The Seven Dystopian Novels That are Most Relevant Today

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Dystopian fiction has been growing in popularity throughout the decades, but it hasn’t been until the rise of the internet that people started to see the realities that these fiction writers foresaw and extrapolated on. With the speed of change happening faster by the decade as technology advances and our understanding of the way the world works, the growing cause for concern by totalitarian entities become more real.

Edward Bernays understood the power of invisible governments and the shaping of public opinion, so while George Orwell is a popular dystopian author to quote these days, other authors like Aldous Huxley and Neal Shusterman have just as much insight as to the way society could be shaped if left into the hands of greedy humanity.

Brave new World - Aldous Huxley

“If most of remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the illusions of pleasure.”

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley mistrusted human nature, fearing that our drive to find the path of least resistance would ultimately make gods out of our pleasures and desires. Tiktok and Netflix are numbing the masses with trash TV while YouTube shorts and the latest Marvel blockbuster distract us from meaningful connections with those around us. Huxley feared no one would want to read books and that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance, which is exactly how his novel is written. In Brave New World people were controlled by pleasure which ultimately led to their demise.

1984 - George Orwell

“In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

This is probably the most referenced dystopian novel, which is why I didn’t put it first. That being said, it is the most referenced because it is the most obvious as to the fear of the power of government. George Orwell had a genuine mistrust of government and other authoritative organizations simply through his observation of the Spanish Civil War. Orwell feared those who would ban books, concealing the truth from us.

In 1984 people were controlled by government’s pain and fear, aka Big Brother, which is something society runs into on a daily basis in the information age. Not only do people self-censor, but Big Tech is silencing and cancelling opposition and politicians and CEOs are constant threats of becoming tyrants as they grasp for their slice of control.

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore

“Since mankind’s dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves.”

Alan Moore

Although technically a “graphic novel”, Moore’s novel has nonetheless been a relevant warning on both complacency and ignorance. Powerful entities not only use the “shove it under the rug” to their advantage, but they both incentivize and negatively reinforce behavior to promote this kind of mindset.

V for Vendetta is a story about re-empowering the individual, not only for their self-worth and pride, but to have the courage to stand against tyranny in order to choose true freedom over the chains of oppression. People should never be afraid of their governments, but rather the governments should remain fearful of their people.

The Unwind Dystology - Neal Shusterman

“In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”

Neal Shusterman

With the topic of Roe V. Wade in the United States, the chasm between pro-life and pro-choice has grown even more, and in a novel that is solely about a great compromise between the two ideologies, Shusterman’s dystopian saga could not be more relevant. Ultimately, Shusterman seems to have great worry about society’s lack of value for human life, taking the choice away from those whose lives are being debated over.

Unwind is a classic study on the intertwining of personal choice and the value of human life. Who owns our bodies? Do we? Does someone else? Does the government? Does anyone but the individual have the right to determine the value of their life? Because of society’s proximity to abortion, this storyline seems extreme and disturbing. However, The Unwind Dystology is no more extreme and disturbing than other classic dystopian novels such as 1984 and Brave New World.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

“Knowing was a temptation. What you don’t know won’t tempt you.”

Margaret Atwood

While Atwood ultimately feared that theology and religion would be humanity’s downfall, I don’t think she predicted the dogmatic worship of government. From the women’s bodies being used as political instruments and language as a tool of power, to the causes of complacency and complicity, the deeply religious thematic elements in The Handmaid’s Tale are clear.

Margaret Atwood was right in fearing that religions would ruin us. However, rather than orthodox religions being the cause of totalitarianism, it is the Church of the Woke that are becoming the very evil they deplore. This unorthodox church places a giant stigma on Motherhood, putting those women who do want to rear children into a place of ostracization, and pays tithes through state-sanctioned behavior, utilizing slogans like “my body, my choice” as a prayerful phrases of the faithful.

fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

“We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

Ray Bradbury

Life is full of hypocrisy and contradictions, and it is hubris that gives people the “moral obligation” to “protect others” from misinformation, utilizing arbitrary utilizing weapons of propaganda. History is knowledge, and if knowledge is power, if one controls history, they have access to unfettered power—they can shape both culture and politics simultaneously. Bradbury understood this simple fact when he wrote Fahrenheit 451.

Fear is the go-to tool of manipulation for propagandists and activist politicians. Bradbury had a Huxleyan understanding of the world. Mindless consumption and desensitized interactions leads to mass control, and if you distort the lines of history, you can shape public perception for any agenda and objective. While technology has allowed for the mediums to vary, censorship is not a new idea or tactic of controlling political narrative. Yes, humanity is full of hypocrisy, but that is truly the wonder in it because opposition allows for pure truth to be revealed.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

“I do not think that tragedy is our natural fate and I do not live in chronic dread of disaster. It is no happiness, but suffering that I consider unnatural. It is not success, but calamity that I regard as the abnormal exception in Human Life.”

Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged has been propped up as an iconic piece of conservative literature for decades. The rise of Communism in Russia heavily influenced her work as her distaste for the collectivist ideology. At the end of World War II and with the fall of the totalitarian threat of the Nazis, much of Europe fell under this collectivist communism, forcing millions to sacrifice personal interest for the good of the state, threatening both personal and intellectual freedoms. This wave was followed quickly by China, Korea, and Cuba, and although the United States opposed Communism in during the era known as the Cold War, Marxism still had strong support among American intellects, academics, sophists, and any who favored the both the expansion of the welfare state and increased regulation of free enterprise and private industry.

Originally Posted on Shepherd.com