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Which of these "Dystopian Society" stories did you read/study in school, or for pleasure; and which might reflect on U.S. Society today? (1 Viewer)

Which stories did you read/study in school, and which (if any) most reflect US Society today?


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One man (Trump) craves total power & has convinced many to support him. The only thing lacking so far are brown shirts & arm bands.

Trump is a cartoon character compared to any real dictator who actually craved and wielded power. He isn’t even at the level of Idi Amin. Trump is an insecure narcissist who craves and needs constant attention and the reassurance that everyone thinks he is great. The reason the brownshirsts are lacking is because the clowns who support Trump are all at the level of the those involved in the January 6 Keystone Kops insurrection. Who the hell takes selfies when they are supposedly overthrowing the government? Trump and his followers are all surface and no substance. The risks they bring are more random and not as widely deadly as that of the more historically ambitious power seekers.
 
I said none because we haven't gotten there yet...but not for the lack of the right for trying.

But if the right should succeed in their efforts....

All mentioned except for #2...I say that only because I have not read it.

Basically, each book has elements that the right are currently pursuing: having intelligence and questioning norms are bad, unsanctioned books and information is bad, control of said information and books to consolidate power, active dumbing down of the populace, unquestioning obedience to authority and the state, use of fear to manipulate, etc.
 
The problem arises in the parallel when you say educated people.
Indeed, it IS easier to convince the "uneducated" than it is to convince the "educated" and the way that the US educational system is going that means that it is getting easier and easier to convince the mass of Americans of whatever you want to convince them of.

On the other hand, it does most certainly help to preserve one's "national self image" if one pretends that everything is perfect (or would be if only those "uppity" people could be eliminated).
 
One man (Trump) craves total power & has convinced many to support him. The only thing lacking so far are brown shirts & arm bands.
"Arm bands" look silly on tee-shirts, why not substitute "ball caps"?
 
Trump is a cartoon character compared to any real dictator who actually craved and wielded power. He isn’t even at the level of Idi Amin. Trump is an insecure narcissist who craves and needs constant attention and the reassurance that everyone thinks he is great. The reason the brownshirsts are lacking is because the clowns who support Trump are all at the level of the those involved in the January 6 Keystone Kops insurrection. Who the hell takes selfies when they are supposedly overthrowing the government? Trump and his followers are all surface and no substance. The risks they bring are more random and not as widely deadly as that of the more historically ambitious power seekers.
Indeed, evrewunknoz that it can't happen here.
 
Indeed, evrewunknoz that it can't happen here.

Oh it can, but a joke like Trump and his clown car of followers are not the ones who will make it happen. They couldn’t direct a one car funeral. Trump has no interest in the real use of power; it scares the crap out of him. He just wants to be the most famous celebrity on the planet and hobnob with his favorite dictators again. Actually, winning back the Presidency doesn’t even matter to him as long as he remains relevant and talked about. He really is that shallow.

The real danger we face comes from a more serious source, the Supreme Court of the United States. They are working on setting us back in time to have to redo all the progress that we have already made.
 
I said none because we haven't gotten there yet...but not for the lack of the right for trying.

But if the right should succeed in their efforts....

All mentioned except for #2...I say that only because I have not read it.

Basically, each book has elements that the right are currently pursuing: having intelligence and questioning norms are bad, unsanctioned books and information is bad, control of said information and books to consolidate power, active dumbing down of the populace, unquestioning obedience to authority and the state, use of fear to manipulate, etc.

The problem with this is that there is no right or left as an organized group trying to do anything. It is all just at the level of conspiracy theories. Both sides are seeing the other side doing things as if there is some real existential right vs. left battle taking place for the control of the country. It isn’t happening.
 
Oh it can, but a joke like Trump and his clown car of followers are not the ones who will make it happen. They couldn’t direct a one car funeral. Trump has no interest in the real use of power; it scares the crap out of him. He just wants to be the most famous celebrity on the planet and hobnob with his favorite dictators again. Actually, winning back the Presidency doesn’t even matter to him as long as he remains relevant and talked about. He really is that shallow.

The real danger we face comes from a more serious source, the Supreme Court of the United States. They are working on setting us back in time to have to redo all the progress that we have already made.
Much as I hate to have to admit it publicly, I rather suspect that you are correct.

The deaths of only three people could well plunge the US into a very regressive state of society. As it now stands, the only people who would be standing in the way of that are MTG and Munchin (sp?). Placing the fate of America into the hands of those two people is, shall we say, "chancy".
 
I don't think any one book I listed reflects American society.

I think each of them reflects something the author saw brewing in either their own society or the times, and tried to express how such roots can eventually express in a future reality.

I think there are roots growing in American society from each and who knows where they might lead if not addressed.
I think, George Orwell’s 1984 should be considered to be #1 currently. Mainly based on the idea of “The Thought Police”.


1st snippet…
“There are a lot of unpleasant things in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Spying screens. Torture and propaganda. Victory Gin and Victory Coffee always sounded particularly dreadful. And there is Winston Smith’s varicose ulcer, apparently a symbol of his humanity (or something), which always seems to be “throbbing.” Gross.”
“None of this sounds very enjoyable, but it’s not the worst thing in 1984. To me, the most terrifying part was that you couldn’t keep Big Brother out of your head.”
“Unlike other 20th-century totalitarians, the authoritarians in 1984 aren’t that interested in controlling behavior or speech. They do, of course, but it’s only as a means to an end. Their real goal is to control the gray matter between the ears.”
““When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will,” O’Brien (the bad guy) tells the protagonist Winston Smith near the end of the book.”

