The Danger of Dystopia - Pt. 1

When fiction informs reality, all Hell can break loose.

To say that dystopia is dangerous is sort of to say nothing special at all. Dystopias are, by definition, stories about terrible futures with horrible systems or circumstances that serve to warn us of how awful life can or will be, if we aren’t careful. So, dangerous, they are! In our imaginations, right? And, the real world.

All of us are endangered by the dystopian stories of the past century. The evidence is concrete and I’ll get there, but first, let’s get a few things out of the way.

Most would agree that non-fiction writing moves in one, primary direction; from the real world onto the page. History happens, it gets recorded. Humans act, a psychologist analyzes, and a book is written. News occurs, papers land on front porches or lawns. Reality exists and language is used to capture it, share it, learn from it, remember it, and teach lessons to our young.

Fiction is expected to go the other way, and we are rarely expected to copy the behaviors or actions of the characters. They can serve as role models or examples, but consider this: one third of all Mass Market Fiction sold in the USA are romance novels, delivering exciting stories and plenty of “feels” to a primarily female audience that spends well over $1 Billion a year.

That’s a lot of books and a lot of reading time!

But, seriously. How many romance readers go out and, um, well…you know. Same with crime noir, westerns, paranormal mysteries, sci-fi space operas, epic fantasies, and so on. We love our space ships, dragons, sexy vampires and rugged cowboys, but we’re rarely able or likely to emulate them. They live in the realm of imagination, alongside our gaming avatars and our role-playing characters, or they grace our screens as books turned into movies. But, again. Easy to copy and emulate…they are not.

Even historical novels (Thought you got me, didn’t you?), which are rooted in truth and inherently constrained by verifiable reality, are still fundamentally behind us on the time line. These stories offer an opportunity to reflect on what came to pass, and evaluate it, from the secure position of those looking back with 20/20 vision.

• The past is safe. Unthreatening. Behind us. Known.

• What do we fear? The uncertainty of the future.

• In fact, it terrifies us.

And this is where dystopias live. In that yet-unknown realm of human history-to-be, monstrosities lie in wait, ready to be birthed by foolish humans with short memories and a unique brand of insanity. “This time, we can do that same thing that never, ever works out well for anyone, but hey! It’s us doing it, and that makes a difference, right? Don’t worry. It’ll turn out just fine. Really.”

Wait, wait. What about Utopias?

Great question! Personally, I consider utopias to be dystopias. I’ve yet to read a book in this genre that actually presents a utopia for all. Dystopias acknowledge and grapple with the tragic two class system - those who comply and those who don’t. Utopias seek to present an inherently one class system, where no one argues, and I don’t think any of them have actually succeeded at that goal. So, to me, utopias are actually dystopias written from the compliant class perspective with an utter lack of recognition of those experiencing the dystopian reality of that supposedly utopian society. (Disagree? Great! Please mention below…maybe you’ll change my mind. Yes, Starhawk may have actually written a true utopian utopia, but I’m still not entirely convinced…so, what say you?)

Come on, March. Get to the point! What does any of this have to do with the impending culmination of a decades-long campaign by the Pharmaceutical Industry and its allies? (Thank you for asking!)

One word. No, one date. 1984. And, here’s why it matters.

In 1949, Eric Arthur Blair (an Englishman writing under the pen name, George Orwell) was a journalist, essayist and critic, writing his final novel. Nineteen Eighty-Four presents a country under the absolute control of The Party. In Orwell’s imagination, how did a tiny handful of humans dominate millions? Simple. They used the same tools of manipulation, terror and propaganda that allowed the Nazi Party to destroy most of Europe and Joseph Stalin to consolidate Eastern Europe into the USSR.

Pop Quiz: When was Stalin born?

A: To give you a chance to think about it, before I throw the answer in front of you, I’m going to blather on a bit about how surprised I was by the answer (have a guess yet?) and well, okay, I can only blather so long (and that’s saying something, given that verbose is a bit of a personal talent of mine)…okay, you ready for the answer now? Eighteen seventy eight. Wow, right?

And now, back to Nineteen Eighty-Four! Arguably one of the greatest dystopians ever written, Time Magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. But, as much as Orwell warned us against the dangers of omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism (re-writing or denying history) and propaganda; another unintended thing happened. Readers learned.

Here’s the thing about dystopian novels. They are a 2-in-1 creation. Blessing and curse. Warning and threat. Danger and protection. For those with an egalitarian, freedom-loving, diversity respecting, live & let live personality…1984 offers plenty of warnings. For those who are driven by a thirst for power and control, 1984 has unintentionally served as both guidebook and instruction manual.

A book, once written, becomes a wild and free thing.

When we deal with human nature, the closer we get to the truth, the sharper the knife. George Orwell was standing on the thinnest edge of a knife capable of splitting hairs and slicing tomatoes (LOL) when he brilliantly laid out the trappings of a future world under the inescapable control of a technologically advanced dictatorship. And the flaw in that perfection is now bearing fruit.

