ur viewing and assignment this week will begin to focus explicitly on utopian and dystopian representations of media and technology.
The following, from read, write, think (link below), defines and describes dystopias and their characteristics. It also includes types of dystopian controls and dystopian protagonists that can be found in film, television, and literature.
After watching this week’s viewing, 15 Million Merits, can you identify how the episode’s narrative matches the descriiption below?
Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control.
Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society:
• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• The natural world is banished and distrusted.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations.
• Individuality and dissent are bad.
• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
Types of Dystopian Controls:
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:
• Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report and Running Man.
• Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
• Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix, The Terminator, and I, Robot.
• Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.
The Dystopian Protagonist:
• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
• questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her perspective.
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson926/DefinitionCharacteristics.pdf
15 Million Merits takes us fast forward from Postman’s chapter 4 into a world where information glut and technology have “. . .called into being a new world,” “a peek-a-boo world” (p. 70). In the last paragraph of chapter 4 we are reminded by Bacon that we have “replaced the idea of human progress with the idea of technological progress” (p. 70). We are accommodating ourselves to new technologies.
Here is a list of main characters to assist you in your assignment:
Bing Madsen (protagonist)
Swift
Abi
Dustin
Selma
Judge Hope
Judge Charity
Judge Wraith
In this episode we see Bing enslaved by technology in a world that appears to be even beyond Technopoly, where everyone must serve technology. There is an absence of anything real or authentic and it seems that the world revolves around advertising and consuming, whether that be consuming merits or consuming goods. Refer to this week’s assignment for next steps and enjoy the episode!
Assignment:
View 15 Million Merits:
Write: Total of approximately 750 words – INCLUDE your full word count at the end of your assignment for full credit. THANKS!
Briefly give your explanation of Bing’s dystopian world in 15 Million Merits. What exactly is going on? Approximately 200 words.
Identify and explain two major dystopian themes in the episode. Do not just refer to a scene or a particular happening, rather identify over-arching themes that run throughout the episode that are reflected in a variety of scenes. Offer scenes or happenings as examples of themes, not themes themselves. Use the definitions and characteristics of dystopias in the Introduction to this unit to help you.
Approximately 250 words.
Connect each of the two themes to Postman’s concept of Technopoly. Consider the beginnings of Technopoly as he explains it (the Scopes’ Monkey Trial, Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management), the idea of human beings as objects or the idea that “. . .society is best served when human beings are placed at the disposal of their techniques and technology, that human beings are, in a sense, worth less than their machinery. He and his followers described exactly what this means, and hailed their discovery as the beginnings of a brave new world” (chapter 3, p. 52). Approximately 250 words.