We’re Living in a Dystopian Novel, and It’s Badly Written

Hello everyone! I thought we could do something a little bit different this Friday so instead of my normal Freaky Friday Files, we could take a look at the state of the world and some of the whack-a$$ sh*t that is going on right now. And quite frankly, we are living in a dystopian novel and it happens to be one that is badly written.

I have been feeling very disenchanted with the world lately and living in a dystopia doesn't help. It also doesn't help that I've been feeling very unwell the past few days but I'll save that rant for my weekly newsletter.

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We're Living in a Dystopian Novel, and It's Badly Written

So what is a dystopia? I'm sure many of you have read books like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or Brave New World OR maybe you've seen movies such as The Day After Tomorrow, 12 Monkeys, or Total Recall. And I'm hoping you have because it'll give you a sense of what I'm talking about. According to Wikipedia, the word "dystopia" means the following "A dystopia, also called a cacotopia or anti-utopia, is a community or society that is extremely bad or frightening." The dystopian world is often characterised by "fear or distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society." Zeb et al., (2023) say that "Dystopian fiction offers readers a reflective environment in which to grapple with the complexities of the contemporary human experience because of its powerful commentary on subjects like authoritarianism, environmental harm, and technological advancement."

Themes of a dystopian society include things like: complete control of the people through the usage of propaganda and police state tactics, censorship, denial of free thought, enforcement of conformity, and loss of individuality (and sometimes autonomy). A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia - which is (according to Wikipedia), "an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near perfect qualities for its members." I don't think that a utopia is actually possible BUT I do think we are living out a dystopian novel right now. Why do I think this you ask? Well, I think it all really began in 2016 when Trump was first elected President and I get that that time was for the LOLs, but this second time when he was elected in 2024 is even more terrifying - just look at the men who are on his team. We've got the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and JD Vance. The more you think about what those men are capable of, the more terrifying it is.

When people like this are put in charge, it increases things like misogyny, right-wing extremism, inequality, censorship, the spread of misinformation, and so much more. And yes, of course, I am biased here because I am a leftie - I don't think I could be a rightie with my social science degree. But we do need to talk about the injustices in the world and no, I don't mean in a tumblr SJW type of way, I mean standing up for what's right. Just look what's happening, a TikTok ban which was about censorship and NOT data concerns. If you want to read about my thoughts on that, you can do so "here". Equality and progress are going backwards, more transpeople are losing their rights, women are losing their rights especially when it comes to things like abortion, illegal immigrants, and being deported and basic human decency has just gone out the window. And things are only going to get worse - are the thought police already here?

Let's list some of the scary sh*t going on in the world right now

• Obviously the Trump administration (covered above).

• The TikTok Ban (so ironic because Trump was the one who wanted it banned in the first place).

• Cyclone Alfred in Queensland: This cycle has demonstrated how as soon as there's a disaster or something, people turn against each other and panic buy. I watched a video where a couple couldn't even get sandbags for their home because ALL their local Bunnings were out of stock. Remind you of a 2020 world where everyone was panic buying toilet paper? What a weird world we live in. What's even worse about this is all the warnings people are getting to stay inside and there have also been so many videos of people going to the beach. Stop putting yourself and the rescue team in danger, you are being stupid.

• A teenager attempted to board a plane in Geelong with a shotg*n and he was overpowered by passengers (as The Project said, he was the real-life Batman).

• A global measles outbreak.

• The rise of AI, the rise of robots, the rise of the uncanny valley.

• Deep Fakes.

• The Cybertruck and it's safety concerns.

• Elon Musk buying Twitter and turning it into X and it becoming a cesspool.

• The Creative Destruction of streaming services - streaming services getting greedy and adding in ad revenue so that you either have to pay more to stop the ads or they get the ad revenue (it's cheeky).

• The amount of personal data we all willingly give away on a daily basis.

• People seemed to have forgotten about the NSA & Snowden AND Mark Zuckerberg & Cambridge Analytica.

• All the glitch in the matrix stories coming out.

• The amount of people who believe fake AI videos and fake ghost videos.

• Climate change.

• Paying for parking.

• Homelessness, the cost of living, the rental crisis.

• School sh**tings (like how terrifying would it be to go to school in the morning knowing that one day that could happen to you?)

• Inflation.

• Domestic violence.

• The rise of hate speech.

• COVID-19/public health crises.

• Peter Dutton, Christopher Luxon (why are the men seemingly in power now?)

• The P.Diddy Scandal, Jeffrey Epstein etc.

There are soooo many issues. The list could go on and on and on forever, honestly. And in the end, if we are living in a dystopian novel, it's not exactly a well-crafted one. The plot holes are glaring, the villains are cartoonishly evil yet somehow incompetent (IYKYK), and the main characters - you, me, all of us - are just trying to make it through each absurd chapter. Unlike a novel, we're not stuck with a pre-determined ending. We can ALL rewrite the narrative, demand better leadership (has anyone been looking at the Greens in Australia rn?), and refuse to accept the status quo as just the way things are. If this blog post feels like a mess, maybe it's time to take up pen or keyboard. Because the best dystopias aren't the ones we resign ourselves to, they're the ones we fight to escape.

Thanks for reading what turned into a bit of a rant,

Ash x

Readings/References

• Aquino, Y. S. J., Rogers, W. A., Braunack-Mayer, A., Frazer, H., Win, K. T., Houssami, N., ... & Carter, S. M. (2023). Utopia versus dystopia: professional perspectives on the impact of healthcare artificial intelligence on clinical roles and skills. International journal of medical informatics, 169, 104903.

• Carroll, N., Holmström, J., Stahl, B. C., & Fabian, N. E. (2024). Navigating the utopia and dystopia perspectives of artificial intelligence. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 55(1), 32.

• Dias, J. F. (2024). » Trump 2025: Dystopia and Fascism–The Rise of Authoritarianism in the New Government?«. European Cener for Populism Studies (ECPS).

• Gerhard, J. (2012). Control and resistance in the dystopian novel: a comparative analysis.

• Zeb, A., Moldez, R. G., Kawabata, T., Sultan, A., & Lodhi, K. (2023). Dystopian Literature in the 21st Century: Themes, Trends and Sociopolitical Reflections. Harf-o-Sukhan, 7(4), 77-86.

• https://www.wired.com/story/dystopia-trump-science-fiction-roundtable/

• https://www.wordforest.org/2022/05/06/are-we-living-in-a-dystopian-world/

• https://theconversation.com/are-we-living-in-a-dystopia-136908

• https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/are-we-living-in-a-dystopia

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