Big Brother, O’brien (as a whisperer, a snitch, a spy, a friendship betrayed), the ever-present Thought Police, and every member of Winston’s society (ready and eager to report his crimes without a second thought) all represent real world tools employed by Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain and George Orwell may have even been influenced by the Empire of Japan and China. These things happened!

And they’re happening again. In places like King County, Washington, where the governor was nice enough to set up a Snitch Hotline for anyone wanting to report on their neighbors. For what? Lack of compliance with the Governor’s “mandates.” Did you know Governor Inslee has been in office long enough to have personally hand selected every member of the WA State Board of Health? There are NO checks and balances in play right now, and that’s why Washington State is one of the least free states in the country.

Will this ever end? Jay Inslee’s answer: Maybe.

Okay, I’ll quote the guy:

"If — and I hope that we will reach this date — the infection rate is low enough, and the vaccination rate is high enough, and the hospital capacity is high enough, and the medical therapeutic situation is good enough, the mandates are not necessary," Inslee says. "Every time somebody gets vaccinated, that day gets closer."

If? Maybe? He hopes? How do you even speak in such terms? Of course this will end…on the viral level. That is a guarantee. An inevitability. The real question worth asking is this one: “Hey Jay! Will you ever give up your Emergency-Bequeathed and Society-Accepted power to control every WA state resident’s life, on the daily, including their medical decisions, access to education, ability to work, freedom to engage in society, and so on?”

Power is an addictive drug.

You know what upsets me most about this? The willingness of so many to believe there can’t be other, potentially better ways of responding to this or any crisis, and that we, the people, aren’t able to figure anything out on our own. We are not children, yet we act and are treated as such. And by the politician class, of all groups! Elected representatives are not the best America has to offer. In many ways, they can be the worst, because they’re the most likely among us to “sell out.” The most potentially compromised. The most rewarded when they toe the Party Line. The most likely to ignore or bend logic for their own gain. A few are awesome, and some intend well, but most are trouble and we know this, deep in our bones.

Twice now, President Biden has spoken to the country in a way that brings George Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate to mind. Twice now, Jay Inslee has spoken to Washingtonians, declaring that everyone who differs from him - on the best way to move forward, through the Covid Experience - are two things: second class citizens and domestic terrorists. These are quotable statements made in front of the press, for the purpose of inspiring a modern version of Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate. The President of France, same thing. Politicians in Australia, same thing. Media Talking Heads? SAME!

I was visiting a friend, helping her after a surgery, and she and her husband turned on the Rachel Maddow Show. While I was preparing dinner and tracking pain meds, the two of them began to shout at the screen. Rachel would say something snarky and rude, and my friends would cheer, repeat what she’d said, scoff at “dumb people” they were being conditioned to judge, hate and despise…and I realized, they do this. Every. Damn. Day. This was Rachel Maddow’s version of the Two Minutes Hate. And you know who they were talking about? ME.

The American People are not turning on one another of their own accord. We are being driven, with well-studied propaganda whips at our backs, to do the worst possible thing during a crisis. If this isn’t proof that our leaders (and those damn talking heads on those awful screens) are dangerous, what more do you need?

I’m going to leave you with an interesting thought. On December 28th, the New York Times ran with this story:

• Covid News: U.S. Daily Record is Broken. The seven-day average of U.S. cases topped 267,000 on Tuesday, with Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia particularly hard hit.

And, I kept reading. That number (267,000) is large and the implication of the title is that we should be scared. This is not normal. Bad things are happening. Blah, blah, blah. BUT, here’s the thing with records! And we all know this, right? When you break a temperature record in the summer, for example, do you break it by 5 or 8 degrees? No. New records are usually set by extremely small margins. Maybe 1/10th of a degree or 1/10th of a second may be the difference between 1st and 2nd place in a swimming event. Right? So, how many Covid Cases did we have exactly one year ago, given that these records are based upon time of year? What’s our comparative, in other words? The record being broken? About 266,500 cases. That’s a 500 case difference in a country of 335,000,000 people.

Now, here’s the piece of the story that we aren’t supposed to think about. One year ago, vaccination rates in the USA were effectively 0%. Now, it’s a year later and the “powers that be” have coerced, threatened, pushed, manipulated, harangued and otherwise OBLITERATED the medical ethic of informed consent. The result is a nation with roughly 60% of the population injected (once, twice, thrice - it’s a mix) and yet…we have exactly the same number of Covid Cases to show for it.

Here’s the title I’d like to see the New York Times print: Covid Cases Hold Steady, Despite 60% of Country Participating in mRNA Study

I’ll be back on Thursday, with Part Two of this rather long essay. Until then, grab a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and start reading!

Oh! And, please…don’t forget to share my substack with friends, family and everyone else! I’m doing my absolute level best to combine valuable insights with creativity, humor and an intentionally low level of snark. Fingers crossed that I’m succeeding!