Dystopia

[Shiny Motley]

I hope you guys know what a utopia is. If not, click here. Too lazy to click? It's basically an attempt at making a perfect community, state, etc. Good examples of attempts at Utopias include The Giver and Gathering Blue, both by Louis Lowry, Uglies/Pretties/Specials/Extras by Scott Westerfield, or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, among many others that I can't quite think of right now. Thing is, a bunch of these attempts end up failing because humans are just naturally corrupt, so therefore are unable to create anything perfect. These failed utopias are called "dystopias", hence the name of this topic.

I was playing around the idea of making a dystopian RP, where the role players are members of a utopian society (in the future, of course) that goes horribly wrong somehow. But let's not talk about how it goes wrong first; let's talk about how they attempted to make it perfect. ^^

- Weather is controlled by a large dome which only allows a certain amount of sunshine, rain, snow, wind, etc. every day when needed. It's not even real precipitation, just water that's being recycled in the society that rains down through a series of pipes... like the sprinklers in your lawn. Only not from the ground, but te sky. If they ever need more water, the real rain from outside the dome helps, or the officials could just steal some water from the river nearby.

- Food is produced in a large farm ran by robots, who've been progammed to know exactly when to plant, harvest, water, etc. the crops. The only animals available for food will be fish and poultry, because red meat is rather unhealthy. Also, organic food ftw~

- The people originally put into this community/project were chosen as babies, following the idea of Locke's "blank slate". These babies were educated into accepting ideals and stuff that the project managers believed were good for a perfect society.

- Government is ran by the people, as a true democracy. No representatives, nothing. Laws must be decided as a group, and everyone must participate that's over the age of 21.

- Marriage isn't through love, and kids aren't made biologically. Marriage is often pre-determined; basically, you've already been paired up by the time you're born. This is to prevent angst when a boy breaks up with a girl while dating, or vice-versa. Kids are made in a lab, where they combine a sperm and an egg together and then nourish the embryo in some special futuristic device. They do this to ensure that a) the population is stable, and b) the male to female ratio is even. If someone dies, no problem; just make another person that was the same gender as whoever died.

- No weapons of any kind, meaning these people don't eat with forks or knives or even sporks (sorry Rachel). Blunt wooden chopsticks are to be used for eating, along with wooden bowls, plates, and spoons. The community is hidden from the outside world because the dome cloaks the area to make it so that it's not detectable by radar and whoever looks at the area only sees an incredibly tall mountain. Or desert. Something like that.

- Jobs are rotated monthly to ensure that everyone knows how to do everything. There is also no currency, since you get the amount of food you need depending on your age, height, weight, gender, etc, and everyone wears the same outfit (though of course you have different shirts, but they all just look the same). When a person reaches a certain age, he/she will recieve whatever they need, like a bike, larger clothes, a cell phone, etc. Jobs include taking care of the dome, taking care of the farm, entertainment stuff, mail, and teaching.

- Kids who're eight and up also rotate around these jobs, more as apprentices than anything else, every two weeks, up until they're twelve years old. Until then, they learn basic math, science, and grammar at day-school.

- There is no religion, to ensure unity. This is because the original members were never taught about religion, so therefore they're agnostics to an extent.

- To ensure that nobody gets ill, everybody is vaccinated for every known disease, and for diseases that change regularly, they just get regularly vaccinated. If anyone does get ill, they're sent away to get special medical treatment. If they don't come back within a month, the community proclaims the person dead and gets a replacement (see bullet #5). People with mental problems are also to be sent away, along with those with genetically inherited diseases, autosomal problems (like Down Syndrome), translocation, etc. (those diseases related to genetics, basically)

- No outsiders alowed into the community in any way, shape, or form. No technology outside of bicycles, chairs, tables, buildings, clothes, pencil, paper, clipboards, calculators, or cellular phones, which cannot call anyone outside of the community. The only exceptions are the robots that take care of the farm, and the dome.

Whew, that's a lot of stuff. I didn't even write everything, though I'm sure these things are bound to change once I post this up because of the variety of opinions and stuff here. XD Anyways, as you can see, a rather nice attempt at a utopia, no? But... of course, everything can go wrong.

There's always going to be that one person who questions everything, and sure enough some dude throws a fit outside of his house one day saying that he had a dream, and proclaims that none of this is true, that there's more to life and the earth than this little community, and everything they've learned is a lie. Typical, huh? People get all worked up and his wife and friends have to carry him away or something... but now the community's all worried and stuff, wondering if this guy's right. Eventually, everyone agrees that he's mentally unstable, so they have to send him away. But the cat's been let out of the bag, and chaos ensues~ kinda.

So then some kids get together and decide to escape because they realize that this crazy man was right! And they have to find some new place to stay after they've escaped, and yadda yadda~ I dunno. D:

But yeah, that's basically my idea so far. Thoughts?

 

[Secad MS]

Can't you stab people with chopsticks? XD

I like this. I have a feeling the dystopia aspect would start when people (or often a single person) realize the lack of passion and development in the community. Discrimination against those with disabilities of various sorts could also be a factor.

On your utopia, I think you have everything well planned out. As you mentioned Uglies, does this mean everyone is a 'pretty,' due to genetic engineering?

I'm curious on how this whole project started now.

 

[Kerauno]

This sounds like a very interesting idea. It seems that you've taken into consideration just about everything you need in order to make a perfect utopia; there's nothing I can think of to add.

