As philosophers have tried
to imagine a better world, a few have actually set up models, some of which worked, and some of which did not. In science
fiction writers across the years have envisaged good ideas gone wrong, future societies which in order to attain some dream,
super-control the people and deny free choice.
This paper will look at some
odd similarities between real-life attempts at utopias of Robert Owen in 1825, Charles Fournier in 941, John Noyes in 1941. It will also consider science fiction visions of utopias gone wrong, including H. G. Wells “1984” (written 1949), Huxley’s “Brave New World”
( 1932 ),Lowry’s “The Giver” (1993 ), Orwell’s “Animal
Farm” (1945), Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”, Philip K.
Dick’s “Blade Runner” (1982), “Gattaca” (1997), Atwood’s
“The Handmaid’s Tale” (1986) and Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) and “The
Truman Show” (1998) – and current government policies about care of children.
Here are the key elements
of analysis:
1. treatment of giving birth as a lower-status function or obligation, and delinking it from any pleasure
or instinct to nurture
In Brave New World babies
embryo development is based on mechanical assembly-line hatching along a conveyor belt. In the Handmaid’s Tail most
women are infertile but those who are fertile are trained to be birth mothers to provide offspring for the wealthy. The infertile are servants – Marthas or clean up toxic waste. In The Giver birth mothers are assigned
their roles but do not get to know their offspring. The state determines who becomes spouses and only allows two children
per couple. In Blade Runner replicands of beings are created without memory of any real childhood because they are in essence
not human.
In the western world pregnancy
is treated with similar duality. Though governments bemoan the low birth rate and have created recently birth grants in the
UK or maternity ‘leave’ packages of up to one year in Canada, the act of giving birth is still not linked in any
way to useful work in society. Surrogate motherhood is possible and legal as
long as no money changes hands, in several countries. Many women are opting for caesareans instead of vaginal deliveries admitting
they do not want to endure the pain of giving birth, and some have dubbed this attitude being ‘too posh to push’. Though the wealthy are in 2004 indulging their offspring with costly clothing from
specialty children’s clothes and toy stores, the lowest person on the income or social ladder is still the ‘welfare
mother’ who is often mocked for having children. In this way giving birth
is not seen as a benefit across the board but is a subject of scorn by and for many women.
2. treatment of the act of
sex distinct from the feeling of love
In feminist theory women of
the 60s worked to get sexual freedom to not have to carry to term an unwanted child. Abortion on demand was a rallying cry
to free women to have choices about life roles. Some radical feminists extended the desire to not give birth to embracing
lesbianism and considering relationships with men unnecessary. Other feminists
advocated sex for pleasure only unlinked to procreation and some extended that to endorsing casual sex.
In utopias man designed
such as some religious cults, free love was the watchword often interpreted to mean men could have several wives and the leader
could have many liaisons. In the Oneida society set up in New York in 1841
husbands were to share wives as part of a general plan for sharing everything and a sense of community.
In science fiction there have
been two currents. In Brave New World sex was celebrated as a substitute for freedom and was encouraged for pleasure itself. Freemartins were genetically engineered to be sterile and the goal was for citizens
to seek constant pleasure, unlinked to any need for love.
In other science fiction works,
sex is itself seen as evil if engaged in for pleasure, and it is only for reproduction. In 1984 sex for personal pleasure
is a crime. In The Handmaid’s Tale the hired handmaid has intercourse with her assigned male in the presence of the
man’s wife and in supervised silence. In the giver sex is unrelated to
love and there is no term in the language for love. In fact all emotions are to be suppressed.
In the western world the
liberation of women to be able to use birth control and to have abortions on demand has been celebrated as a necessary step
to equal opportunities in the paid labor world, without obstacle. However this attitude has also led to the suggestion that
a baby is an obstacle and tax policies in some countries assist with costs of child-rearing but only marginally, always at
lower than minimum wage and often treating the role as akin to being unemployed and lazily living off the state. Birth rates for teenage mothers are in decline and this statistic is often reported as progress. Sex education
has spread to the public schools from as early as grade 4 and abstinence is not the key message of such programs. The ‘one-night’ stand men used to engage in has been advocated by some women too
now. On the other hand, though common law unions with sex before marriage are on the increase, many youth interviewed in such
situations express the intent to marry and claim they are in love so they deny that there is a disconnect between sex and
love.
