Dystopian Societies

Only recently, the community of the literary world was surprised by the emergence of a 23-years-old female author of a dystopian novel – Tahereh Mafi and her first book, Shatter Me. In it the young woman notes, “The new citizens of our world will be reduced to nothing but numbers, easily interchangeable, easily removable, easily destroyed for disobedience. We have lost our humanity.” What made her so famous in such a short period of time is that her observations resemble the predictions of two noted authors of dystopian novels – George Orwell with his book 1984 and Aldous Huxley with his work Brave New World. Both of them found a place not only in the literary world but also in the spheres of politics and psychology since their theories about the future of the human kind were largely based on realistic threats. Their view, no matter how exaggerated and far-fetched, has observable possible implications in the present. Martin Seligman, the President of the American Psychological Association, proposes partial remedy to some of these implications through his “positive psychology” theory. His approach could prove useful in dealing with threats like the numbing of the human mind, the emotional detachment from sexual relations, the death of family values, and the detachment from the past, all to a large extent due to the technological developments of the new world.

One significant problem, the one that triggered all others, is the numbing of the human character by institutions and by technology. This trend is largely discussed by Orwell. In his novel, a new language exists, and its main goal is “to narrow the range of thought.” Huxley also incorporates it in his discussion of the importance of schools in the New World – institution...

... middle of paper ...

...r the better and placing the focus on the individual. The “pursuit of meaning” that he describes as a form of life is focused on finding something bigger than one’s self to attach to. According to Seligman, this is the ultimate form of satisfaction. Once the individual prevails against the institution, grim predictions about the future will start to fade and personal expression will triumph putting an end to the decline of civilization.

Works Cited

Lombardi, Esther. “ ‘1984’ Quotes.” About.com. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

Mafi, Tahereh. “Shatter Me Quotes.” Good Reads. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

Seligman, Martin. “Eudaemonia, The Good Life.” Edge The Third Culture. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. < http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/seligman04/seligman_index.html>.