About the plot: your idea is fairly good, even if a bit typical. But as I read the part about the illnesses and disorders, I began thinking (there I go again, thinking) what if a group of teens shared a common disorder (nothing serious, but minuscule and fairly unnoticeable, like ADHD, very mild schizophrenia, etc. mainly mild mental disorders.) and they were hella good at keeping it a secret. Then they get discovered, and do not willingly leave, thus sparking some sorta revolution or whatever, because there are people who want them to leave and people who think in the other direction.

So basically, a bunch of mental kids get discovered and decide to get smart by either a) fighting the people against them or b) escaping. And we're back to finding a new place to live and blahblahblah. But anyway... We can integrate multiple plots, yes?

 

[Shiny Motley]

@Secad: I was considering that, then decided against it. Everyone looking exactly the same would be very boring, no? I wanted to add some diversity at least, and the people conveniently forgetting to make everyone look the same physically would help with that, even if they remembered to give everyone the same uniform. Also sort of helps to symbolize that everyone is different, we can't all be the same no matter what, and nobody can have the perfect body/face/nose/whatever. ^^;

@Kerauno: I really like that idea about the group of teens sharing a common disorder and stuff. The multiple plot part, though, with the revolution and stuff... I'd rather leave that untouched. That could get complicated, even if it is fun and all, and could easily get chaotic. I'll still consider it, though~

 

[Aura]

Oh I like this! Sounds like something some corrupt person would do... It seems to me as if someone was making a bunch of mindless clones for their own personal use or whatever. They could be secretly planted with something at the start and then... ba boom! ... you get the idea...

As for a plot well... lets say that these robots of ours had a huge malfunction, through the whole lot of them and they stopped working. The dome and everything else that the humans were dependant on, stopped working. The crops and everything else are dying, and, out of need for food, for the first time in their lives the humans don't have everything given to them. Tempers run high, and the humans start to disagree with each other. Then, the killings start. In an attempt to keep themselves alive, other humans turn on each other for food, preying on the meat. It becomes a 'survival of the fittest' situation. Some of those humans who refuse to kill others in order to survive, they try to break out of the dome, to find a way to whatever lays outside. They just need to survive long enough to find a way out.

Now, if we wanted to be really cruel, if they ever do find a way out, they could find themselves in this huge desolte wasteland, where nothing grows. Muhaha...

Er yeah, just a though.

 

[Blazi]

Oh wow I want to join.

I don't exactly have anything to help with unfortunately, though I'd go with aura's Idea of them escaping to find a wasteland.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Well, this is an interesting topic. Finally an RP about regular people rather than super-powered heroes that control monsters and all that flashy crap. I'll join should my schedule allow it.

If you ask for contributions, I'll direct you to one place: The Island (and this optional, more famous one here). This is your average utopian society where people live and die happily... until one of them discovers a startling secret. A hidden conspiracy that shaped the utopian way of life, at a heavy cost.

So basically, I'm suggesting that that not everything about this perfect society is perfect. The citizens are just pawns in a little game being played by benefactors that want to steal our organs D: with big plans for a happy little society. And the RP begins when one member of the society decides that they don't want to play anymore...

 

[Kerauno]

The ideas that Aura and Brendan threw in are interesting. Evil Robot Anarchy, Then A Wasteland: Awesome. National Dome Conspiracy: Awesome.

And what I said about a revolution: I did not exactly mean a real revolution. More of a... Social tear-down. Like, no-one wants to be around the teens, and then it becomes like a regular high school when people start to find flaws in their peers. Then people get stabbed with chopsticks. Then the public gets told, the government (as you said, everyone over 21) votes on what to do, because 1) they don't know if the mind disorders are contagious, and 2) they aren't really a threat to the society.

Then we progress the plot with something big leading up to something really bigger. I can't think of anything at the moment...

 

[Tatile]

Then what becomes like a High School? I read that everyone is in jobs but that age, apprenticing and what-not.

It sounds very Brave New World, which I'm sure this is not based on. I would suggest laying down the foundation of the society's morality and legal code (which, though seemingly redundant, would have been created by the creators to ensure there is a framework to which this experiment must adhere). This also means that, if you wish, you could have definitive 'policing' - particularly for the characters and their supposed trouble-making.

In fact, now that I think of it, it sounds like an anarchistic-cum-communistic society - a lack of familiar attachments was discussed by a more extreme anarchist philosopher, with traditional anarchism being centred around the idea that humans are better off without an artificial authority. Communism is obvious. Whether or not this was your intention, perhaps I am reading too much into it. Utopias are always interesting, esepically so if you prescribe to Hobbes' view of human nature (which anarchists obviously do not).

 

[Shiny Motley]

Hosnap, so much input and stuff, and I have no idea what to do now. x_x

@Aura, Brendan, and Kera: I really like all of your ideas, I sincerely do. D: Perhaps combining all of the ideas would be nice... or something? Gah, this is so complicated for me.

@Tatile: I made it with idea to include at least a bit of communism, actually, not necesarily because I agree that communism is the best way to do things, but that for a smaller community it would seem to make more sense than capitalism. Anarchy I tried to avoid, though it does seem that way because there is no central figure of power. Eh, you could call it an anarchial-communism or something.

As for the society's moral codes and legal code... that was also what I was trying to get from this topic. Not just plot ideas, but also laws, morals, etc. See, the problem with making any sort of a utopian society is that the ideas of morals are subjective and change within all individuals, so my ideas for what's good and bad might be different from yours. Same with justice, or whatever. Which is why I made a topic to get ideas and input from others.