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Utopia is Dystopia - Coggle Diagram

- - - - by Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
      - In order for the people of Omelas to thrive with their "happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies," they must depend on one child's absolute desolation and dispair. (Le Guin 4)
        
        The people of Omelas are outraged despite any explanations as to why the child must suffer. But, they know that if "the wretched one were not there sniveling in the dark, the other one, the flute-player, could make no joyful music." (Le guin 4)
        
        Through this excerpt, Le Guin is explaining that the child is suffering for the greater good. Is this a small price to pay for a perfect utopia?
        
        If a utopia is a perfect world, then Omelas is truly a dystopia. In a utopia, there should be no suffering or cost to pay; however, to achieve utopia, there is a cost. This paradox is explained clearly in The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas; the people of Omelas believe they live in a perfect world, but the suffering of the child subliminally disturbs them and affects their natural way of life.
      - Character Types
        
        The Believers
        
        Sacrificial Lamb
        
        Victim/Innocent
        
        Deviants
  - - - In this episode of the Twilight Zone, our ideas of beauty and illusion are tested. The eye of the beholder follows a young woman in the hospital receiving cosmetic surgery because she is "horrendously ugly." However, when they remove the bandages from her face and reveal a beautiful woman, the hospital staff is shocked to find that none of the treatments worked. In this world, our version of beauty is their version of an abnormality. This social contract demonstrates how everything has a different meaning in the eye of another society.
        
        We later learn that the woman must be exiled and forced to live with the other "unsightly" people so they can "be with their own kind." As she is being taken to this village of the exiled, the man escorting her explains that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". When we leave here, when we go to the village, try to think of that, Miss Tyler. Say it over and over to yourself."
        
        Self Versus Society
      - As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, utopia is in the eye of the beholder.
      - Character Types
        
        Victim/Innocent
        
        Law Abiding Citizen
        
        Deviant
    - - While we watch The Matrix, we find that the main character Neo is met with a choice--to stay in the Matrix, ignorant of the outside world, or leave to "free [his] mind" and discover the truth about reality.
        
        The people of the Matrix are living in a seemingly utopian world; however, as we follow Neo on his quest, a dystopian world is revealed.
        
        Ignorance is Bliss...
        The choices Neo must make in the Matrix push us to wonder if life would be better without knowledge that the Matrix is simply a computer program designed to keep humans occupied.
      - Illusion of Choicehttps://youtu.be/2t5yqfyIKCQ
      - Character Types
        
        The Wise One
        
        Deviant
        
        Big Brother
- - - - The Perfect Match examines a society in which technology is the basis of its utopia. Tilly, an AI assistant, predicts what users want, who they should date, and even offers suggestions as to what they should bring up in conversation. With Tilly, people no longer need to remember any information; "having Tilly [is] like having the world's best assistant." (Liu 3)
        
        At first glance, Tilly seems like the ultimate assistant to user Sai, until his neighbor Jenny argues that "Tilly doesn't tell you what you want, she tells you what to think. Do you even know what you really want anymore?" (Liu 3)
        
        Illusion of choice
        
        The makers of Tilly turned the world into a place where people act as puppets that are pushed to do or buy whatever makes the corporation the most money. With Tilly, everyone can be watched without their knowledge, just as they can be observed within a Panopticon.
        
        Author Ken Liu explains the ultimate digital Panopticon through this short story.
      - by Ken Liu
      - Character Types
        
        Instigator
        
        Big Brother
        
        Law-abiding Citizen
        
        Deviant
  - - - by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
      - Vonnegut Jr. writes about a world of quality in which the body politics of the time force people to be "equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." (Vonnegut Jr. 38)
        
        In this perfect world, everyone is finally equal. No one can have a single thought for more than 20 seconds, beautiful people must wear masks to prevent jealousy; anyone above average must be handicapped to preserve equality.
        
        So do we really want true equality? As every utopian idea, this kind of equality comes with a cost--individuality.
        
        Vonnegut pushes us to question what kind of equality we want in our world and what it truly means to be equal.
        
        Equality doesn't always equal good
      - Character Types
        
        Deviant
        
        Big Government
        
        Rule-followers
- - - - Ten With a Flag is the perfect model to represent the cost of utopia, as the couple had to make a sacrifice in order to have their ideal child.
  - - - Controlling Government