3. State control over raising of the child and discouragement of family ties
With intentions often designed
to be noble, many utopias suggest state help in the rearing of children to free up citizens to make other contributions and
to help raise children well.Robert Owen’s society of 825 set up the first
kindergarten, the first free library, and the first community-supported private school. John Noyes set up a community to use
the extended family as caregivers and to have the child leave its mother at age one to be raised from then on in a common
nursery.
However religious cults sometimes
look at the rearing of children and the instruction of youth as a disciplining of the mind.
Isolation, lack of sleep, deprivation of food, depriving contact with the birth parents is matched with surround the
newcomer with exotic trappings. Social ostracism from anyone but the intended
role-models is common as loneliness and physical and psychological pressure add up to lead the newcomer to embrace the new
ideas of the state.
In theory the rearing of children
can go two ways. Rousseau wanted children to experience nature and to not be regimented. Maria Montessori wanted children
to not be rushed, to be allowed to develop individual talents. But science fiction writers have envisaged negative utopias
of how to rear children.
In Brave New World there is
a social predestination room and a state conditioning centre where children are programmed before and after birth to their
future health, careers, even their physical size. X-rays accustom some to heat
and oxygen deprivation reduces brain sizes of others. Children are electroshocked to dislike books and color and to prefer
blandness. In Animal Farm animals ultimately are kept under control by making
them work long hours, giving them low rations and refusing to pamper them.
In Gattaca children are genetically
designed and their DNA is manipulated to assign them roles in life, even length of life.
In A Clockwork Orange to get people to agree with the state’s agenda there is shock therapy, with sameness and
repetition to destroy any memories.
In many science fiction works, a corrupt state keeps the public in check by
revising its history or keeping people unaware of the past. Handmaids are not
permitted to read in the Handmaid’s Tale. Books are banned and burned in Fahrenheit 451.
No one is permitted to have memory in the brain in The Giver, except for one designated keeper of all memories. He
alone can see color, can experience emotion. In the Truman Show people are placated by having them watch endless TV and in
1984 television screens display endless propaganda messages from the state.
In the western world we do
not suppress information. Nor do we have suppression of the individual. But the
Internet provides floods of data without clear indication of reliability of the data or significance of the research. Though most people can read, with literacy rates over 95%, TV watching and playing
computer and video games are much more common pastimes than reading.
In schools where it is now
politically incorrect to rank order children’s achievements or have an honor roll, to not hurt the self-esteem of any,
all children are celebrated as special in every subject with the irony that by their very uniqueness they have become standardized.
With governments funding earlier
and early childcare, infants and toddlers are now placed in care of nonfamily members for long periods of each day and the
push is on to ‘standardize ‘ the treatment there. At first the interest was in health and safety meeting some
criteria for optimal development but the emphasis lately has shifted to also wanting to standardize the experiences, the instruction,
the ‘learning’ in such centers across the country.
In most schools it has been
ruled a discrimination to favor any one religion or culture or lifestyle over another and this tolerance has been interpreted
in many places to mean avoiding all discussion of controversial moral issues. Teachers,
afraid to take any particular moral stand are now feeling obliged to appear to have no moral stands. Some centers simply find
it easier to ignore any mention of controversial ethical issues leaving children feeling having a personal ethic or respecting
a tradition or culture are not important.
4. creation of new generations
of predetermined levels or castes, with some doing worker functions only
Even though a utopia often
is promoted as peaceful, happy and allowing a life of ease, most real societies that tried it have encountered problems producing
it, and one key problem has been whether to have all people as equals. In religious
cults one is a leader and often others are forced to adore this leader and give him special privilege as if he is godlike.
In real life societies too there is always a problem of what to do with someone who disagrees with the leader’s plan
of how to create happiness.
