Pick Your Dystopia

dystopia: noun dis-'tO-pE: New Latin, from dys- + -topia (as in utopia)
1 : an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives

So since it's the national day of choices I thought I'd trot out a few talking points: (caution: spoilers do exist)

1984: A state of perpetual war and disinformation where sex is politicized and behavior highly regimented. History has become a plastic tool of political Monday morning quarterbacks. Citizens are instructed to be on the lookout for any and all suspicious activity. Betrayal is encouraged. Hate is a family value. Privacy is abolished for reasons of national security. The populace is kept in line by the threat of a state-constructed bogeyman (Emmanuel Goldstein) who serves to heighten terror and encourage distrust. Dissenters are rehabilitated through terror and torture in order to love the state.

Brazil: 1984 with a "happy ending" in that "Winston Smith" (named Sam Lowry in the movie) "gets away" via his dreams. Characterized by a state of constant terrorist bombings from an unknown assailant, a populace in self-serving blinders, fantastic technology that rarely works right, and an obsession with shopping, plastic surgery, and Christmas fueled consumerism. A self-perpetuating bureaucracy refuses to admit mistakes. Do-gooders are made outlaws. Love, once again, threatens it all.

Brave New World: Following a grand man-made catastrophe the world is managed by the World Controllers. Order is of the utmost importance and the populace is kept in line through drug-induced happiness, a bioengineered caste structure, perpetual youth, and made busy with frivolous activities. Any kind of suffering is discouraged and mocked, whether it be the pain of making choices, giving birth naturally, or being miserably inquisitive as to the true meaning of life when everyone else is so darn happy.

We: Included for historical value having arisen from early Soviet Russia, the original "Red" state. Highly regimented rational activity of the populace. Houses made of indestructible glass. Privacy is forbidden. People are reduced to letters and numbers. Dissenters are liquidated (literally turned into pure water) by a great benevolent machine. Betrayal of personal relations is highly encouraged.

Rollerball: Following the fall of nations and the "nasty" Corporate Wars, the world is governed by an oligarchy of City State-like Corporate Identities, each serving basic human needs, e.g., Houston is the Energy City, Chicago the Food City, etc. War does not exist anymore and all human aggression is channeled into a devotion to a high tech gladiator sport where individual effort is rendered meaningless and shown to be futile. One individual, a Michael Jordan of the sport, Jonathan E, gets so good at it that the powers that be try to force him to stop playing for fear of undermining the basis of social order.

Soylent Green: It's people. The world has become overpopulated and grim. The Soylent Corp., the feeder of the world, supplies the starving masses with high-protein, plankton based synthetic foodstuffs, or so they say. Sprawl cities such as New York-Philadelphia-Baltmore-DC exist. The rich have become supremely rich and few, and the poor abjectly poor and many. People have become commodities (women who serve as concubines to bigwigs are known as "furniture") and when you die you get your choice of becoming a foodstuff: Soylent Yellow, Orange, or Green, because, oops, the oceans are dead.

Logan's Run: A paradise existence in a 70s version of a 23rd century shopping mall. Everything's cool until you hit 30.

The Handmaid's Tale: Epidemic sterility engulfs this world of mad fundamentalist religious folk. Religious wars rage. Men are men, their wives are sterile trophies, and the fertile females are incubators. Basically 1984 from a woman's perspective. Essentially, individual rights become meaningless in the service of the state of emergency.

A Boy And His Dog: A post-apocalyptic every man for himself world where "decent" folk live underground, centering upon a young boy and the only friend he can trust, a telepathic dog named Blood.

Dune: OK, so most of it occurs off world but it involves a neo-feudal power struggle for the possession of valuable resources, namely, the Spice that allows trans-galactic travel, and water, which is in high demand on the unforgiving desert world where Spice is made. Religions have evolved to become even kookier, and, hey, everyone has heirloom nuclear weapons!

The Book of Revelations: The President's favorite I believe. Unfortunately I think he's using it as a playbook.

Add any you think I've forgotten!