Simon Utopias and Dystopias

 Isn't it funny how we always try to emulate the past? For thousands of years, every empire near the Mediterranean wanted be the next Rome. Everyone saw it as a perfect society, almost a utopia. However many of these nations were way more advanced than the Romans ever were. Technology, philosophical ideas, and even ways of living have advanced so much since the time of the Romans. And they have become so engrained in our daily lives that it is sometimes hard to imagine a world without them. So whenever people think of the Romans, these ideas are so engrained into our sense of being that we imagine the Romans with the same ideas as we have. We dont think of the rampant inequality, the brutality, or the struggles that they had to endure on a daily basis. We only focus on the good things, and the bad parts just get covered up. And that sort of thing happens all the time. Think back to before Covid. Just hanging out with your friends, enjoying the sun, maybe going out to eat. It sounds...

 Everyone loves the idea of a utopia. That the whole point. But what really is a utopia? Whenever you ask people that, they respond with something along the lines of "a perfect society". But what does that even mean? Is it a society where everyone is happy? With no struggles? What? As you're reading that I'm sure you're think yes, but it's also so much more. But if I asked you to describe what else it would entail, you wouldn't really have much to say. Sure you might add one or two more things, but it still wouldn't quite feel like it summed up the idea of a utopia. Thats because part of what makes a utopia a utopia is that it's almost too good to imagine. Perfection is basically impossible to achieve in the real world, and as such it is difficult to imagine what perfection would be like. It's like trying to describe colors to someone who's blind, but we're the ones who are blind. It's something so alien that it's almost impossi...

There are multiple reasons people choose to read books or watch movies, but there seem to be two reasons that are way more popular than the rest. The first is to escape our current reality. People find something to watch that makes them feel good or excited, and use that as a way to briefly escape the struggles of their own life. The other main reason that people read or watch movies is to highlight our worries and put them into a form that can more easily be expressed. It's sucks to just feel like somethings wrong but not really know how to verbalize that. So when something comes out that is able to express your fears, it becomes much easier to focus on what those fears are and explain them to others. A great example of this is 1984, which people used as a way to express their fear of the Soviet Union. However in one of my previous posts, I talked about how dystopias are becoming less popular as a form of entertainment, and I mentioned how it is probably because they dont feel as ...

 It seems like every few years people try to make some form of Utopia. Some of these are pretty small scale, while others impact entire nations. I think probably the most famous form of a Utopia is the communist society. Not the ones we see today, but just the general idea of communism. A society where everyone gets what they need, equal pay for all, etc. In concept it sounds pretty nice. But think about all of the major communist states from the past century. Every time communism is implemented, the nation becomes this terrible dictatorship performing tons of human rights violations, until it eventually collapses after a few decades. So why is it that whenever people try to pursue a communist utopia, it ends up becoming a dystopia. My best guess is that it is because oftentimes people are forced into the utopia. There is a group who has the idea for the utopia and then does something to put it into place, but with these large scale utopias not everyone involved is going to be inte...

 I was thinking about different portrayals of Dystopias the other day, and I realized that I can't really think of any recent dystopian literature or movies. Now this might be because its not really a genre that I enjoy, but I still feel like there should be at least one that comes to mind. The only thing I can think of is the Handmaids Tale tv show, which only kind of counts because it's a tv adaptation of an older book. I wonder why the dystopian genre is seemingly becoming less popular. I mean one could argue that it sometimes feels like we're living in a dystopia, and one of the main points of movies and books is to escape reality. And I think that could be part of it. But 1984 was a popular book all throughout the period where the Soviet Union existed, and it was partially written to warn people about the Soviets. Thats about as real as you can get with a dystopia. So maybe people feel like the warnings about dystopias aren't as relevant anymore. I mean sure people...

 My immediate knee-jerk response when someone asks me "what does this book remind you of so far" is China. I can't think of any other part of the world that even comes close to the level of censorship that China has. Its not as bad as 1984, where even the slight twitch of you face could have you killed, but in some ways it is fairly similar. Every bit of media is edited to conform to what the CCP is saying. The past is constantly being edited, look no further than the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. According to China, that event never even happened, and any mention of it is illegal. People are also "vaporized" in China. Everyone is under constant surveillance through their electronics, and if they are seen doing something that is against the party's ideals, they disappear. A prime example of this is the doctor who first warned everyone about Covid-19. He was imprisoned, and everyone basically forgot he existed. Even after it was proven that the virus was...