dystopia = δυστοπία

[Earion]

Δεν χρειάζεται. Το μήνυμα είναι διαχρονικό και επώδυνο, από τον καιρό που το πρωτοδιατύπωσε ο Όργουελ στο 1984. Το βιντεάκι δεν είναι για κλάματα, είναι για στοχασμό. Σε βάθος και με ειλικρίνεια. Και με την πρόσθετη διάσταση: άραγε να έχει αλλάξει κάτι από τότε (το 1948) μέχρι σήμερα; Πολύ φοβάμαι πως όχι. Ίσα ίσα οι οι διαλεκτικές των τεχνικών της εξουσίας έχουν πολλαπλασιαστεί και εκλεπτυνθεί. Θα θυμάστε ένα λιγοσέλιδο κόμικ που κυκλοφορούσε ιοειδώς πριν από χρόνια στο Διαδίκτυο και συνόψιζε σε δώδεκα εικόνες τη θέση του βιβλίου του Νηλ Πόστμαν Διασκέδαση μέχρι θανάτου, ότι εντέλει ο Χάξλεϋ πέτυχε καλύτερη πρόβλεψη της εξέλιξης του κόσμου μας στο Θαυμαστό καινούργιο κόσμο απ’ ό,τι ο Όργουελ στο 1984. Το ωραιότατο αυτό κόμικ ήταν του Στούαρτ ΜακΜίλλεν, κι επειδή, όπως εξηγεί ο ίδιος στο ιστολόγιό του, αναγκάστηκε να το αποσύρει από το Διαδίκτυο για λόγους πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων (μέγιστη ειρωνεία!), είπα να κατεβάσω τις εικόνες και να τις επισυνάψω εδώ, για να υπάρχουν (μπορείτε να φτιάξετε μια παρουσίαση PowerPoint).

Ωστόσο αυτό που πολλοί, σχεδόν όλοι μας, ξεχνάμε όταν μιλάμε για το 1984 είναι η καταληκτήρια πρόταση του βιβλίου: ο ήρωας ενστερνίζεται την αλήθεια ότι δύο και δύο ίσον πέντε. Έχει μάθει να αγαπάει τον Μεγάλο Αδερφό.

He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

 

[Hellegennes]

Disclaimer: ακολουθεί απάντηση στο παραπάνω, εκτός θέματος του νήματος, όμως.

Προσωπικά διαφωνώ με αυτήν την απλοϊκή σκιτσογραφική ανάλυση, που απ' την μια δεν αποδίδει σωστά κανένα απ' τα δύο έργα κι απ' την άλλην ψιλοαμπελοφιλοσοφεί πάνω στην τρέχουσα κοινωνική δομή. Δεν είναι σημείο των καιρών ότι υπάρχει κόσμος που βλέπει την κοινωνία μας σε παρακμή για αυτούς τους συγκεκριμένους λόγους, γιατί ο παγκόσμιος πολιτισμός πάντα όδευε προς αυτήν την κατεύθυνση. Αν το ερώτημα είναι αν προτιμώ την απόλυτη ελευθερία, μέσα απ' την οποία πρέπει να κοπιάσω για να βρω αυτό που αξίζει, ή την απολυταρχία, σαφέστατα προτιμώ το πρώτο. Μπορεί να μην βρίσκεται το ευ στο πολύ, αλλά κανείς δεν σε αναγκάζει να υποβληθείς στο πολύ. Για την ακρίβεια, το να βρεις αυτό που αξίζει κι αυτό που είναι αληθινό, θα έλεγα ότι είναι ευκολότερο σήμερα από χθες.

 

[daeman]

Δεν χρειάζεται. Το μήνυμα είναι διαχρονικό και επώδυνο, από τον καιρό που το πρωτοδιατύπωσε ο Όργουελ στο 1984. Το βιντεάκι δεν είναι για κλάματα, είναι για στοχασμό. Σε βάθος και με ειλικρίνεια. Και με την πρόσθετη διάσταση: άραγε να έχει αλλάξει κάτι από τότε (το 1948) μέχρι σήμερα;
[...]
Ωστόσο αυτό που πολλοί, σχεδόν όλοι μας, ξεχνάμε όταν μιλάμε για το 1984 είναι η καταληκτήρια πρόταση του βιβλίου: ο ήρωας ενστερνίζεται την αλήθεια ότι δύο και δύο ίσον πέντε. Έχει μάθει να αγαπάει τον Μεγάλο Αδερφό.

