Dictionary.com has this definition for dystopia: a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding. In short, it is considered the opposite of Utopia, a perfect world. It describes societies that are so corrupt for power and/or money that the poor stayed oppressed with no hope of anything getting better. The poor become so hungry for life and survival.  Some would say that some third world countries like Libya, Central Africa, India, Brazil, and parts of South America qualify for this description.

Dystopia has been referenced in many movies and novels, many of them falling in the science fiction category. “Planet of the Apes” (both the original and the remake) is a good example where humans and simians reverse their roles.  Some of the movies that show dystopia in an extreme way are “Blade Runner”, and both “Mad Max” movies. Some are post-apocalyptic like “On the Beach” which takes place in then-future 1964 after World War III.

One of the most famous examples comes from George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. A political fiction and science fiction, the privileged Inner Party keeps a close surveillance on everyone and public mind control. Thanks to this novel, the world is now familiar with the terms Big Brother (as in Big Brother is watching you), doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, memory hole, and Orwellian.

In another famous novel, “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, people are not born and raised but hatched and conditioned in the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre. Fifteen-year-old Alex from Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange” suffers the oppressions and humilities of prison where rehabilitation happens in the form of brainwashing that uses associative learning. In Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”, no one “reads books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations.  Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio’ sets attached to their ears.”

From a cinematic point of view, the 1995 movie “Twelve Monkeys” scares the audience with the concept of an unknown virus that can wipe out entire populations. In the post-apocalyptic “A Boy and His Dog” a society lives underground for so long that they become corrupt in their desperation to reproduce.  While it might not seem like the movie “Pleasantville” is dystopian in nature, it actually is. The 1950s society in black and white reject any new ideas or values like they do soda jerk/artist Bill Johnson and the married Bette Parker. A sanitized version of dystopia can be seen in the Disney movie “WALL-E”. Here a gentle robot cleans up after a selfish, lazy society who travel in orbit around Earth leaving all their waste behind them. 

 A recent addition to the list dystopian-based novels and movies is the popular “The Hunger Games”.  A totalitarian nation is divided into twelve districts and the Capitol.  Each of the districts uses a lottery system to choose a child to participate in the Hunger Games. The participants have to fight to the death or be killed. The whole event is televised and everyone else is forced to watch. 

In short, what is dystopia? Hurt, pain, and a total lack of civility and virtue.