DYSTOPIA

DYSTOPIA Attitudes and Reality Checks

The massive Bellas Artes occupation with Dystopia, the evil and evasive opposite of Utopia is a chilling exploitation of human fear, anxiety, emotional terror and the darkness of the soul. The manipulation of our minds is devious and passive aggressive because it rests on human gullibility and flock mentality which make us believe that we are supporting the ”good”, to conform arm in arm in service of the common welfare while, in fact, it may lead us to mistrust, destruction, the collapse of normative decent mindsets in order to manipulate human interactions.

The most evident dystopic subject matters have been the exploration of the borders between life and death. The vampire genre has been dominating the film production for two decades, seemingly harmless with erotic overtones, attractive protagonists with a stunning and overly aesthetic ”The Vampire Chronicles”, 1994, where the two top male movie stars, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt engage in a vampire kiss and bite which enticed the audiences by the gay overtones, the contrast between beauty and decay, not seen since the Visconti adaptation of Mann´s ”Death in Venice” in which the director totally or willingly misunderstood Mann´s message. The financial recession after the eighties overspending had already made an impact on a global scale, which until now has not recovered.

In dark and unrestful times the obsession with dark forces, black magic, frightening science fiction worlds or continuous tales about the end of the world reflects the collective mind to an increasing and alarming degree. The extensive and obviously profitable production of art, drama, music, literature, television series, reality shows, films and a media depicting mutilated corpses and body parts, the obsessive focus on revenge and retribution in the abscence of the divine, dominates infotainment and entertainment in ominous colors of black and blacker. The dead do not rest, they do not go to Heaven, they linger on as zoombies, werewolfs or unruly ghosts to plague the living and to teach children that death is worse than a living hell, a sensible and comforting thought for the young generation. Or not ? A majority may be able to ”cope with” the fictive disgustingly repulsive and grotesque.

The neo-neo ”social realism” of future worlds in perpetual terror scenarios are seducing since the parameters of socio politically current movements are mimicked to perfection to potentiate a ”credibility” which is difficult to reject as fictional nonsense and absurdities. The popular series with meticulously made up and styled morticians chatting over body parts and the cosy Midsummer Murders, which by now are so many that no one can possibly survived the numerous killings in a small British village may seem innocent and enjoyable but we are becoming desensitized to aggression, brutality and violence, enhanced by the televised news which gradually are pulling the camera lenses up the nostrils of butchered victims of warfare and terror. The vampire hype deliberately has chosen the bold and the beautiful who have catapulted to a stunning celebrity status by non existing acting skills but with high cheekbones and perfect bodies. The neo-Gothic chic is mirrored in current fashion and the paintings by von Schiele looks like illustrations in a children s’ book in comparison to what we find on museum walls or computer animations. ”War is Peace” and ”Big Brother is Watching” from the Orwell ”1984” futuristic horror vision was a deliberate absurdity which was meant for us to react and discuss before such scenarios could actually become a reality. The absurd slogans, however, have become politically true, whether it is called peace promotion or defense and, on a deep level, accepted in current times as well as a virtually non-existent resistance against the American Surveillance Order Reporting Act and British expansive surveillance network, inter alia.

In Sweden it was discovered that the police force are registering all Romero ethnic individuals since 1880, using exactly the same categorizing codes as the Nazis. A two month old Romer infant, obviously, is still regarded as a subversive element in the Swedish society. Or why the registration ?? Dystopia as ”Weltanschaung” is silently creeping upon us, whether we are aware of it, or not. To read a tabloid, when it is not dealing with the gender transformation of a famous 64 year old US Olympic athlete or the burial arrangements of Zsa Zsa Gabor´s daughter, focuses on havoc s, disasters, violence, massacres, murder and a gradually dying world because of toxic outlets, climatic anomalies and contamination and the ”Schadenfreude” (epicaricay, malice) when a politician or a decision maker is caught with the fingers in the raspberry jar or with the pants down. The reason for why the elite allows itself to act immorally is seldom analyzed or addressed, unless they are found in Africa, the Middle East or Asia, since, without saying it out loud which would be politically incorrect, we still seem to regard as inferior culturally and intellectually. ”God is dead” , except for murderous Jihadists, and general misery are the ruling conceptions in the most ”enlightened” of all times where rationality and facts rule.

We live in the most informative of all worlds and tell ourselves that rationality and reason are infallible entities and that we are the guardians. Do we want be right or to be happy? Utopia has a negative connotation, meaning something impossible to achieve resting of gullibility and naivety. Is naivety a bliss? Naivety may be the unmanipulated spontaneous reaction to a stimuli which the child experiences before it is taught how to perceive the world. Right now we seem to be telling them that everything is going to hell and death is not a liberator. Can you even imagine that there are people of a generation still alive, who between two devastating world wars went to the movies to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or enjoy an overly chirpy Doris Day in ”Pillow Talks” without ever taking off her knickers? What a bunch immature, naive idiots they must have been. Or ? Am I a misogynist? No, a dystopic… But I refuse to bestow the domineering present mindset on a child. I am not willing to be that rational…Are there any alternatives ? Yes, of course !! Start to count your blessings and dare to teach the children that they exist ! Otherwise we will contribute to grow and foster generations of children headed for the psychiatric wards…

Douglas Modig