AprecheApreche
    Humans always have been, and always will be, living in the dystopian future.
  • GeoGeo
    s will be, living in the dystopian future.
    How do you figure?
  • GunfireGunfire
    edited April 2008
    I'm more thinking of a future like Feed by M.T. Anderson.

    EDIT:
    This brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by constant customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.

    Anderson gives us this world through the voice of a boy who, like everyone around him, is almost completely inarticulate, whose vocabulary, in a dead-on parody of the worst teenspeak, depends heavily on three words: "like," "thing," and the second most common English obscenity. He's even made this vapid kid a bit sympathetic, as a product of his society who dimly knows something is missing in his head. The details are bitterly funny--the idiotic but wildly popular sitcom called "Oh? Wow! Thing!", the girls who have to retire to the ladies room a couple of times an evening because hairstyles have changed, the hideous lesions on everyone that are not only accepted, but turned into a fashion statement. And the ultimate awfulness is that when we finally meet the boy's parents, they are just as inarticulate and empty-headed as he is, and their solution to their son's problem is to buy him an expensive car.
    Post edited by Gunfire on
  • JasonJason
    If you had to choose a time and place in Earth's history where human rights were more sacred, where security was more evenly balanced with freedom, where property rights were more protected, where food was more readily available to a greater number of people, where life expectancy was longer, where people had greater access to effective medical treatment, and where transportation and communication was more open, WHERE AND WHEN WOULD THAT TIME AND PLACE BE?
  • ΣπεκωσποκΣπεκωσποκ
    If you had to choose a time and place in Earth's history where human rights were more sacred, where security was more evenly balanced with freedom, where property rights were more protected, where food was more readily available to a greater number of people, where life expectancy was longer, where people had greater access to effective medical treatment, and where transportation and communication was more open,WHERE AND WHEN WOULD THAT TIME AND PLACE BE?
    Do all those things hold true in Africa? Southeast Asia? Eastern Europe? The Middle East? You have to look at the world as a whole, and right now the disparity between first and third world countries is growing, and larger than it ever has been.
  • StarfoxStarfox
    edited April 2008
    Are you serious? The sheer amount of scientific discovery since 1900 is astounding. Smallpox, leprosy, polio, all wiped off the face of the Earth. 100 years ago life expectancy across the globe was half of what it is now. Source. Can a legitimate argument be made for any time before the discovery of penicillin? The Human Development Index, which measures general quality of life, has been rising steadily and uniformly for almost every place in the world as far back as we have the data to calculate it.
    Do all those things hold true in Africa? Southeast Asia? Eastern Europe? The Middle East?
    Do you honestly believe it was better to be living in those places at any point in the past?
    Post edited by Starfox on
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