In science fiction writers
have shown ways societies might create inequalities on purpose so that the lesser can serve the leaders and still be happy
about it. In Brave New World genetically engineered people are assigned a ranking
and the Epsilon group is composed of clones, programmed to do chores and to only aspire to those roles. In 1984, 80% of the
people are designed to be proles, ordinary servants. In the Handmaid’s Tale the wealthy and powerful rule and the handmaids
serve them. In Animal Farm which started off saying all animals were equal, the pigs eventually claim superiority and insist
on special milk and apples because their health is more important than the health of others. In Blade Runner robots were created
to be intelligent and strong to help man, but the experiment went wrong and now the robots are taking over and hunting down
men.
In the western world there
is a celebration of equal rights for all and equal opportunity for all. And yet there is an inconsistency too because a capitalist
state also wants to encourage initiative and hard work and to allow there to be winners and therefore losers economically. Many tax systems such as in Canada and the US provide a higher tax rate for the rich
than the poor in order to somewhat equalize benefit but they still provide perks and tax deductions much more to the wealthy
than to the poor. Poverty rates of children in Canada remain high, at one for
every six child in the nation, despite the country’s amazing budget surplus in 2004.
The children of the wealthy get easier admission to post-secondary education and graduate from there at a much higher
rate than do children of the poor. The poor who do graduate often have such high
student debt that they have to delay personal plans like having a family or to adjust career goals just to get out of the
hole of debt. In Canada maternity benefits paid by the state are directly proportional
to previous income – the wealthier the new mother, the more the state pays her.
If a wealthy career woman is married to a wealthy career man, her income is taxed as an individual and she is not penalized
for sharing the lifestyle and home with him. However if a single-income family shares one income, they are taxed as if they
have no dependents or children to support. The rich get richer; the poor get poorer.
4. State use of language to
mislead and gloss over harsh realities
In religious cults, language
must be changed by newcomers so they only express thoughts of happiness and endorsing the leader’s views. In science fiction such language adjustment is also noticed. In 1984 Oldspeak is replaced with Newspeak.
Old words are permitted only one meaning – the state approved one. New words are invented, euphemisms often, to gloss
over and intentionally misrepresent reality. A forced labor camp is a ‘joy
camp’. In Animal Farm the concept of equal keeps being redefined and the rules of the ideal society are regularly secretly
amended. In The Giver those who die are said to be ‘released’ and the same term is used for those who rebel and
are removed from the community never to be seen again. In The Truman Show the media manipulates all reality people see and
glosses over facts to create its own truth.
In the western world we have seen language readjustments too. When women earned they were called ‘career
women’ but that term was changed to ‘women who work’, implying nonearners do not work. The term ‘daycare’
was shifted to the more universal sounding ‘child care’ and then to the
even more well-intended sounding ‘early learning’. A daycare worker
was now called a trained expert or an early childhood professional. By such word
use, lifestyles that do not meet a state agenda are excluded from benefit while the words sound as if they would be included. A ‘universal child care policy’
for example might sound like it would financially assist anyone who provides care of a child but it in effect only means state-run
daycare and benefits only those who use daycare.
7. state control of thought
and high intrusion into privacy
The 1960s feminists recognized
a dilemma when men claimed they were the rational ones and women were too emotional.
Feminists argued that emotion and reason were equally valuable and women and men had both. However utopias have had trouble dealing with those whose reason did not meld with the state’s policy
or those whose emotion might lead them to rebel. Religious cults work hard to overcome free will as if it is an evil to defeat.
In science fiction we see
ways societies solved those dilemmas – by thought control. In Brave New
World no one was permitted individual thought. Sleep-teaching conditioning, brainwashing and mind manipulation were common
practice in the interest of preserving stability in the community. In 1984 no personal diaries were allowed and there was
no privacy – cameras watched every move. In the Handmaid’s Tale handmaids are not permitted any privacy or free
movement – the secret police are always watching. In The Giver everyone
is programmed to be polite, there is no competition and history is erased. Families dissolve after children leave and the
real allegiance is only to the state. In Fahrenheit 451 no one is permitted to read or have personal opinion because conflict
might result. The press glosses over reality to present to the public always a scenario of the community in control. In The
Truman Show the media represses truth and creates a new reality to show on screen. And in A Clockwork Orange the state wipes
out free will. In all of these negative utopias suppression of free thought does lead to a greater peacefulness and surface-harmony
but also comes at the price of no risk, no emotion, no heroism.
