Trajectory Towards an American Dystopia?
By Elly Molina. This story was originally published in October 2016 and then here in 2017. It has been edited as of 01/01/2025.
Dystopia is an imagined place or state where everything is unpleasant or harmful, typically totalitarian or environmentally degraded.
Aristotle claimed, “Art imitates Life.” Oscar Wilde argued, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” If life imitates art, are we progressing rapidly towards “America the Dystopia?”
Here are some facts: Between 1980 and 2016, over one-hundred-fifty feature films, twenty-four or more TV Shows, and a shoppers index of more than one-hundred-fifty video games occur in dystopian societies. The settings of these games, movies, and books are in a world that has been destroyed or is being destroyed. Between 1990 and 2016, more dystopian novels were written than in the entire history of literature. This genre of books, video games, and films is now reflected in our clothing, design tastes, and language.
Whether conscious of it or not, we liken a dystopian fetus, growing larger each month. Media publications, from The Atlantic to Time Magazine, have used dystopia in their headlines since Trump’s election. Our new creation surrounds us. Dresses at Uniqlo, a Japanese apparel retailer located worldwide, appeared inspired by TV’s rendition of a Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.
It’s a documented fact that our cities’ infrastructures are breaking down. Bridges and roads are in dire need of repair. Educational funding for the Arts, Culture, and Media is being cut. Environmental laws protecting our rivers, lakes, and oceans are being dismantled. We see grids in the sky that never existed before 1990.
When we look at the settings for any dystopian movie or novel, we see environmental destruction: large cities filled with filth and deteriorating buildings, homeless people living on the streets or along the roads, and empty cities! If you currently visit any major US city like New York, Chicago, Detroit, or Los Angeles, you may stumble over people living in cardboard cartons on the street. Drive along Interstate 90 in beautiful Washington State, where homeless families have established large campsites on the mountainside.
In a dystopian novel, we typically encounter a society ruled by a single tyrant or tyrannical political organization that the people have allowed into power. They’ve slept through the process, shrugging off political involvement with attitudes of victimization or thoughts like, " What could we have done?” By the time the “sleepers” have awakened and organized, martial law, where the military government overrides our laws, is in effect.
Do our lives tether on the verge of paralleling this Art? Our subconscious is a sponge absorbing and incorporating what it sees and hears while creating the next reality. Have we been setting the scene for our real-life dystopian society since the 1990’s?
In a dystopian plot, the protagonist saves society. The protagonist steps up, kills the villain, saves the day, and begins a new society where peace and love form its foundation. Our protagonist wins through love. The protagonist’s love for humanity, righteousness, justice, and the planet supersedes and conquers all.
Will we enact the entire setting, plot, climax, and resolution to reach Utopia, the imagined place where everything is perfect?
Many of us are actively and consciously working on changing the paradigm of our existing model of the world and replacing the old model with love, appreciation, and respect for everything on the planet and in our universe. These are the environmental activists, the change seekers, the mindful, the spiritual, the new educational leaders, and visionaries.
Collectively, we can create a new model. We must work quickly to educate, make, and incorporate a new and desirable model for the world through awareness and language. By replacing mindless consumerism with conscious awareness, we move from a throwaway, plastic-dependent society to becoming trailblazers for a modern-day Utopia.
Richard Buckminster Fuller, American inventor, futurist, architect, and thought leader, once said:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Our model begins with our thoughts and language. Language is a powerful creative force that brings ideas and things into worldly existence.
It is now up to us to become aware of our thoughts, words, and deeds, create mindful lives, and reprogramme our old paradigms and consciousness to create a new and utopian future. When we begin to speak consciously and mindfully, we will teach our children to be present, mindful, and conscious of thoughts, words, and deeds. They will grow up with a new paradigm for education and a vision for a society where love, honor, and respect for all on the planet and in the universe exist.
This is heaven on earth, and it is possible through intention, thought, and language if we are conscious of beginning this process. Our new paradigm will be the latest model that makes the dystopian one obsolete.
