Welcome to Dystopia

Vladimir Putin has had his opponents locked up or killed.  Nicolás Maduro has done the same.  Long before that pair of demagogues entered the picture, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, Mao Zedong, and Benito Mussolini did likewise.  These authoritarian leaders all pushed their will upon the people, tried to convince them that this was a good thing, but didn’t really care how the people felt, one way or the other.  The will of the people was but an annoyance if it didn’t mesh with their desires.  These leaders held positions with threats, violence, and intimidation.  Most in the U.S. would decry such tactics.

The question now becomes, why are so many Americans’ trying to anoint a new demagogue to rule them?  Even if they aren’t students of history, there are many who have first-hand knowledge from Cuba, Venezuela, or other countries of how it all worked before.  Are their current petty agendas of such importance to them that they are willing to abandon our democracy to achieve some singular goal?  Will white supremacy, abortion, or some other item on their dockets end our way of life? 

What seemed like a 70-year-old piece of fiction written about a dystopian future, now has devolved into a very possible political reality.  George Orwell’s cautionary tale involved a perpetual war, extensive government surveillance, a distortion of historical record through reinterpretations of history, and extensive propaganda.  I would say that recent events have ticked every single box of consequences listed as warnings of life under totalitarian rule.  Societal science fiction of the 30s and 40s dealt largely with a dystopian future rather than one with a more technological or space travel bent.

Scene from 1984

We have seen a real estate entrepreneur and charismatic reality tv star fool a large enough group of gullible riff-raff into believing he is one of them, that he was able to take control of a major political party.  Republican leaders now cower at the very thought of displeasing this man who controls such a fervent vocal crowd.  He reminds me of the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz and her hoard of flying monkeys.  He is also the wizard operating behind the curtain to control a fearful constituency and their collection of “cowardly-lion” elected officials.

Witch Trump about to release monkey Steve Bannon
to confuse Tucker Carlson, a simple task.

Another dystopian tale of note was based on a 1966 novel and made into the movie, Soylent Green.  It is only made a bit more relevant in that it is set in the far distant future of 2022.  In this one, overpopulation, pollution, and climate change (nothing to see here folks) bring about worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing.  The Soylent Corporation steps up with Soylent Red, Yellow, and Green wafers for a nutritional solution to the food shortage.  Claims that the Soylent Green is made from ocean plankton placate some.  It is later revealed that (spoiler alert) corporate greed is attacking two of the worlds’ problems at once.  They are operating a euthanasia center (overcrowding) which provides the protein for Soylent Green (food shortage).  “Soylent Green is people,” shouts the protagonist, Thorn in a closing scene.  

Soylent Green production is overseen by Charlton Heston

Certainly, that couldn’t happen here.  Not in our future.  Well, 1984 was off by about 36 years so, perhaps 2056 will find a time when cannibalism will gain acceptance within the for-profit morals of some future corporate entity.  I could see Eric Trump cast in the role of CEO of the new Soylent Green of 2056.  He would be 74 at the time.

Eric, CEO Soylent Corp, 2056

As an odd footnote to this piece, I found a conservative site that also warned of a 1984-like dystopian threat.  They drew similar parallels but geared more to the loss of First Amendment rights and god-forbid, a Second Amendment attack on their guns.  They too saw the threat, but it was coming from liberals.  "America is in the middle of a literal coup d’etat right out of the CIA playbook from 1954," warned this piece that was written in November of 2020.  They quoted Sidney Powell regarding the recent election, "we are about to learn that the entire election has been subject to illegal manipulation and interference by the intelligence agencies, specifically the CIA, and by Machine Democrats in key states."  Oh, if only hindsight were as clear as the year this was created, 20-20.  

The referenced article was written by a self-proclaimed, "non-partisan commentator taking aim at all aspects of governmental domestic and foreign policy and the American socio-political landscape with an eye toward examining the functional realities of the modern age."  He would have been well to have considered his reliance on Sidney Powell who later defended her statements about the election by saying, "reasonable people wouldn't have believed as fact, her assertions of fraud after the 2020 presidential election."  Ms. Powell is being sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems and is now tap dancing to a different tune and trying to exit, stage-left.

Threatened with a defamation suit,
Sidney Powell wants to tap dance away.