Reflection

My hands have been practically itching after the day I’ve had at uni and after time to reflect it seems to be totally in keeping with the current tone of my blogs. It is true when people say that literature is all around us and at this moment in time I am engulfed in a pool of dystopian madness.

For all you not so literature nerds you’re in fact about to zone out. However, for all you tuned in and interested people… hi. Aldous Huxley seems to have opened some weird portal in my mind to this state of complete realisation. Although the idea of a Utopian or Dystopian world may look different on paper, time and research has allowed me to realise how uncomfortably close they are. Dystopian being a ‘bad’ imaginative society and Utopian ‘good’ to me, only equal one another. It’s as if hoping for a perfect, completed and Utopian world only backfires into what we deem Dystopian.

For most people, an extreme dystopian novel such as Brave New World seems so out of reach for our society, but is it? Let’s class dystopia and utopia as objective terms and settle that the idea of a perfect world/imperfect world is completely down to perspective, preference, however you want to put it. With regard to Brave New World, they only know the life they live and little experience even the opportunity to encounter any different. In their eyes, their society is Utopian, it is happiness, it is bliss, but to us, the ‘outsiders’ we label it dystopian. Reflect.

From birth they’re conditioned, pre-destined to be merely cogs in maintaining societies mass consumerism, their universal happiness. Individuality is to be sacrificed for the good of society. Perhaps this is a little closer to home than we may think? 

Social media…

A different stance, I know, but admittedly at one point we have sacrificed a slice of our individuality in hope to fit in on social media, with fashion brands and to accomplish an ‘ideal’ lifestyle, but at what cost? I think this is a really important concept that everyone should take at least five minutes with.

Something reached out to me today, it grabbed me. 

“I say to you: one must still have chaos within, in order to give birth to a dancing star. […] Alas! The time will come when the human will give birth to no more stars. Alas! There will come the time of the most despicable human, who is no longer able to despise itself.”

Nietzsche never disappoints and reverting back to my previous blogs, you need chaos, you need bad days, you need unhappiness. If Nietzsche says that it’s okay to wake up and despise yourself then it’s okay. Make room for improvement, yearn for happiness and society will be filled with stars just like you.

Until next time,

KX