We are all exposed to countless news every day. Unfortunately, most of this news is troubling. Bad news comes from all over the world every day and we wonder what to do to keep our psychology intact.
The news that I have come across recently started to seem like a movie scene to me. Unfortunately, this movie is not a good comedy or a warm family movie. A dystopian science fiction movie you know! Then I looked more carefully and found many examples of how we live life today as if we were in a movie. I’ve listed some for you!
Let’s first look at what we see in a dystopian science fiction movie;
- A world depleted of resources, nearly unrecoverable
- An unsettling war atmosphere
- Collapsing global economy
- A constant inequality of opportunity in every field you can think of and the chaos it creates.
- Social conflicts and deaths
- If possible, one epidemic disease or biological weapon
- A ‘virtual universe’ that distances people from reality and eyes that ‘watch’ people
- At least one intelligent, control freak, and manipulative villain
- Since dystopian movies always take place in the future, there are some technologies that exist in the future according to the human imagination.
- Crazy developments and threats in space
Now, let’s take a look at which of these we come across all the time in today’s world;
A world depleted of resources, nearly unrecoverable
Unfortunately, we know that this substance is almost entirely real, even if it has a depressing conclusion about our planet. Earth’s resources are running out. In fact, we have exhausted all resources for 2022 recently. In other words, we have already started using the resources we will need in 2023.
Moreover, it is not just resources such as water or food; Intense demand for resources such as copper, which is necessary for the continuation of the production of technological products, is constantly increasing and these resources are rapidly depleting… This will undoubtedly affect our future.
In addition, the climate crisis does not leave us in this regard. While watching the destruction of the planet, we have to see people dying from the heat, flooded houses and children, animals burning alive in fires. A complete dystopian movie scene…
A shocking war atmosphere;
Yes I know. There have been wars in the world in every period and people have had to live with the reality of war. But how much would we feel the effects of a war thousands of kilometers away from us 200 years ago? We probably wouldn’t even have heard of it… Now wars are breaking out all over the world and they all affect our lives in ways we can’t even imagine.
If you take a Twitter now, the war agenda of China and Thailand, the war between Russia and Ukraine that has been going on for months, fueling many problems such as the energy crisis and killing thousands of people… screams will also appear in front of you… I can’t imagine a clearer dystopian atmosphere…
The collapsing global economy;
In dystopian movies, things usually go wrong in the world. Either a sudden disaster or a chain of disasters accumulated over the years has impoverished the whole world, and this poverty has brought along crimes. For example, count one dystopian movie without the scene with those looted empty supermarket shelves…
Let’s think about today… Although not every country is affected at the same rate, especially in the post-pandemic period, there is a global economic crisis. As much as we talk about inflation and the state of the economy, similar scenarios are experienced in different countries.
Of course, economic crises are recurring situations, just like wars. However, the world population has multiplied during each recurrent economic crisis; resources are also reduced. In other words, the shocking effects of the crisis are constantly increasing…
If you look at the news tonight, you’ll definitely see some news about the state of the economy around the world and its effects…
The inequality of opportunity that you can think of and the chaos it creates.
As a reflection of the above article, inequality of opportunity is constantly increasing. The gap between the ‘rich and the poor’ is growing day by day in education, health, and every human need and activity you can think of. While an Instagram celebrity is flying to Europe on her private jet to fashion week, a college student can’t get to her parents because she has no money to travel, or a child lives without a house to hang on to and clean water to drink…
So, as the number of scenarios that seem normal to us increases, societies are dragged into chaos. Suicide cases are increasing, society is tensing like a bomb with the pressure of poverty and inequality, violence is increasing. Moreover, we hear such news almost every day from all over the world…
Social conflicts, increased violence, suicides and deaths
Again, this is closely related to the first two items. But there is much more. In dystopian stories, authority figures and their separating, isolating and almost captive effects on people are at the forefront.
No matter what geography we look at today, we see that this situation has intensified. The authorities watch the bitter scene and deaths from their palaces, by pitting the masses against each other only for their own interests. Here’s the opening scene of a dystopian movie…
If possible, one epidemic disease or biological weapon
In Jose Saramago’s wonderful novel ‘Blindness’, everything begins with an ‘outbreak of blindness’. This sudden appearance of blindness, which affects all people, brings terrible chaos in its wake.
