Exploring the City of Delusion

This is a continuation of a previous entry entitled City of Delusion.

I want to pick up on the concept of an Anti-Utopian Society that I cut short previously. It has been increasingly playing on my mind this last week, in part due to having now started Brave New World (and subsequently having been tempted to leaf through Nineteen Eighty-Four again), and because the ideas I mentioned in my last post have developed into the central plots for a small collection of short stories I hope to finish soon.

We have already established that an Anti-Utopia is a society founded on Utopian principles/ideals, and is therefore – if only at first glance, a perfect socio-politico system. It stands to reason, in my mind, a quick transition into this new system would be possible due to its creators seeing their own perfection reflected back and embracing it.

But to be an Anti-Utopia, this society has to be flawed in some way – by means accidental or purposeful, thus twisting the Utopian principles into something more Dystopian in nature. An obvious fault in the society I have introduced, would be human vanity.

The society that birthed the new system would view it as perfection, perhaps even godlike – thus elevating the society itself (as suggested earlier) to such a status, making god in the image of man. As Utopian/Dystopian societies tend to lack independent religions, the system itself would likely take that role within the new society. The arrogance of the society, coupled with a denial to hide any imperfections in the system (thus denying any personal imperfections) becomes the flaw that undermines the Utopian ideals, and creates the Anti-Utopia.

The society would at first grow naturally, but soon its evolution would be shaped by advances in science and technology – the changed society would then change the perfect system, aiding its transformation into a prison, its inmates enslaved by their wilful ignorance and growing reliance on the perfect system to maintain the status quo. Blinding them to the truth of their plight.

We are not naturally born uniform; discrepancy between society and the system would emerge. By now society cannot live with out the system, differences threaten the peace and order – How are the discrepancies removed?

In all Utopias any individual(s) who defy the social norm are ostracised and outcast. In Dystopian societies ‘rebels’ are eliminated or incarcerated. The society in Brave New World solves that problem by engineering a uniformed race of humans, conditioning them from birth to except the ideals and principles of the new society. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, those who resist control are arrested and tortured by the Ministry of Love.

It seems impossible to have even a Utopian society without control; it is attempting to find a suitable the level of control, and the measure those in power take to maintain it that unveils another flaw in the new perfect system. It also shows a flaw in societies inability to truly comprehend perfection. As imperfect, and thus unique, individuals each has a different perspective on perfection. Thus no system would be perfect to all, unless – as in Brave New World its population was mass produced, or perhaps brainwashed into believing in an illusion, that is then collectively sustained by the society. There are more forceful options available to maintain uniform, but then we would be looking at a Dystopia instead of an Anti-Utopia that still appears, to its citizens, to be a Utopia.

The illusion is the idea of freewill, obviously this would have to be eliminated to maintain control – But the population would need to be misguided by various propaganda tools into believing it is there in order to accept the minor, visible steps the system makes into order to retain the status quo. What would it take to awaken a willingly blinded, subservient population to the truth of what we, as observers from the outside, see? How would an individual that has grown up in said society then react, when what they take for truth and reality is shown to be broken or a mere illusion?

“Cast your eye tears on to me
And I'll show you what you really need
Give too much attention
And I'll reflect your imperfections”

Shrinking Universe - MUSE