In the western world we do
not really have thought control since we constitutionally and in charters of rights protect free speech, freedom of assembly,
civil rights of the individual. But in practice those who do not live the lifestyle the state favors are subtly deprived both
of a say in establishing social policy and in benefits.
In consultations for instance over a National Plan of Action for
Children closed-door hearings were held by one Canadian senator, inviting only those who were predisposed to agree with her
dream of national daycare and others who asked to attend were told there was no room.
In national budget consultations in Nov 2004 in Ottawa, daycare advocacy groups were given a place at the table to
present their lobby for more funding but those who do not use daycare but want funding for their children also were told there
was not enough flexibility or time to permit them to attend.
8. use of drugs to pacify
the public
It appears that most science
fiction writers want to warn us that no society can exist long without dissent, or at least desire to discuss, and in the
negative utopias, such dissension is often nipped in the bud chemically. In Brave
New World, people take regular doses of soma to stay happy and to dull the mind. In 1984 rebels are subdued and then drugged
before being indoctrinated. Even in Animal Farm, the farm owner and later the pigs fall victim to alcoholism to numb them
from reality. In Fahrenheit 451 people are kept complacent through drug addiction.
In the western world there
is no compulsory taking of mind-altering drugs. But there are increasing prescriptions for anxiety and depression medication,
especially among women who are trying to juggle careers and raising children. In the 60s women were often medicated to stay
out of paid careers and were given sleeping pills or ‘dolls’ to stay
quiet. In the year 2004 however a new trend has developed to medicate children. Restlessness
on the part of thousands of children has now been given a medical name as if the child has a deficit in ability to pay attention
and the child is then given Ritalin whose effect is to placate him.
9. expulsion of those who
disagree
In some of the science fiction
stories the genetic engineering can fail and the drugs can be insufficient and once in a while a rebel may still sneak through. These rebels are treated harshly and yet the writers seem to introduce the rebel group
as a glimmer of hope that man cannot be completely indoctrinated. In Brave New
World there is a small group of ‘savages’ that still reads. In 1984 the hero tries to link up with others to rebel
but they turn out to be spies. In the Handmaid’s Tale an underground group
called Gilead is however caught and many are killed. In Animal Farm one who wants
to leave the farm is shunned and not mentioned again. In The Giver the main character
runs away to join others who have escaped. In Fahrenheit 451 there is a small community that commits books to memory. In A
Clockwork Orange, the rebel youth gang that engages in violent acts is shown as heroic at least in that it has the sense to
rebel against conditioning.
In the western world dissension
is allowed but it is then ignored. In the media there is sometimes a pack or
herd mentality to focus on what the state decides is the key story each day and to ignore stories unless another media outlet
also has them. In this way mothers at home raising children are not only unable financially to lobby and unable to travel
to talk to government but are also ignored if they do speak up as inconsequential, isolated and hysterical.
10. troubling nature of those
in authority
Though utopia leaders claim
to do all they do for the good of others and to be only interested in the well-being of all, religious cults often end up
having a dark side. The leader of one cult urged thousands to commit suicide; another leader was found to be financially corrupt;
some adherents escaped and told horror stories of sexual exploitations.
In
science fiction too, writers show how those running the society are not all they claim to be.
In 1984 Big Brother is not brotherly but rather despotic. In Animal Farm, the leader, Napoleon turns out to be a dictator. In Gattaca evil is part of the corporation. In
A Clockwork Orange the leaders are revealed as sexually dirty and hypocrites.
