It’s happening a lot more these days, this blurring of the lines between dystopian fantasies and the world I see around me. I used to absorb those works of fiction which let me bathe in the tragic absurdity of what the world could become. It might even have seemed remotely realistic, but it was still fiction: the secret police abductions of homosexuals in V For Vendetta, the eugenics in Gattaca, the suppression of emotions and art in Equilibrium, the martial law and terrorism in Children of Men, the drugs and surveillance of A Scanner Darkly, the cybernetics in Johnny Mnemonic, the ruthless corporatocracy in Resident Evil, the oppressive conformity in The Giver and Anthem, the absurd government in Demolition Man, and the list goes on.
But now I can’t even tell. Certainly our technologies and governments and corporations are not so extreme as in the above portrayals, but they are becoming reminiscent. More and more I feel like I’m living in an early cyberpunk setting. Most recently I had a conversation with a friend about Burj Dubai (pictured above). He said, “I actually find the aesthetics of dystopia pleasing, and this is one of the best representations of a coming dystopian era that I’ve seen; it’s macabre in its opulence.”
I agree. It’s terribly majestic. I’m not quite worried what society will become. More than ever, I find myself able to imagine sudden dramatic shifts–militarization, cybernetics, eugenics, oppression of our freedom, suppression of our humanity, etc. I know the momentum of history is by now inescapable, so despair is futile. We’re entering that world. We don’t know precisely what it will look like, but it will be ugly. And it will possess a tragic beauty.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I would tend to agree with you here Jack. I believe that we are at the beginning of the decline of the US as a world power. History teaches us that when empires crumble they leave in their wake much destruction.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I wouldn’t say crumbling empires always leave destruction, per se, but having an empire disintegrate certainly stirs things up a bit and sometimes destruction happens . . . I mean, look at the fall of the British Empire: there were some violent things that happened as a result of the decline of British power, and yet there were some nonviolent transitions as well, and nothing much at all happened in Britain itself except for a kind of prolonged economic slump, which they then recovered from. The French empire collapsed without destroying France, the Portuguese empire collapsed without destroying Portugal. Even when the Roman Empire collapsed, the destruction involved came from without, not from within — things didn’t descend into total anarchy, they kind of slowly fell apart here and there and new systems moved in to replace the rule of Rome. If the American Empire were to become a thing of the past, there is absolutely no guarantee that it’ll go out with a bang.
That said, I don’t think the US as a world power is declining, I think it’s on the verge of getting much, much bigger. But that’s speculation and neither here nor there.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Two things.
First a correction, you said “descend into total anarchy,” I believe you were trying to say “ascend into total anarchy.” (joke)
Second (not a joke), I tend to agree with your analysis, Andrew. I think it will be a matter of need-vacuums and what is available to meet those needs. As government and corporations (if there is a distinction) neglect us further, we will have more unmet needs. Groups will form that will find new ways to meet them in the face of government neglect. Power will shift slightly every time someone turns to those groups and substructures rather than relying on the superstructure’s channels, or being complacent in neglect. This is good in that it can both provide for a better immediate situation, and offer the possibility of a long term change.
Perhaps the amount of destruction depends on how decline is defined. Governments start running out of steam, so to speak, long before the loss in visible. They tend to appear strong until the breaking point, even if they had been working doubletime for the last half. So the actual decline might begin long before it is readily apparent, and might actually appear as growth, and that process might be very destructive. To combine both your comments with an example, the neocolonialism of our recent actions is destructive and seems to be putting us on the verge of getting much, much bigger–and we might be at the beginning of the decline, but it won’t look like a decline for quite some time.
Not sure if I am making sense. It’s really hot and humid in Chicago tonight.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Makes sense; we might be getting bigger, but it’s bubble growth; it’s the same thing that happens to a market before it collapses due to unchecked speculation.
Anyway, whether or not this will come about quickly, slowly, or even at all, you’re dead on about need-vacuums and the potential for non-governmental/corporate entities to have larger impacts on people’s lives by filling those needs. The trick, then, is to anticipate those needs and provide for them more readily than corporate America can.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
And that is the precise goal of abandonism.
If I get my shit together I will be putting together a more serious manifesto-type document.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:06 am
You said in another post that the transformation from liberty to a police-state is slow and steady. I agree with you there. I doubt the destruction will be slow and steady though. I think mass destruction is far more eminent in a society where there are so many need-vacuums. I don’t expect anything less than great hysteria and chaos to happen.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:06 am
@Guthrie: How do you figure?
I mean, where, in this complacent, lazy culture, is there the kind of energy for hysteria and chaos? Most people can’t be arsed to walk six blocks to the store, they’re sure as shit not going to go out and actually DO anything . . .
July 11th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I don’t think the energy to be chaotic will come easily, because that implies defiance to the state. But when those need-vacuums start running and people realize what they need can’t be offered, that state of desperation will be enough to get people off their ass.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
there’s a guy here in D town who thinks that the gov’t is constructing something akin to a concentration camp for when the economy does fully crash. that we might all voluntarily check ourselves into this thing to serve our base needs. I’m still a sceptic at heart but he has some valid points even if he is stoned off his gord
July 11th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
“Move into the camp? No friggin’ way, man!”
“But they have Xboxes. And all the mac ‘n cheese you can EAT.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well, that doesn’t really sound SO bad . . .”
July 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
That’s exactly how it will go =)
July 12th, 2008 at 4:14 am
not with a bang, but with nachos
July 12th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Hah!
Very nice!