Dystopia: Science Fiction, Exaggeration, or Imminent Reality?

It's hard to assign an irrefutable definition to the world nowadays - given its remarkably unfathomable state. The American Dream, the information revolution, two world wars, pornography, third world countries' independence and other benchmarks define the timeline of the 20th century (the near past). However, where has this left us today? Indeed the world exhibits an extremely ambiguous era that may be a prelude to a wholly different future than its past – far or near. Most significant in our present is the emergence of exponentially growing technology with unlimited abilities – simultaneously promising and foreboding - which has created a gap between the agenda of the minority that holds such technological powers and the majority's ordinary activity; it accounted for a circumference of negligence of the present's underlying powers and the future's potential ones.

All the rapidly changing factors have left the world's definition significantly vague. An ongoing dispute asks whether the world can be categorized as a utopia or if it fits best to the definition of dystopia. On one side Utopia, as defined by Wikipedia, is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. It is a word that English lawyer and renaissance humanist Sir Thomas More coined in 1516. Dystopia, on the other side, is one that is 'in some important way undesirable or frightening'. Where does that leave the world within such a spectrum? And do dystopian notions sincerely predict our future or are such notions and literary works pure fiction?

To equate the qualities the world instilled now to utopian qualities seems virtually impossible. An advantage, therefore, seems obvious to the proponents of the world's classification as a dystopia. P...

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...a utopia.

Some media, other than literary work, have also conveyed dystopia's notions and showed its aspects, making the dystopian theme a viral and recurrent one. Movies such the island and the matrix trilogy, portray characters living in a dystopian society quite similar to settings in dystopian novels, making movie patrons increasingly aware of such probable prophecies of the future. Also, music has been a widely-used medium for the portrayal of dystopian concepts. 2112 by Rush is about a man living in a dystopian society, while In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans contains predictions of many different years to come. Bands like Pink Floyd and The Buggles have also been known for their dystopia-inclined lyrics. Many video games also provide examples of dystopian worlds. These media has left the concept of dystopia recognized by most, for them to contemplate on.