In western society we elect
our leaders and can change them if they do not suit us. And yet politics itself
is a machine to get into power, and compromises are often made about principle
in order to stay in power, with the rationalization given that out of power the party could not do any good. Interests of one group are weighed against interests of another and often it is the most powerful, richest
or largest group that gets the policy change it seeks. Minority rights are easily
trampled in such situations and with elections based on first-past-the-post it is not only possible but common to have more
people vote against a political party than for it, but to still have that party win power, and with what is called a resounding
‘majority’.
11. role of science and technology
to set up and maintain the society
Most of the utopia scenarios
that show nightmarish endings came around the time of great leaps in science. Writers saw potential for good but also great
potential for harm in this love-affair with technology and this growing potential to do harm as well as good.
Ability to clone life, to
manipulate genetics can be used for good or bad. Ability to drug to pacify others, to kill or to just erase memory are features
of some of these negative utopias. In The Giver the old and the sickly are ‘released’
as if this were a beautiful thing, compulsory death. Privacy does not exist where
cameras see all in the Handmaid’s Tale or The Truman Show.
In western society we have
still a love affair with technology and faith in infinite progress. The Canadian government prepares budgets around the ‘new
economy’ based on the 24 hour commercial day via the Internet. Camcorders
and celphones with built in recording devices and cameras, surveillance cameras in public buildings and on streets are already
here and large international chain stores now have so much purchase information on backgrounds of customers that their data
exceeds the megabytes of information on the entire Internet. Identity theft has
become a new mode of crime with theft of all ID and credit information. And even
in the care of children, who still have to be washed by hand, there is a love affair with statistical study, with certification
to show competence even regarding how to teach a toddler to walk or use a spoon. There is a denial of the soft side of expertise,
the common sense, gut-feeling, wisdom of experience level of competence that is unaccompanied by a number.
12.state control of the means
of production and masterminding of individual purchases
Most utopias have to take
over in order to make their dream come true and what they take over is often the money system.
In some real communities there is sharing and cooperation but not quite communal ownership while in others people are
obliged to surrender ownership to the state. In some negative utopias this takeover means the state mass produces everything,
there is predictability and conformity. While some science fiction writers see
restrictions on the amount of personal ownership, others see a problem with the other extreme too – overconsumption.
In Animal Farm the community
at first wanted to live simply and self-sufficiently but leaders later aspired to wealth for themselves and traded to get
it. In The Giver, families were carefully allotted only small personal possessions such as one bicycle per family. In The
Truman Show large organizations had a vested interest in showing the public items on TV that they could purchase and in Brave
New World, people were urged to engage in nonstop consumerism, buying costly goods to keep the economy moving.
In western society big corporations
have a vested interest in citizens earning and spending as much as possible. The typical home is now too costly for a single
income earner and restaurants and clothing stores, fast-food outlets and service companies all benefit if all families have
dual incomes at all times. Government too gets more tax if all adults are full-time
earners so it has a vested interest in discouraging women from being home to take care of their children. In Canada tax policy
clearly provides incentives for women to work outside the home and penalties for being in the home including loss of pension,
financial recognition less than minimum wage and lack of maternity or child-care financial help others with other lifestyles
get. By controlling the family’s finances, governments are able to subtly
pressure them into a lifestyles of which the state would approve because these are ones where the state would get more revenue.
Ironically, governments often
think too shortsightedly, ignoring the money the state saves when caregiving of the young is done out of love and for free,
yet the product is a productive future taxpayer for the state. There is however also a commercialization of caregiving so
that the state also will prefer to pay a 3rd party to provide care of the young than to give the parent a tax break
because the 3rd party would pay tax on the salary and the parent freed up to earn would also pay tax.
As for the value of universal
daycare for children, think of it a parallel way – what do you think of requiring all the imperfect or handicapped to
be in state-institutions? What do you think, for yourself one day, of compulsory
centers for the elderly?
The Canadian government plan
for national daycare claims to be for kids. It is not.
If we think it is, we are living in the surreal world science
fiction writers warned us about. All is not as rosy as it seems. It is not that daycare is bad for kids – it can be good or mediocre or not. The loss is freedom to choose.
All science fiction writers who write of negative utopias warn us that freedom is the most important value
to preserve in society. We must not lose it.