I remembered this novel, which, in my opinion, is one of the most successful dystopian narratives in history, as we experienced the pandemic that entered our lives in 2020 and its effects. With its effects on society and people, the deadlocks it has created and the ‘new normal’ it has created, epidemics have turned into realities that do not surprise anymore.
Just like in Blindness, many dystopian stories and movies necessarily have a disease or biological weapon that affects society. Guess which two exist today? And it’s even on the news every night…
A ‘virtual universe’ that distances people from reality and eyes that ‘watch’ people
I also want Metaverse and ultra-realistic virtual reality glasses to turn into 100% perfect technology as soon as possible and to be something we can reach as easily as buying bread. Because this kind of perception of reality and the idea of seeing how it will make you feel and what it will change makes me very excited.
But let’s be realistic. These are the subjects of dystopian movies. Every innovation that takes people away from reality can also be a wonderful ‘non-lethal weapon’ that can be used against people. That’s why people who are trapped in a virtual reality by their own will or not, can get their place in every dystopian movie.
Of course, on the other hand, there are technology giants that continue to store our data constantly. Every step we take comes across as advertisements, we have to pay to not see those advertisements, and the data presented to governments…
All these incredible things that we could only see in a movie 20 years ago are now real! Moreover, there are eyes watching us everywhere. In China, which is the most extreme example in this regard, people are watched almost every second… Does this remind you of a cult dystopia story called 1984? Thanks George Orwell, we realized once again that we live in the future thanks to you…
At least one intelligent, control freak, and manipulative villain
Now, let’s not pretend to make themselves the villains of a movie, but today the richest people in the world are officially like mad scientists of an extremely tense dystopian science fiction saying ‘I did everything to save people’…
Even though we see them as successful entrepreneurs thanks to their intelligence and smart steps, when you watch a movie like this from time to time, when you see the ‘company owner, extremely wealthy and progressive but unfortunately misguided’ characters, you think of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. isn’t he coming?
While Elon Musk turns the crypto markets upside down with a single tweet, Amazon, the company that made Jeff Bezos the richest in the world, comes to the fore with news that workers are working on the border of hunger or even toilet breaks are prevented, it is not easy to think otherwise.
Since dystopian movies always take place in the future, according to the human imagination, some future technologies and some scientific developments
Do you mean rockets that can be sent into space over and over, chips developed to heal the disease by navigating through our bodies, or chips that can be inserted into our hands and read like cards, humanoid robots or drones, or glasses that instantly immerse us in a virtual reality?
I guess we can’t deny that today’s world is a real dystopian science fiction technology paradise. Moreover, we continue to read news about how these technologies have developed every day.
In addition, if we looked at the scientific developments in the field of medicine, from genetic studies to new treatment methods, it would have seemed like a crazy movie scenario 20 years ago…
Crazy developments and threats in space
I guess it wouldn’t surprise anyone to encounter a danger from outer space in a dystopian science fiction movie, or the dark events that take place on an exoplanet that people have seized to consume its resources. Or, in some dystopian movies, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see people settle in orbiting habitats because this planet has become uninhabitable.
Although these are not the absolute facts of our day, when we look at the news, we talk about galaxies thousands of light years away, the preparations for the first manned mission to Mars, how the satellites that fill the orbit line up and pass before our eyes at night. The companies of billionaires sent tourists to space, tourists… Even these alone show that we are living a movie that is believed to consist of scenes that seemed to be imaginary in the past…
Although everything sounds good so far, unfortunately this is the scene when the first crew to Mars dies after an unexpected mistake on the way, when that gigantic telescope first communicates with an alien civilization, or when those orbiting satellites turn into garbage heaps that no longer allow us to see in front of us. It won’t be as fun…
Judging by the news, we’ve all already turned into ordinary characters in a movie…
As humans, we are exposed to an amount of news every day that we should never be exposed to. We are trying to be aware of everything that happens in the universe, and we cannot fully grasp the meaning of missing the moment.
Of course, some of the news images in this list are ‘clickbait’, of course, there are many beautiful things besides all these dark truths, and that’s what life actually means. But each of us should understand that some things don’t really work out, some things are really beautiful, and some things are exaggerated a little bit, and we should try to stay sane.
Otherwise, we’ll be caught between touting disaster and a little game of Pollyannaism, harming our own health trying to figure out which is real.
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