Dystopia, Here We Come?

Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, proposed in his work Poetics, art imitates life. These days in the realm of science fiction (books and movies), it seems hard put to find promising, positive futures. Things are as bad as they can be, but don’t be surprised if they get even worse. Aspects of real life serve as inspirations for creativity. There’s some facet of living sparking a story to be told.

Characters in the genre face annihilation or capture for experimentation, etc. by extraterrestrials, maniacal people make unholy alliances to their advantages, pathogens and poisons are released to eradicate all or most humans for the benefit of a select group or to provide a new home for an alien civilization from a dying planet. It goes on and on. Are there “good guys” in the stories? Maybe. Will the “good guys” win? Maybe. It’s not a given that everything will be all right in the end.

Observing the state of the world we live in, it’s not surprising that a great deal of speculation on the future is dark and foreboding. It does look like we’re heading that way—too many people are in it for what they can acquire for themselves. Nothing is more important than getting what they want and having no qualms about doing horrible things to accomplish those goals.

We may still come out the other side to carry on in fairly good shape. All it would take is consideration for one another and bringing about positive outcomes for everyone and not just a few. It hinges on humans realizing what we do just doesn’t affect us and understanding the concept of divided we fall, but united we stand. Will we be able to turn it around before our time runs out? Maybe.

The final scene is up to us.

Happy Writing.