There a many themes and scenarios in dystopian novels. Ranging from total government take over to extreme natural disasters to a complete lost of humanity, but I think that the most likely scenario in a dystopian novel would a total government take over. Something where an entirely new political party slips into power and the countries under its control slip into chaos. Humans are so fearful of the government as it is, that it would only take one act of terrorism or one framed act of treason against the current government to get people to believe that the current government is out to get them. Then another political group promise to restore power and does just that, except they use their own set of rules. They employ spying tactics. They take away freedoms from people, but the people are alright with it at the time because of the current state of the government. Once people have realized what has happened with the government, it is already to late. The government has such a foot hold that people can no longer take down the government.
The scariest dystopian theme would have to be a barren and chaotic earth with gangs of people roaming around it. Waking up to a post apocalyptic country with nothing but the clothes you are wearing and very few supplies would have to be the most nerve racking thing ever. You are on your own, whether you know how to survive or not, you are the prey of the gangs. You maybe have a gun or weapon to protect yourself, but that's it. You are done for and must keep moving in order to stay alive. You can rest until you die, and if you are caught by a gang, there is nothing saying they will kill you right away. You might be a slave to them, or they may just decide to kill you and take your stuff. It doesn't matter which happens, or really what happens, that is hands down the scariest dystopian theme there is.
The description of the gangs in the streets is pretty much what A Clockwork Orange is about, you should read it.
ReplyDeleteMy comment will be short and sweet since Andrew thought it’ll be funny if I wrote “I’m done. I gotta lift”, with that said I’m done. I have to go lift
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you mentioned it would take only one act of government to turn the people against the government, because I read an article that said something like that. It was defending the NSA, claiming that people complain about how their rights are violated by the government, but if there were ever to be a major cyberattack or terrorist attack that could have been avoided by the NSA's monitoring, America would go into martial law and then people's individual rights would be the government's last priority. I guess we need to figure out a balance between privacy and security.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how it would be so scary to be alive in a post-apocalyptic scenario where gangs are attacking you. This is what The Clockwork Orange is like! The main character is part of a gang with his teenaged friends. It was bizarre.
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