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Dystopia

About: Dystopia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2146 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15163 citations. The topic is also known as: cacotopia.


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01 Mar 2009
TL;DR: Bioshock as discussed by the authors is a new videogame which combines fighting mutants and critique of the utopian vision of Ayn Rand, which exalts capitalism, sees tax as theft, decries altruism and religion, and demands unbending, austere honesty and integrity of its adherents.
Abstract: Discusses a new videogame which combines fighting mutants and critique of the utopian vision of Ayn Rand. The game, Bioshock, critiques libertarianism at its extreme. This is represented, for the game's creative director, Ken Levine, by Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, which exalts capitalism, sees tax as theft, decries altruism and religion, and demands unbending, austere honesty and integrity of its adherents. There's probably a few hundred thousand players out there who've had their first contact with libertarian ideas thanks to Bioshock and at least some of them will think carefully and realise those ideas can end, not in dystopia, but in freedom and prosperity.

1 citations

Book ChapterDOI
04 Jul 2019
TL;DR: The American political theorist Terence Ball invites us to imagine a libertarian utopia or "marketopia" in which every good and service is for sale on the open market as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Libertarians tend to distrust politics and to trust the unregulated operations of the free market, even in areas traditionally regarded as off-limits to market thinking. The American political theorist Terence Ball invites us to imagine a libertarian utopia or “marketopia” in which every good and service is for sale on the open market. What would such a society look like? How would political, legal, and educational institutions be structured? What would happen when all institutions, goods, and services are privatized and citizens become “consumers” and students “customers”? Would Marketopia be an admirable utopia or a detestable dystopia?

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper pointed out the absence of utopian thought among twentieth-century intellectuals, a lack they held to be detrimental to progress and pointed out that the tragic events of the century, compounded by disenchantment with the poor taste and judgment of the supposedly liberated masses, have turned writers to gloomy prophecies of totalitarian and science-ridden worlds of the f uture.
Abstract: Several essayists in a recent issue of Daedalus noted with regret the absence of utopian thought among twentieth-century intellectuals, a lack they held to be detrimental to progress. The tragic events of the century, compounded by disenchantment with the poor taste and judgment of the supposedly liberated masses, have turned writers to gloomy prophecies of totalitarian and science-ridden worlds of the f uture. Dystopia rather than utopia is ascendant, they claim.1

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors sketch the main themes and context of Thomas More's Utopias and suggest that to modern readers More presents a highly ambiguous, even "dystopian" portrait of an ideal society.
Abstract: Published in 1516, Thomas More’s Utopia has come to signify attempts to reform society in a dramatic, radical, and substantial manner. Thanks to the influence of Karl Marx in the twentieth century, it has become identified as the classic precursor of the modern argument for communism as the solution to mankind’s most essential woes. This article will sketch the main themes and context of Utopia, suggesting that to modern readers More presents a highly ambiguous, even “dystopian” portrait of an “ideal society.” It then trace the contours of the development of the utopian idea across the centuries to the present, focussing on the relationship between utopianism and millenarianism in particular, and the development of euchronia and the modern idea of progress in the eighteenth century. It will then ask what relevance, if any, More’s central themes have to the modern reader, and suggest that in its warnings about the effects of machinery upon humanity and in its varied visions of global environmental catastrophe the dystopian tradition offers later modern readers a stark warning about our possible future.

1 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023244
2022672
202192
2020142
2019141