ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Utopias Becoming Dystopias 29768 Views
Share It!
Description:
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystopia in disguise?
Transcript
- 00:01
“Utopias Becoming Dystopias” a la Shmoop. Wherever you live, it’s far from perfect.
- 00:12
You might have too much traffic.
- 00:14
Excessive pollution.
- 00:16
The most fun place to hang out in your neighborhood might be the Bingo & Cross-stitch Hut.
- 00:24
Or you might live in a place with real problems… like persecution based on race or religion,
Full Transcript
- 00:32
or…war. What if there was a perfect city?
- 00:36
A… utopia?
- 00:38
No traffic.
- 00:38
Clean air.
- 00:40
Awesome hangouts.
- 00:41
A place where everybody is beautiful and always young.
- 00:47
People of every race and religion would get along. There’d be no war, just peace and
- 00:51
happiness for everyone.
- 00:53
Perfection, right?
- 00:54
But wait, there’s no traffic because no one has a car… what if we want to leave?
- 01:03
Sure, it’s got awesome hangouts, but we’re… kind of tired of just hanging out…
- 01:10
What if they bulldozed all the parks to make room for the movie theater, the bowling alley,
- 01:14
the Cantonese-Greek Fusion Restaurant and Hibachi…
- 01:18
What if the powers-that-be went even further to make society perfect? What if everyone
- 01:25
had to wear the same perfect clothes?
- 01:30
What if there’s no race conflict because only one race is allowed?
- 01:34
And… what if there’s no conflict between people of different religions because the
- 01:38
government only allows one religion?
- 01:45
What if there’s no war because there’s only one government that controls every iota
- 01:49
of every person’s life?
- 01:50
Something is seriously wrong with this picture.
- 01:53
We’re beginning to think this place isn’t a utopia at all.
- 01:57
Maybe… something’s rotten under all the apparent perfection. There must be a word
- 02:03
for such a place...
- 02:04
Oh, yeah...dystopia.
- 02:06
It’s not perfect – it’s controlling and oppressive.
- 02:09
In the end, the line between a utopia and dystopia might be a lot finer than we think.
- 02:16
And suddenly we might realize that there may have been better, though more complicated,
- 02:21
answers to the world’s problems.
- 02:24
And maybe, deep inside… we might just miss the Bingo & Cross-stitch Hut.
- 02:28
That is …if the powers-that-be haven’t had our memories erased.
Up Next
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Related Videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
