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Helen's avatar

Do people know it when they live in a dystopia: I'd say no, because dystopias don't just pop out of nothing, or they rarely do (unless there's a coup or something, in which case they might know). In all other cases the creeping nature of the takeover and 'normalization' of what is absolutely not normal has the required habituating effect. I could site multiple examples from the world we live in now!

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Jon Miltimore's avatar

I think you're correct.

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Richard Morchoe's avatar

Dystopia is what you make of it. Be creative.

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Jon Miltimore's avatar

This is actually good advice.

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Richard Morchoe's avatar

My late friend and local media guy, Dick Vaughan, used to say "There will always be a government, but nobody knows how to run a government." I began referring to it as Vaughan's Law.

Even the most competent crew of World Controllers or most able politburo will screw it up.

Everything eventually reduces to its absurd.

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Richard Morchoe's avatar

Dystopia is what you make of it. Be creative.

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Steve Edmondson's avatar

This why DOGE will be so critical to any real success of the Trump administration. The greatest threat to our liberty is the federal government. It must reduced, dispersed, and reformed. This may be our last chance to bring the leviathan to heel.

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Rob F's avatar

Agreeing with everything that’s already said. I would add that the definition of a dystopia is a subjective measure. To individuals who relate to philosophies of personal freedoms, opposition to bureaucratic institutions that might not have the public’s best interest in mind, general skepticism of the ruling class, or simply traditional values; yes I think these people recognize when they’re living in a dystopia because it’s a world that doesn’t match their ideals. For many others… whether it’s a more trusting disposition or weakness to accept more personal accountability, I think they will argue until they’re blue in the face that there’s nothing wrong with the system in which they live even though it might seem like the world is burning to their friends and neighbors.

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Hunterson7's avatar

There is an infrastructure for tyranny and dystopia that has to be in place to permit the social cancer.

Modern medicine believes that cancers require conditions and time to be triggered. So it also seems for the most deadly of malignant social structures.

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John Kelleher's avatar

Huxley and Orwell both got it right. It’s a synthesis that you face.

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Justin Lillard's avatar

I think some know it.

Among that set, I suspect the majority suppress their awareness because the truth is simply too horrible to face.

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TC Marti's avatar

I don't believe people know it when they live in a dystopia, sans a minute minority. We can point to one factor: government-issued fiat currency. Very few of us realize what really drives inflation - an increase in monetary supply as opposed to a general increase in prices. There are a lot of people out there who either don't know about or don't care about the national debt, how it affects them, and who is ultimately responsible for it.

For many, it's so much easier for them to recite and repeat the "greedy corporations cause inflation" and ridicule anyone who dares to disagree with them. Many of us who opposed the COVID lockdowns/restrictions or funding Ukraine have been subjected to that same ridicule.

This quote, from the Matrix, I think, sums it up: "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

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