We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him.
“Big Brother’s tool for doing this is the Thought Police, aka the ThinkPol, who are assigned to root out and punish unapproved thoughts. We see how this works when Winston’s neighbor Parsons, an obnoxious Party sycophant, is reported to the Thought Police by his own child, who heard him commit a thought crime while talking in his sleep.”

2nd snippet…
“The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, fortunately, largely protects Americans from the creepy authoritarian systems found in 1984, East Germany, and China; but the rise of “cancel culture” shows the pressure to conform to all sorts of orthodoxies (smelly or not) remains strong.”
“The new Thought Police may be less sinister than the ThinkPol in 1984, but the next generation will have to decide if seeking conformity of thought or language through public shaming is healthy or suffocating. FEE’s Dan Sanchez recently observed that many people today feel like they’re “walking on eggshells” and live in fear of making a verbal mistake that could draw condemnation.”
“That’s a lot of pressure, especially for people still learning the acceptable boundaries of a new moral code that is constantly evolving. Most people, if the pressure is sufficient, will eventually say “2+2=5” just to escape punishment. That’s exactly what Winston Smith does at the end of 1984, after all.”
 
I think, George Orwell’s 1984 should be considered to be #1 currently. Mainly based on the idea of “The Thought Police”.


1st snippet…
“There are a lot of unpleasant things in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Spying screens. Torture and propaganda. Victory Gin and Victory Coffee always sounded particularly dreadful. And there is Winston Smith’s varicose ulcer, apparently a symbol of his humanity (or something), which always seems to be “throbbing.” Gross.”
“None of this sounds very enjoyable, but it’s not the worst thing in 1984. To me, the most terrifying part was that you couldn’t keep Big Brother out of your head.”
“Unlike other 20th-century totalitarians, the authoritarians in 1984 aren’t that interested in controlling behavior or speech. They do, of course, but it’s only as a means to an end. Their real goal is to control the gray matter between the ears.”
““When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will,” O’Brien (the bad guy) tells the protagonist Winston Smith near the end of the book.”


“Big Brother’s tool for doing this is the Thought Police, aka the ThinkPol, who are assigned to root out and punish unapproved thoughts. We see how this works when Winston’s neighbor Parsons, an obnoxious Party sycophant, is reported to the Thought Police by his own child, who heard him commit a thought crime while talking in his sleep.”

2nd snippet…
“The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, fortunately, largely protects Americans from the creepy authoritarian systems found in 1984, East Germany, and China; but the rise of “cancel culture” shows the pressure to conform to all sorts of orthodoxies (smelly or not) remains strong.”
“The new Thought Police may be less sinister than the ThinkPol in 1984, but the next generation will have to decide if seeking conformity of thought or language through public shaming is healthy or suffocating. FEE’s Dan Sanchez recently observed that many people today feel like they’re “walking on eggshells” and live in fear of making a verbal mistake that could draw condemnation.”
“That’s a lot of pressure, especially for people still learning the acceptable boundaries of a new moral code that is constantly evolving. Most people, if the pressure is sufficient, will eventually say “2+2=5” just to escape punishment. That’s exactly what Winston Smith does at the end of 1984, after all.”

The only problem I have with 1984 being the most similar to what is happening today is that those on the Left who support all these horrible reductions in freedom of speech and thought are doing so willingly. This because they don't understand where it may be leading to.

IMO currently "Harrison Bergeron" is most closely mirrored in our current socio-political construct. It is "Equity, Diversity, Inclusion," as well as "Transgenderism" that are the main calls these days. Vonnegut's story has society making people literally "equal" by imposing "handicaps" on citizens to bring everyone (except the elites) down to forced Equity.
 
The only problem I have with 1984 being the most similar to what is happening today is that those on the Left who support all these horrible reductions in freedom of speech and thought are doing so willingly. This because they don't understand where it may be leading to.

IMO currently "Harrison Bergeron" is most closely mirrored in our current socio-political construct. It is "Equity, Diversity, Inclusion," as well as "Transgenderism" that are the main calls these days. Vonnegut's story has society making people literally "equal" by imposing "handicaps" on citizens to bring everyone (except the elites) down to forced Equity.


Do you not see any restrictions coming from the right? Especially towards woman who may be pregnant?

Making it potentially illegal to cross state borders, having the government gain access to medical records?
 
The only problem I have with 1984 being the most similar to what is happening today is that those on the Left who support all these horrible reductions in freedom of speech and thought are doing so willingly. This because they don't understand where it may be leading to.

IMO currently "Harrison Bergeron" is most closely mirrored in our current socio-political construct. It is "Equity, Diversity, Inclusion," as well as "Transgenderism" that are the main calls these days. Vonnegut's story has society making people literally "equal" by imposing "handicaps" on citizens to bring everyone (except the elites) down to forced Equity.
I watched the utube you provided. Very interesting.
 
It is amusing how right wing nutters on the internet think that a couple of socialists like Orwell and Vonnegut were writing things that support right wing nutter libertarianism.
 
One man (Trump) craves total power & has convinced many to support him. The only thing lacking so far are brown shirts & arm bands.
Who is using the DOJ to attack political opponents? Who is using big tech and multiple federal agencies to censor citizens?
Hint it's not Trump it's the Biden administration.
 
Who is using the DOJ to attack political opponents? Who is using big tech and multiple federal agencies to censor citizens?
Hint it's not Trump it's the Biden administration.

Accusations are not evidence.
 
All except No. 3, and they all reflect on U.S. society today.
 
It is amusing how right wing nutters on the internet think that a couple of socialists like Orwell and Vonnegut were writing things that support right wing nutter libertarianism.
If only Heinlein were on the list.

I read all of those books save for Harrison Bergeron, and I read a lot of Vonnegut.
 

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