When we think of the word “dystopia,” most of us are likely to think of George Orwell’s 1984. It animates our idea of a dystopia- totaliarianism, mass surveillance, oppressive regimentation and authoritarianism that all amount to an outright and explicit end of human rights and individual sovereignty.
We wouldn’t be in blame to picture Orwell’s 1984 as the epitome of a dystopia. But it is only 1 pole of the spectrum of dystopic realities. We ignore the other pole at our own risk- Huxley’s Brave New World.
In Brave New World, much of 1984’s society still exists, but the denizens are completely unaware of it. Their society replete with material luxuries, their diets with optimized nutrient ratios, and their routines with perfectly orderly schedules, everything appears simply perfect. 1984 is an explicit and readily apparent dystopia. Brave New World is a dystopia that pretends to be a utopia. 1984’s inhabitants can recognize their prison and have a chance of mounting a rebellion. Brave New World’s inhabitants live in a state of drugged-up stupor. They do not even know that they live in a dystopia. And thus they never stand a chance.
The danger of the democratic-capitalist world of human right, technology, free-speech and liberty we live in today is that it keeps pointing towards that distant enemy- the 1984 it prevents us from- while cocooning us inside a Brave New World.