What do you imagine our apocalyptic future dystopia to look like?
The ruins of a nuclear aftermath? A climate change catastrophe of tornadoes, hurricanes and tsunamis laying waste to all human life? A killer virus wiping out vast swathes of the population (cough)? Full on economic devastation plunging us into a Mad Max style, everyone-for-themselves hell on earth?
Or maybe, just maybe, dystopia would come disguised as utopia. A seemingly peaceful, prosperous world, full of seemingly healthy, happy people; a self-styled prison of our own making in which we are made to believe our society is free and all is at it seems: a strange sort of totalitarian bliss.
Breaking news stories of the latest atrocity pop up on our phones and laptops to our general, all-round apathy. We watch the news over breakfast and dinner with mild interest in the latest corruption, murder, genocide or environmental disaster that is currently making the rounds.
We are completely unsurprised by it because we have come to expect nothing less. We are getting used to seeing disaster everywhere we go — when television screens in every bar, pub, restaurant and hotel lounge beam all the world’s misery into our eyes and minds. We couldn’t avoid it even if we tried.
In our personal lives we still feel a sense of shame about exhibiting emotion. ‘Got to be tough to make it in this world’, as if strength and emotion were two conflicting traits. And you have to wonder why we are constantly made to think they are.
Sure, our mainstream culture increasingly encourages a kind of phoney, touch-feely sentimentalism. One of bullshit platitudes, virtue signalling, and handwringing political correctness; concessions that don’t upset the profit-driven consumer narrative too much.
Conspiracy theory, you say? A bunch of powerful suits in a smoke-filled room making plans to control every aspect of our lives? Seriously? But that’s not how power and propaganda works.
The major media outlets and corporations serve the interests of a few wealthy elites which filter down, however consciously or subconsciously, into the outlooks and attitudes of those who work for them. Dutifully carried out, they will shun or discredit anyone who deviates from it or challenges it directly.
As such, mainstream media ‘discourse’ is an embarrassment of partisan playground politics — my team versus yours with one-upmanship and entertainment being the only goals.
It’s no wonder the masses take such little interest in politics. When you say the word most people picture a couple of starched shirts and grey suits arguing over nothing that seems relevant to them. These are the adults talking they’d have you believe — leave the important stuff to us and don’t worry your poor little head about it.
So, we accept everything we are told and never really question it. Even if we do, we are made to believe there is nothing we can ever do to change it or understand it enough to even begin to try.
And why try? Ok yes, there are many horrible things in this world but it’s always getting better, right? Science and technology are advancing beyond our wildest dreams, people are living longer, and there is greater acceptance and/or tolerance of minorities than ever before.
A world where our eyes are diverted away from all the bad things; where the problems our society has or has ever had are only improving; where upward mobility, work for work’s sake, material consumption, and ‘self-improvement’ are all conducive to happiness.
Utopia.
