6 Basic questions all societies must
answer:
Human Questions
Basic Issues
1) Why are we here?
Goals & objectives
2) Who's running things?
Power & authority
3) Who does this belong to? Ownership &
property
4) Who's going to do that?
Work & sustenance
5) Who can I marry?
Love, & family
relations
6) Why don't they agree with Dissent & deviance
us?
From http://www.uwec.edu/geography/ivogeler/w188/articles/utopia.htm
Defining Utopia
• An ideal place (everyone lives in peace
and harmony) that does not exist in
reality. A place, state, or condition that is
ideally “perfect” in respect of:
•Politics
•Laws
•Customs
•Conditions
•Values and beliefs
Eu - a prefix from Greek meaning good.
Ou - a prefix from Greek meaning not.
Topia - a root from Greek meaning place.
American Values and Ideals
Why did Pilgrims come to America?
• Enlightenment Values
• Enlightened Self- Interest
• The Pursuit of Happiness
• Self-Determination
• Expansionism
Dystopia
• The antonym of utopia
• An imaginary place where people
lead dehumanized and often fearful
lives
Dystopian Concepts
A Dystopia may have:
• Totalitarian dictatorship
• What does totalitarian mean?
– It refers to a society in which nearly every
aspect of public and private behavior is
regulated by the government. “Big Brother”
• Glorification and justification of violence
• Technology that replaces humanity
• Negative social trends taken to
nightmarish extremes
• A poor standard of living among the lower
and middle classes
Characteristics of
Dystopian Literature
• Fictional and futuristic
• Serve as warnings to contemporary
man
• Comment on our own current society
• A protagonist that questions the society
• Set in the future but resembles
contemporary society
What if. . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
No one had to go to school?
You could have an iPod in your brain?
Your computer could read your thoughts?
No one had to pay taxes?
Everyone had plastic surgery?
Babies were scientifically created?
Advanced science and technology could
abolish suffering and death?
This is a Dystopia in the Making!
Dystopian Movies
Gattaca (1997)
Did you find what you
were looking for?
• Genetic
Discrimination
• Concerns of
reproductive
technologies
• Destiny
Dystopian Movies
I, Robot (2004)
Did you find what you were looking for?
• Man vs. Machine
• Humanoid Robotics
• Advancement of Technology
Other Dystopian films:
Minority Report
Fahrenheit 451
Wall-E
The Stepford Wives
Children of Men
The Matrix
On a Venn Diagram…
• Utopia vs. Dystopia–How are they the same, and how
are they different?
(Use a blank piece of white paper)
On the other side of your
paper…
• Draw a Concept Definition Map for
Utopia.
• The Venn Diagram, and the Concept
Definition Map do not need to be
complete, but you must have a good
start on both.