I was in a sophomore in high school when I really got into dystopian literature.
My favorite was a book called Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, given to me by my geometry teacher. We'd had some discussions about life and literature, I guess, and she told me I would like the book.
I did. It wasn't just dystopian, it was apocalyptical, taking place after a full-blown nuclear war. I read it again a few years ago, and it was as relevant as it was in 1959. A little technological backwards, perhaps, but otherwise still on course.
People were mean, inhumane, ornery, and unable to think of anyone other than themselves, for the most part.
Kind of like today.
The hero was a man who thought not only of himself but of others, working to rebuild community. In the end, the US and the Soviet Union (which no longer exists, of course), had blasted one another to smithereens, and three larger, unnamed powers (probably China, India, and maybe Japan or Venezuela, if I had to guess), were now the major powers of the world.
Another dystopian book that left a big mark on me was A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller, also published in 1959. (Must've been a big year for apocalyptic fiction.) A librarian at the Fincastle Library gave me this book (they were going to rid it from the collection as few people had checked it out), saying I would like it as I was always asking for science fiction and fantasy books.
In this book, the nations have already fallen. People have burned all the books, eschewed all learning, and returned to tribal ways. But religion survives, and a monastery has kept some books and other information. The story runs through several thousand years as civilization rebuilds itself to the point where once again mankind has nuclear weapons, space colonies, and technological advantages - and then destroys itself once more.
Today I prefer fantasy to science fiction. I read Dune before the movie came out and found it disturbing. Like Liebowitz, Dune had religious inclusions - religion always seems to be not the salvation of nations or worlds, but their downfall. The world in Alas, Babylon had its downfall over religious rancor in the Middle East. I believe this problem with religion is a truism that the devout overlook, as religion as currently practiced by many is destructive and not uplifting (which is why I left organized religion).
Sword and sorcery fantasy books are basically the world of today without technology - without guns, too - and most good fantasy has political overtones, some king or other attempting to take what is not his or hers. Even Lord of the Rings has this as its practical premise; Sauron wants the One Ring, sure, but what he wants is power to wield over all of Middle Earth.
What would someone do for power? Lie? Cheat? Steal? Kill? Release a pathogen upon a population? Determine that over 1 million dead from a virus is an acceptable loss in order to bring more people around to his/her way of thinking? Malign particular groups as "others" so that in essence, the power-hungry is saying, "Look, Squirrel!" to the starving masses, who all turn to look at the squirrel while the powerful take the fish from their dinner plates?
What would people do to maintain power? Enslave? Devalue? Create the inhumane and try to make it the natural course of things?
I once thought - and I suppose some part of me still believes - that humanity could right itself. People could, if they only would, create a world where we are all equal, each of us, and our differences are exalted and glorified as the god-parts they are. I once thought that if we only tried, humans could stop wars, not fight, not argue. Just lay down the weapons and walk away. Why didn't they lay down their weapons, each side, and walk away? I always wondered this. If no one picked up their gun, then there would be no killing. No fighting.
Just say no to murdering one another. Why is that hard?
But we are humans, and humanity is not kind, or good, or willing to create a world of consistency and love. Humans, on the whole, do not want that. Perhaps a wee babe, newly born, could be raised up to think such things might exist, and maybe entire communes of children could be raised to think the world could live in perfect harmony.
But I think not.
That's because hate is taught. Otherness is taught. Evil is taught. Lust for and appeals to pain, thirsts for power, the need for more, more, more - all taught. Our society is dystopian by design, its creators from thousands of years ago have set it up so that it is patriarchal by design, that it demeans by design, and it separates and creates otherness - by design.
We cannot undo thousands of years of conditioning. Maybe it is now in our DNA, and maybe children today are born with this burning desire for power, to want more, to lie, cheat, steal or do whatever to achieve their goals. Maybe that's what personality disorders are, really. F*cked up DNA, warped by the thousands of years of toxicity that humanity has spewed upon itself.
Maybe we are no longer salvageable as a species.
As we destroy ourselves by ignoring the signs all around us of a world in decline, I hope this - like in Leibowitz, humanity will one day rise again.
Even a nuclear war won't destroy all of us, though it may come close.
I hope the next round manages to do a better job than we have.
