Dennis Prager Research Paper

Oxford dictionary defines dystopia as “an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically totalitarian or environmentally degraded to one.” In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron the government uses censorship to make everyone equal. Censorship cause utopian societies to become dystopian due to a false perception of happiness, untruthful statements and strong outliers.

Dystopia is a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

A utopia is a place of ideal perfection. However, according to the Merriam-Webster, it is also an impractical scheme for social improvement. Though dating back to the earliest days of U.S. history, utopian communities became a part of American thought by the 1840s. Various groups that were struggling because of urbanization and industrialization, challenged the traditional norms of American society with a desire to create a world without capitalism, immigration, and the tension between communities. However, these attempts failed due to individualism, materialism, the lack of growth, and little balance.

A society that is perfect, where everything is equal and everyone is happy, where there’s

Between the 1820’s and 1860’s, Americans were trying new things and promoting different ideas and ways of thinking. Once such idea is that of a utopian society. A utopian society, simple put, means a perfect society.

Many people today often enjoy reading books or watching movies from the dystopian genre. A dystopia is a futuristic, fictional world which is most of the time controlled by some sort of government. This government makes it seem that the world they live in is perfect, but in reality, there are multiple things wrong with it. People who experience these worlds are usually intrigued and are engrossed in the plot line of the story. In most cases, the story consists of the main character rebelling against the government because they believe that the things they are doing are not right. This leads the viewers or readers to evaluate the society which they just learned about and relate it back to theirs. Two examples of literature that have a dystopian society are Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games.

The idea of a perfect society, or “utopia,” was first introduced in Sir Thomas More’s book Utopia, written in 1516. In the book, More described a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean through the character Raphael. On the island everything and everyone has a specific place and purpose. There is no private property, all of the houses on the island are the same; you can walk in the front door, through the house, and out the back door. All necessary items are stored in warehouses, where people only request what they need. The people on the island manufacture the items in the warehouse, everyone that can work does, which means little to no unemployment.

Dystopia: a society characterized by human misery and oppression. A Dystopian world is controlled by a government that can do no wrong. They weed out the individuals and groups that have the thought or intend to commit their lives to “dethroning” the ruler; Big Brother. The government will do anything to protect their way of life. They will go to the extremes of changing the past to control the future. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the citizens live in a definitive dystopian world where the government forces the comrades to fit Big Brother’s purpose.

What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the

The perfect world has never existed nor will it ever. Someone persons view on something great could be another worst nightmare. In some cases people mistake utopias for dystopias. A utopia is an ideal place of state or living (“Utopia”). A dystopia is a society of characterized by human misery, a squalor, oppression, disease, or overcrowding (“Dystopia”). In George Orwell’s book 1984 the society is depicted as a utopia when in reality it’s not the perfect place, it’s written to represent a dystopia. It takes place in 1984 in a dystopian America where it’s actually called “Ocieana”. The book tries to make itself seem like a perfect society, using propaganda, and presented government. They would look like the perfect society to some people

The word utopia originates from Sir Thomas More’s novel of the same name, Utopia. Sir Thomas More created the term as an intentional homophone of the word “eutopia”, which is a Greek word meaning “good place”. (Sterling, 2015) “Utopia”, on the other hand, means “no place”, which implies either an impossibility of existence or the results of attempting to bring about such existence. The reasons why a utopia is so destructive to societies are that each person has their own vision of perfection and it is impossible to make everyone agree; if everyone made their own utopias there would be conflict between their objectives. Also, human nature is flawed and cannot accommodate perfection.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a Utopian society as “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions”. The ultimate goal of a community is create a Utopian society. A society in which everyone is equal in success. Similar to a classroom setting, a community consists of individuals who yearn to make a difference or have a desire for success. In a community, individuals want power, whether in monetary or in social ways. Each member of a community has a responsibility to create a more perfect society through contributions to benefit not only the community as a whole, but himself.

Have you ever wondered if a perfect society of possible? A Utopia is a “perfect world”, where there is no conflict and everyone has the same place in the social hierarchy. People don’t have jobs for money, but for the greater good of the community. Everyone gets along, and most utopias are isolated or in remote locations for different reasons. In my opinion, a utopia, a perfect world, is not possible due to human nature.

A dystopia represents the polar opposite of a utopia. Indeed, it could even be considered a failed utopia, a failed ideal society. If one accepts this notion as fact, then it would lead to the logical conclusion that both must share some of the same characteristics. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 portrays one such dystopia that has emerged throughout the ages clearly depicting characteristics such as conformity, isolation from external influences, and an apparent lack of poverty, misery, and war.

Our World could be better, and our World could be worse, but our World will never be perfect. Our world has had bad and good times but it has never been perfect and it’s not perfect now. There are many reasons but a few that matter the most are that we can’t make a perfect government because we can’t plan for every outcome. We also simply don’t don’t know how a perfect government could be created, and humans cannot live forever. A utopia can only exist in books and movies, never will a true utopia occur is reality.