Myopia for Dystopia!
“Every utopia contains a dystopia, every dystopia contains a utopia”
– Ursula K. Le Guin –
Dystopia seems to be as popular as Utopia in the domain of novels, science fiction, religion and myths. Maybe it is a result of our dualistic thinking or maybe it is simply our curse being human according to religion and myths whereby dystopia follows utopia due to our sinful acts. Or maybe, as Ursula K. Le Guin implies, we can only see utopia if we know and experience(d) dystopia and vice versa.
In fact, in the eyes of our ancestors we have arrived at utopia already many times. But, like any radical vision or prediction, it doesn’t come overnight but very gradual and almost unnoticeable over the course of our short lives. And as soon as an utopia fully unfolded and became a place ‘now’ and ‘here’ we take it for granted on the one hand and have raised the bar of an ideal world on the other. [include graph rutger bregmans with inverse lines in graph]
Moreover, we even switch reality with fiction, which is not surprising if you have to belief the ‘news’ to start with. Statistics on health, war, wealth, mortality rates, assaults, rape, slavery, poverty, famine, disease, pandemics, terrorism confirm that the world has become a better place the last century. The media however tells us the opposite. And what do we belief? The media of course!
The media is ubiquitous, we are addicted to it, we can’t hardly escape it and in this reality-show and insta-era most people choose drama, conflict, shock and dystopia over the utopian reality we actually live in. During a presentation by Rutger Bregmans about his book “most people are good” (De Meeste Mensen Deugen) he strikingly quotes Love Actually director Richard Curtis saying in an interview:
“[…] If you make a film about a soldier who goes AWOL [absent without leave or in other words missing without approval] and murders a pregnant nurse, something that’s happened probably one’s in history, it is called serially realistic analysis for society. If I make a film like Love Actually which is about people falling in love, and there are about a million people falling in love in Britain today, it’s called a sentimental presentation of an unrealistic world […]”
Bergman continues with dismantling common believes and myths about human behavior initially stemming from the images presented to us by media. One about a group of teenagers getting stuck on an island and who go totally nuts and inhumane in “Lord of the Flies” (which still is a popular theme). After an obsessive search Bregman found out such unique event was indeed one’s recorded in history. Namely the shipwreck in 1969 whereby 12 teenagers got stuck for 15 months on a deserted Island. And what happened? As opposed to the message all media presents to us, these 12 youngsters worked together and got off safely together.
In another example Bregman’s presents the infamous murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 in the middle of a street in Kew Gardens, Queens, a borough of New York. Allegedly, according to the press, more than 30 people watched the murder and did nothing. This story led to the equally infamous “bystander effect” which after hundreds of scientific studies proved to be valid. Long story short, when a Dutch researcher got approval and access to an extensive amount of footage from street surveyance camera’s the conclusion was that actually the opposite is true in reality! It turned out that in contrast to the news and scientific experiments the reality showed that in about 90% of public incidents people actually (instinctively) offer or seek a helping hand.
There are many more examples one could give, but the above two clearly refute the image that our basic instinct is cruelty, beastly, selfish and not caring about the sake of our co-inhabitants as portrait by the media (and especially the news, since it has to be entertaining obviously).
The dystopian imagination of the world imprinted through media, education and upbringing drives us to think in fear and integrate this in our planning for the future. Moreover, this “myopia for dystopia” influences us all including our very (world) leaders who – soaked by the idea the world is on fire – have become (re)active problem-solvers to please the crowds (and get more followers, fame, votes, status, etc.). In chapter XX we elaborate on the concept of fear.
So you might wonder, what is Peter’s issue, isn’t he the “dystopian” and “pessimist” here now? I do agree, despite fear-driven, reactive and problem-oriented, the world is improving! My point here, why is it improving so utterly slow while even young teenagers already know the solutions and opportunities are up for grabs. Looking at the half-full glass, why people still starve when we have a surplus of food, why we are still polluting the world while we have the solutions to be clean, why are we still eating food that kills us overtime, why do we even work even though there is an abundance of everything and computers can do our work?
Although I don’t want to agree to the idea, unfortunately most people are simply programmed, indoctrinated and taught that such thing are an illusion, utopia and too good to be true (see mindcage). In fact, making the opposite the dystopian reality, a self-fulfilling prophecy which we are deemed to accept, improve and embrace. You might not want to agree with this but this belief is deeply rooted and brought to us in a very subtle way over our lifetime. As mentioned, the myths and religions which shaped our societies, politics and economics are all based on the fact that we had utopia, and if we are already arrive at it, our greed, wrath, (hence the seven sins) will ensure it will soon be dystopia again. Hieronymous Bosch trilogy is a famous 15th century painting depicting this belief.
