The Dystopia & Its Direct Opposition to a Progressive Future ??
The funniest thing happened the other day when I re-stumbled, quite by accident, upon a Hunger Games meme on Pinterest. I laughed.
Why was I so obsessed with this film ten years ago (and others like it)? I asked myself.
Well, the answer to that is God knows why. Pretty sure, in fact, that a number of twenty-something young adults my age would have a similar answer. However, it got me thinking. It got me to realize one of the main reasons why I was decidedly not obsessed with this film, and others like it, ten years afterward.?
Quick disclaimer: I don’t hate The Hunger Games. But I like to think I am, simply put, not a fan. While the series is engaging and entertaining every step of the way, there is an underlying theme I noticed going on in these types of dystopian films.??
The thing about these films, I realized, is that the underlying theme of anti-progression exists. What does that mean? Well, take Divergent, for instance. The whole entire book is set in a Chicago that is deeply entrenched in a caste-like system, if you will. The system is set up through a strikingly odd sorting-hat-type ceremony (a Harry Potter reference for all my fellow Potterheads out there), in which the government gives these young teenagers one of five factions to belong to. With this faction system comes limits and restrictions, while some factions enjoy more freedom than others. There is also a faction dedicated to the outcasts, who are at the bottom of the totem pole, live on other people’s charity, and cannot progress or move up in society even if they wanted to. They all dress a certain way, are told to act a certain way based on their dominant virtue or personality strength. And to be honest, I don’t get it.?
In what world would a system like that even work?
The first thing that got me moving away from these types of movies, other than the fact that they are all far too similar for my liking, is that it seems pretty impossible that a person could be limited based on a dominant personality trait. That doesn’t make any sense. There are good, honest, courageous people all over the world, and I believe many, if not most people have a good combination of these kinds of traits. For films in the likes of Divergent, the consideration that a person can possibly be well-rounded is all but cast aside.
The Maze Runner is another good example. I read the first book and loved it as a fifteen-year-old, but as years went by, I was scratching my head. The book is very inventive as far as story plots go, but again, makes little sense in the context of progressive society and innovation. What does locking a group of adolescent boys in a giant horror-filled maze even accomplish in that context? Answer: nothing. Sure, there was a motive. I don’t recall it very well as I write but am almost certain it had to do with using a select group of people to take over the world. There were a lot of night runs and running from giant animatronic spider-like creatures (man, reading that just gives me nightmares, and I like spiders), but does anything get accomplished over the course of the book? Does the world go back to the way it was and more importantly, go back to a place where it can be more?
I don’t even know the answer to that one. Gonna assume the answer’s a resounding no, but then again, I forget how the book ended. ??
Divergent, Hunger Games, Maze Runner – they are all entertaining and overall pretty well written, too. I won’t deny them that. All three dystopian series also seem to utilize and engage with some pretty advanced technologies, as well. As a newbie in tech, this is what I find the most fascinating part: advanced technologies are used in all three, but it only ever seems to be used as a weapon against the people, rather than for the common good of the society. As impressive as progressing tech is, I believe it can only be considered progressive if all people are able to benefit from it, rather than suffer from the misuse of it.
Take that observation as well as the social caste-like properties of the dystopian renaissance, put them all together and you’ve got a backwards-moving mess of a future on your hands.?
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