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Anon wants to live on Super Earth (thelemmy.club)
submitted 5 months ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 14 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Even the author of BNW wasn't sure of the world really was a dystopia or not. A lot of people do seem to have a lot of freedom, and most seem happy (or at least, not unhappy). Sure, a lot of questionable things have been done to achieve that goal, but if 99% is happy with their life; can it really be a dystopia?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    A lot of Westerners look at dictatorships and authoritarian states and cannot comprehend why the citizens would accept such a fate. The answer is: food, safety, housing, and cultural and religious homogeneity. People don't really care that much what the people in charge are doing as long as their life is good.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    There's also the idea that since the system "works" it shouldn't be changed. IIRC Le Guin did some stories on a place called Omelas that explored a similar idea: there's this utopian city, but they chuck a child down a hole to suffer there, which for some arcane reasons is deemed as necessary. Once people learn of this, they either accept it as indeed necessary or (rarely) leave.

    A utopia only works if everyone thinks of the same thing as being a utopian society, which people generally just don't.

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