Another striking example of our engrained dystopian thinking is Pieter Breugel’s “Land of Cockaigne”. Painted in a time large parts of (north) Europeans barely survived their starvation, people ‘dreamed’ about how great, heavenly and utopian it would be to have plenty for everybody. Nevertheless, I emphasize the word dreamed, since their deeply rooted belief already told them to not fool themselves. Even if so, the future will be dystopian believing that plenty “would lead to spiritual emptiness and among other triggers gluttony and sloth (two of the seven deadly sins)”
The “myopia for dystopia” has been of all time and dominates our lives, it withholds people, whether leaders or from the lower classes, to think and (deeply) belief in utopia. Consequently it withholds people to be more positive, optimistic, “opportunity-oriented” and having a vision to go for (see postopia). And this not only applies to society as a whole but especially for the very individuals within a society which due to this ubiquitous dystopia might easily get demotivated, confused, lost and a disbeliever in “utopia”.
A disbeliever who stereotypically defends themselves the way chain-smokers convince themselves that there was once this person smoking there whole life and then still got 90 or the contra-example, there was once somebody living healthy throughout life but still died of disease at 50. There was once this utopian thinker, community, politician, individual with great ideas but what has come from it – look at the ‘news’, war, disease, poverty, disaster, terrorism and what not everywhere!
The myopia for dystopia (whether unconscious or not) is as self-fulfilling prophetic as the opposite. To keep it super simple to understand, when you are starting the day with a smile, approach people with a smile, give a compliment, help somebody, be kind, etc. etc. we all can agree that from this comes far more positive impact maybe even unexpected miracles whereby opportunities present themselves to you than you would start the day grumpy, ignoring everybody, look angry, sad or uninterested, not interact nor provide any support in whatever form. Agree or not?
Well, just multiply this by 7 billion and let’s see what happens. To avoid rational thinkers and readers getting offended, I won’t get too spiritual yet but whether the uncountable books call it NLP, Law of Attraction, The Secret, Karma, Placebo or what have you, these principle work both ways! In fact, all add that the starting point of any manifestation (or the way you deal with it) is all ‘you’ (internal) and never to be blamed to external factors.
Now, you might wonder how all of the above helps you since you get the point and don’t see yourself as a dystopian thinker in the way that you don’t belief in these apocalyptic movies which show how the world comes to an end. Well, there’s dystopia and there’s extreme dystopia. The important question is first of all, are you able to envision a future (let’s say at least 50 years from now) whereby all things you could imagine ‘bad’ at the moment are vanished? And if so, would you be able to provide solutions for the problems you have identified? And if so, how do you contribute in the realization of these solutions?
The answers to those questions are in essence telling you(rself) to what extend you have a myopia or actually dare to think (far) beyond it. What happens is that some people are through and through pessimistic, negative and dystopian, maybe nature maybe nurture, but that is irrelevant. Those people tend to have a desire to live back in the nostalgic better times in the past. This is a rather backward-thinking group.
Few people deeply belief in an utopian future and continuously share, act and motivate others to go towards this great future. Some might say they are dreamers but at least it is a rather forward-thinking group.
Most people however (are able to) think optimistic, positive and utopian, yet, if confronted with ‘reality’ their deeply rooted beliefs eventually tell them “it is as it is”. As a result people in this group are oblivious and indecisive at moments and times they could make a change, choosing for the known (proven by the past) solution as opposed to a new way of solving it far more social but less unpredictable. As a consequence we are still stuck with everlasting-world-problems. Simply put, the current collective reality (see collective reality) sustains the gap between rich and poor, moreover it keeps people stuck in undesirable ‘jobs’ and with that disables billions of people to reach full potential.
And let’s look at it from another perspective which might give you more faith in our future utopia. It is very probable that present day civilizations (not in war) already and for long reached the Utopia according to the images of people from that same civilization 400 years prior. Moreover, 400 years back (the 17th century) a person from your family, community or country would probably directly sign-up to live in 2020 considering the quality of life (abundance of food, safety, education, healthcare, technology, leisure time, etc. etc.). It is very likely the same can be said about people from the 13th (medieval times) asked to live in the 17th century.
If you would agree with this you would also agree that in the 25th century life is probably much more advanced than life is today, surgeries might all be non-invasive, we (finally) know exactly what food is good or bad per person and can eat any taste we like, work is part of history like colonial-slavery is part of our history, each individual is motivated, stimulated and cultivated to be the happiest version of him- or herself, all transport is fueled by renewable energy including planes, studying is like playing games, in short, it will be as utopian as you might dare to belief. In short, you would directly sign-up for it[1]!
It will make a big, if not revolutionary change, if first of all we watch less news or at least do the fact checking ourselves. Secondly to always remind ourselves that ‘media’ only exposes ‘sensations’ or else nobody watches anymore and that this represents not even a fractions of the real life as 99% of the people live it. Thirdly, if we are able to turn our engrained dystopian belief into an utopian one, we don’t need to wait another 400 years but the next utopia will already arrive in less than a hundred. In fact and as mentioned above, if we multiply this mindset by billions we could ignite a golden age, and it doesn’t cost anybody a coin more, that’s my belief!
[1] Ok, I do agree, you won’t sign up for it because what’s the use of a highly advance society if you will feel estranged, lonely, disconnected and lost? It is figuratively speaking cause I agree that main factors of “sustainable happiness” are also purpose, family and friends.