He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.​

Ευχαριστώ, Εάριον! Για το ωραιότατο σαββατιάτικο απόγευμα - μετά τη μεσημεριανή δωρεάν επαναφόρτιση στη λαμπρή λιακάδα σήμερα - που πέρασα περιπλανώμενος σε παλιά και καινούργια λημέρια, σε γνωστά και άγνωστα κείμενα, θέματα, σκέψεις.

Επειδή στο ποστ σου έχεις ήδη 12 εικόνες και το φορουμολογισμικό δεν με αφήνει να προσθέσω 13η, ορίστε:

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Κι επειδή η χάρη θέλει αντίχαρη:

“It’s curious,” he went on after a little pause, “to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to have imagined that it could be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific research was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were the sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years’ War. That made them change their tune all right. What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled – after the Nine Years’ War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We’ve gone on controlling ever since. It hasn’t been very good for truth, of course. But it’s been very good for happiness. One can’t have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for. You’re paying for it, Mr. Watson – paying because you happen to be too much interested in beauty. I was too much interested in truth; I paid too.”

~ Brave New World, Aldous Huxley


Technology and Society by Neil Postman

Aπό τα δικά μας δυστοπικά, marketopia:

Η δυστοπία προς την οποία βαδίζουμε έχει άλλο όνομα, marketopia.
[...]
Εδώ το πολύ ενδιαφέρον άρθρο του Τέρενς Μπολ στο Dissent, απ' όπου παραθέτω μόνο την τελευταία παράγραφο:

Why does Marketopia strike most of us as a dystopia? Surely it is because in this context market relations become the totality of human relations. Where everything is for sale, nothing is sacred. Where value is equated with price, nothing is intrinsically valuable. Marketopians may be rich in material ways, but they live impoverished lives.

​

Πέφτει βαρύ για σαββατόβραδο; Δεν πειράζει· μόλις ανοίξουμε την τιβί, θα μας περάσει:

Marketopians love to be entertained. Most television stations do not broadcast depressing programs; there isn’t much of a market. This means that reports about floods, famines, airplane crashes, and Middle Eastern politics are not featured on the most widely watched news programs (although they are shown again and again on the Catastrophe Channel). The news and entertainment divisions within broadcasting were merged long ago and the former made a minor part of the latter. One of the most popular shows is “The Happy News Hour” on PBS, the Private Broadcasting Service.
​

Επειδή το Dissent ζητάει πλέον συνδρομή () για να εμφανίσει το άρθρο του Τέρενς Μπολ, ιδού: A Libertarian Utopia.


Τροφή για σκέψη, όχι για εύκολους αφορισμούς στο πόδι, μεταξύ τυρού και αχλαδίου «κοινωνικής» δικτύωσης και tittytainment.

 

[daeman]

... Και με την πρόσθετη διάσταση: άραγε να έχει αλλάξει κάτι από τότε (το 1948) μέχρι σήμερα; Πολύ φοβάμαι πως όχι. Ίσα ίσα οι οι διαλεκτικές των τεχνικών της εξουσίας έχουν πολλαπλασιαστεί και εκλεπτυνθεί. Θα θυμάστε ένα λιγοσέλιδο κόμικ που κυκλοφορούσε ιοειδώς πριν από χρόνια στο Διαδίκτυο και συνόψιζε σε δώδεκα εικόνες τη θέση του βιβλίου του Νηλ Πόστμαν Διασκέδαση μέχρι θανάτου, ότι εντέλει ο Χάξλεϋ πέτυχε καλύτερη πρόβλεψη της εξέλιξης του κόσμου μας στο Θαυμαστό καινούργιο κόσμο απ’ ό,τι ο Όργουελ στο 1984. ...

Κάτι τέτοιο έγραψε και ο ίδιος ο Χάξλεϊ στον Όργουελ, ήδη το 1949 μόλις διάβασε το 1984:

Huxley to Orwell: My Hellish Vision of the Future is Better Than Yours (1949)

In 1949, George Orwell received a curious letter from his former high school French teacher.

