Utopia/Dystopia/Grimdark (Patreon)

And now for something completely different...

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As you know, I write strictly fiction—almost. But every now and then, I start thinking about our world, and the thoughts crowd out my creativity until I take the time to jot them down. And lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Utopia.

When I was young, I was married to a gal who loved Star Trek. The Next Generation started up while we were together, and in the evenings, we would sit down on the couch and watch the new episodes as they came out.

Was I a fan? Perhaps. I do like science fiction, obviously, and I watched plenty of reruns of the original series growing up. In each of the various seasons, the writers did a really good job of making us care about the different characters, getting to know each well enough that we could almost guess just what they might do in each given situation. I liked that. Stories are primarily about characters and the shows focused on that so well.

The plots were often less impressive. Each episode would illustrate something that was very different from the world we know, and then the characters would be forced to fix things that went wrong because of that difference. That’s a good sci-fi formula! Unfortunately, most of the problems would be solved by some technobabble, and the setting would be left in more or less the same state as it was when the episode started.

TV producers really like it when the episodes leave the setting unchanged, because then the viewers won’t be lost if they miss an episode or watch them out of order. Each episode plays out like an independent book rather than part of a series.

As a result, I enjoyed the show a lot less than I’d have liked to. But there really wasn’t much good sci-fi to watch back then. Star Wars was far more fantasy in space than sci-fi since it featured swords and magic. We got an occasional sci-fi horror movie, but the Star Trek shows were the most reliable fixes we could hope for.

Deep Space Nine started, The Next Generation ended, my wife left me, and I kept watching DS9 for a very long time before I finally realized that … I didn’t have to anymore.

So, apart from the cheap resolutions and ending each episode more or less where they started off, what was wrong with Star Trek? That’s a good question!

One fundamental thing about the Star Trek universe is that it’s built on a presumption that technology will fix everything. Yeah, times might be tough right now, but as we invent new technologies, life will get easier. For us working stiffs, this was a nice bit of escapism. We could forget about working a long day to earn money, having to cook dinner, and pay bills. We could immerse ourselves in a storyline where none of those things mattered anymore.

In Star Trek, nobody had to cook! You could just tell the replicator what you wanted to eat, and poof! it would make it. They didn’t have money in many of the series. They’d grown beyond it. Why would anyone need money if you could just poof! things out of the replicator? People didn’t really have to work, but they explored the galaxy because that’s the sort of engaging thing you can do when people don’t have to work.

To be honest, I never really liked that. It’s fun to imagine that new technology will somehow fix our problems, but it doesn’t really seem to, does it? Now, I’m lousy at history, so I’m not going to go back real far, but let’s compare now (2022) with fifty years ago (1972) and a hundred years ago (1922).

Technology has changed so much between those three dates! Back in 1922, they were just starting to build homes with electric outlets installed, cars were a lot less common, and there was very little commercial air travel. By 1972, everyone had electricity, cars, and air travel was common. We didn’t have computers, cell phones, and internet just yet, but all of that has changed now.

So, imagine what it would be like to live in 1922. People weren’t cavemen. They lived nice lives!  But they must have looked forward to how life would be better when the coming technology arrived: When they could drive where they want instead of walking, taking public transportation, or maybe even riding a horse, depending on where they lived. When all the houses would have safe electric lights instead of dangerous gas lamps. When they could fly to another part of the country or even the world!

They must have been sure that this coming technology would fix all their problems, but it didn’t, did it? Instead of freeing us, these inventions also made us dependent on them. We can’t get by without a car now and have to earn up tens of thousands of dollars to buy them. We shell out more money to fuel them. And electricity? Obviously, we’re dependent on that or people wouldn’t freeze to death when the power goes out.

Fast forward to 1972. Everyone was optimistic about the space age. We had walked on the moon, Star Trek had run all three seasons, and everyone was waiting for flying cars and life on Mars. That didn’t happen either, did it?

In Star Trek, everything was clean, there was plenty of room, no one was poor or hungry, and nobody had any of those shitty jobs that keep the world turning. But despite how many times throughout the ages that we’ve thought technology would fix these things, it doesn’t. There’s always dirt, pollution, overpopulation, poverty, hunger, and shitty jobs. And I hate to say it, but there always will be.

Why? Greed.

There’s no need to wait for a post-scarcity world. We’re already there. Grocery stores and restaurants already have more food than they can sell, so lots gets thrown away. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes we’ll read posts from those poorly paid workers who are ordered to throw away the leftover donuts (for example) at the end of each day and then dump the nastiest trash on top of them to discourage homeless people from salvaging them.

Because they didn’t pay for them.

Giving away leftover food reduces demand and has the potential to hurt sales, hurt profits. It’s not even that the companies would have to do extra work or incur additional liability to give the excess away! There’s plenty of volunteers who would gladly pick up the leftovers and drive them to homeless shelters for redistribution.

Hell, these companies could probably even get a tax write-offs for doing so! But it could reduce sales. There would be some people who can just barely afford to buy food who would gladly save the money by waiting for it to become free.

Lost sales. Lost profit.

That’s why I don’t believe in Utopia settings. They don’t happen. Someone out there always wants more money, and their actions will keep us from ever getting there. Medicine, food, housing … crucial things that we will pay more for, so there’s always more money to be made by raising the prices.

I imagine Jakari as the ambassador to Earth talking to the secretary general of the United Nations. Guterres says, “Please, share your amazing technology with us so that we can live like you do, without war, hunger, homelessness, and people who are unable to access basic medical care!”

Jakari shakes her head. “Technology isn’t preventing you from having that, sir. You lack these things because the rich among you are greedy,” she explains. “If you and I were sitting with one of these billionaires, and there were one hundred diamonds on the table—ninety-eight in front of the billionaire and one each in front of us, I could pick up my diamond and ask, ‘Do you want this one too?’ And the billionaire would say, ‘Yes.’”

Jakari shrugs. “Even though one more diamond will not bring the billionaire any more happiness, even though he couldn’t realistically use all the money he already has, he still wants more. Everyone wants to make more for what they do, and you can earn more money by sharing less—be it paying workers less or refusing to give away that which you do not need—and the powerful people in your society are willing to do just that.”

So, I write dystopian fiction. Some people think that means grim-dark, but it’s not. Dystopian doesn’t mean that everyone is miserable, desperate, and hopeless.

America is currently a dystopia, and it has been for quite some time. But most of us are generally happy and enjoying our lives. Our society isn’t how it should be, but we’re making the best of it that we can.

And that’s how I imagine my geroo. Yes, their society is wrong, but they’re living happily. They’re marrying and having families. They’re living full lives. They shouldn’t be slaves. They should be able to fly their ships wherever they like. They should live longer. But even though their society is unfair, they’re still enjoying the best lives that they can.

They’re not any more miserable, desperate, or hopeless than we are, and I think people can connect to that—whether or not they wish to analyze their own society or not.

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13tLbaWhQ6lsMrMOkmZbGQ7wtzWTc0jqiC5O3JLIRAZ0/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?