Orwell had just published his groundbreaking book Nineteen Eighty-Four, which received glowing reviews from just about every corner of the English-speaking world. His French teacher, as it happens, was none other than Aldous Huxley who taught at Eton for a spell before writing Brave New World (1931), the other great 20th century dystopian novel. (Listen to him read a dramatized version of the book here.)
[...]

In Huxley’s seemingly dystopic World State, the elite amuse the masses into submission with a mind-numbing drug called Soma and an endless buffet of casual sex. Orwell’s Oceania, on the other hand, keeps the masses in check with fear thanks to an endless war and a hyper-competent surveillance state. At first blush, they might seem like they are diametrically opposed but, in fact, an Orwellian world and a Huxleyan one are simply two different modes of oppression.

Obviously we are nowhere near either dystopic vision but the power of both books is that they tap into our fears of the state. While Huxley might make you look askance at The Bachelor or Facebook, Orwell makes you recoil in horror at the government throwing around phrases like “enhanced interrogation” and “surgical drone strikes.”

You can read Huxley’s full letter below.

Wrightwood. Cal., 21 October, 1949

Dear Mr. Orwell,

It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual’s psychology and physiology — are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud’s inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Thank you once again for the book.

Yours sincerely,

Aldous Huxley


​

Πηγές: Open Culture και Letters of Note.

---

1984 - David Bowie

 

[Zazula]

Νομίζω καιρός να φύγει το ερωτηματικό από τον τίτλο· αντιγράφω από το ΧΛΝΓ:
δυστοπία 1. ΦΙΛΟΣ.-ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΟΛ. φανταστικός τόπος ή κοινωνία όπου οι άνθρωποι ζουν σε καθεστώς καταπίεσης, τρόμου και γενικότ. σε απάνθρωπες συνθήκες· κατ' επέκτ. κατάσταση στην οποία οι συνθήκες ζωής είναι εξαιρετικά άσχημες. 2. ΙΑΤΡ. [...]
δυστοπικός ΦΙΛΟΣ.-ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΟΛ. που αναφέρεται στη δυστοπία [...]

 

[daeman]

Κάτι τέτοιο έγραψε και ο ίδιος ο Χάξλεϊ στον Όργουελ, ήδη το 1949 μόλις διάβασε το 1984:

Huxley to Orwell: My Hellish Vision of the Future is Better Than Yours (1949)
...

There's the Zuckerberg version, too:

What a creepy photo of Mark Zuckerberg says about our dystopian tech future
By Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, February 22, 2016

In the photo, Mark Zuckerberg is half-smiling, dazed, as if he can’t quite fathom the spectacle he has achieved. He’s striding past his peons, heel-toe down the carpeted center aisle, as they swivel and grimace, oblivious to his presence, in their own virtual realities.

Later, when the assembled journalists take the headsets off — they’re Samsung Gear VR headsets, for the record, and this is the Mobile World Congress in Spain — they’ll be amazed to realize that Zuckerberg is there; they’ll rush him for quotes and photos onstage. Much later, people on the network that Zuckerberg invented will start passing this photo around. It looks like “1984,” they say, or that 1984 Apple ad; it reminds them of “The Matrix,” in which humans grow in amniotic pods and experience the “world” via a plug in their heads.

Zuckerberg has said that, in his vision for the future, these virtual experiences will be fundamentally social. But the photo suggests something quite different: Hundreds of people share a physical space, but no perception, no experience, no phenomenological anchor. The communality of a conference (literally from conferre, “to bring together”) is thrown over for a series of hyper-individualized bubbles. And you’re reminded, from Zuckerberg’s awkward semi-smile, that the man who owns the bubbles also owns what’s in them. That controlling virtual reality, in other words, is only a step from controlling reality itself.

Then again, Zuckerberg arguably does that already. There’s just nothing particularly photogenic about the News Feed and its constant, imperceptible updates.

“In the age of advanced technology,” wrote the media theorist Neil Postman, “spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face.”

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Hell is round the corner. And it's tricky.

Lobotomy ensures my good behavior
The constant struggle ensures my insanity
Passing the evenings ensures the struggle for my family

We're hungry, beware of our appetite
Distant drums bring the news of a kill tonight
The kill which I share with my passengers
We take our fill, take our fill, take our fill

 

[daeman]

...
The Rise of Dystopian Fiction: From Soviet Dissidents to 70's Paranoia to Murakami
Charting the wild progress of literature’s genre-of-the-moment