Hey. Isn't this a Utopian future?

[Smooth Operator]

I mean, come on. We can love, hate, rage, and do whatever we want. At least in Canada.
So please, stop whining about how miserable your life is. It's fan-fucking-tastic.

Well the problem lies with the people, we are yet too young(primitive) to understand a utopia.
Because the old saying "enough is never enough" still applies we will always whine about it all, no matter how good we have it we can't even appreciate it.
Even a dude with more money he can spend in his lifetime is not really content, he just want's more, more, more!

To borrow a quote from Bioshock 2, "Utopia is not a place, it's a people"

 

[DCFowl]

Kraken
Your point was that utopias are impossible because the nature of utopias is contested. My point was that it does not matter if the nature of the utopia is contested its still a utopia. For a good example of multiply utopias coexisting, in fiction, read Green Mars by Kim Stanly Robinson.

" Utopia means nowhere or no place. it is often mistaken to mean good place. But strictly speaking Imaginary good places and Imaginary bad places are all utopias."
The Fabers Book of Utopias edited by John Carey 1999 pg2

 

[Adventurer2626]

Because we're not happy unless there's something to ***** about. If we make all our problems obsolete, we make new ones. The economy is all us. We made this beast and now it is the master. We're in effect forging our own chains to restrict us from spiking the lunacy graph and plunging down the ensuing slope with a few aftershocks until we stabilize again. We know the ceiling is coming fast and we're fighting against the mechanics of population growth to slow its coming. I think we're just having the growing pains of a power shift between the Republic/Democracy/Bureaucracy to a demi-feudalism. The power is shifting away from people towards the companies they are enslaving themselves to who take advantage of that power to make things better for themselves. Competition breeds ingenuity; companies are inventing all kinds of new things to give them the leg up on their competitor and what is the government doing? Deciding who the next boss to get nothing done is, making laws in an attempt to regulate everything possible, and hurling its Jabba-sized girth at 3rd world countries, petty dictators, and terrorist hydras. What plays a bigger role in your life? Congress proceedings on C-Span or sales in Wal-Mart (or other mega-corporation)? Joe middle class American isn't pulling the strings anymore, perhaps he never was. It's still the person who holds the most resources. Most people see the Gov't as an incompetent behemoth that can't decide whether to tie its left or shoe first without passing a bill while the companies are providing us with products for everyday life, giving us our jobs (for the most part) and giving us pretty commercials/programs to watch. I love all my technological goodies and food. I don't like what's on the other side of the equals sign. *pulls tin foil hat down over eyes and ears*

 

[maddawg IAJI]

No, this isn't a Utopian world. It's just seems that way to you because you and I and most folk who grew up in 1st world countries have tunnel vision. Go down to Zimbabwe or a couple small towns in Brazil. These guys are lucky to have bread to eat and unfortunately, this stuff does happen here in our own country. So no, just because I live a comfortable life does not mean that I live in a Utopia. It means I live in a world with flaws. Many flaws actually, but I like it, though that doesn't mean I'm not gonna complain about those flaws when they get on my nerves. [sup]Stupid Xbox controller button being jammed! *mumble mumble mumble*[/sup]

 

[blankedboy]

I mean, come on. We can love, hate, rage, and do whatever we want. At least in Canada.
So please, stop whining about how miserable your life is. It's fan-fucking-tastic.

You go home, open a can of pop, turn on your PS3, and complain about how much your life sucks because your internet failed. Mhm.

bet the people in the 3rd world or many of the people in the middle east wouldn't say this
you dick

derp

You've got a point, OP. There are a few downsides, but it's good to have a spirit-lifting thread like this every now and then.

 

[Paksenarrion]

Wait...so, if we aren't living in a Utopian future, does that mean we're living in a Dystopian Future?

...one where there are no realistic sex robots?

...outside of Japan?

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Hey, if you feel it's Utopian, then good for you.
I wish I felt that way...

 

[Vryyk]

If this were a utopia there would be thousands of kittens in my living room. I see no such piles of fluff.

 

[Sebenko]

Utopia?

No, it looks like the UK is on the fast track to Orwellian dystopia.

Might be slightly exaggerating. Maybe not.

 

[SD-Fiend]

If this was Utopia, sex robots indistinguishable from real humans would be serving my every desire, and I could cease thinking whilst remaining blissfully ignorant of their vicegrip on the world we once called our own.

Edit: Also on a serious note, your life is as utopian as you make it according to the circumstances.

but if your brain was basically off then you wouldn't be able to notice you were having sex

 

[Duruznik]

I think this really depends on where you live. If you live in a developed country where the political situation is rather calm, sure, this is a nice period to live in. Now, if you live in any of the politically unstable areas or a 3rd world country (Such as Africa, the Middle East, etc.), I don't think life is quite as rosey.

 

[Womplord]

If this is Utopian, then why are depression rates so high in developed countries (like Canada), and growing? I don't think "people are just whiny" is a very good answer. I suspect that depression rates are high because no-one is allowed to live life in an innate way anymore. What I mean is that instincts are repressed with the weight of all the laws and ethics.

But that's just my theory. Why are depression rates so high?

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

You can call modern civilization a Utopia if you really wish, but it seems more like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to me. It may be "perfect" but people are losing touch with what it means to be human.

Although things actually turned out to be more like a combination of 1984 AND Brave New World rather than being one or the other, which is most intruiging.

So I'm working on making my existence more like "The Doors of Perception" to block all the nastiness of modern civlization out. xD

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

If this is Utopian, then why are depression rates so high in developed countries (like Canada), and growing? I don't think "people are just whiny" is a very good answer. I suspect that depression rates are high because no-one is allowed to live life in an innate way anymore. What I mean is that instincts are repressed with the weight of all the laws and ethics.

But that's just my theory. Why are depression rates so high?

Very pleasing to see that someone other than me has gone down this train of thought.
Depression's main symptom seems to be modern society. I myself suffered a crippling depression that damn near finished me off, and now since I've began to reject society and began living more intuitively and innately, I have found complete, all-encompassing, euphoric joy. I do not think that's some happy accident. It just seems to confirm the theory of depression being largely attributable to modern society.


The whole point of a Utopia is that it's impossible to really live a fulfilling existence in it, that's why it can never happen, and that's why it will never happen. We live in some meagre representation of one, but in an actual one. Most embrace it and get on with life as though it's how things are meant to be but a few of us will slip through the cracks and aspire to live more as savages than "civlized" human beings if this is what it is to be civlized.

 

[Naheal]

No. Where's my flying car? I WAS PROMISED FLYING CARS BY 2010!

 

[Fraught]

You think we live in a utopian future? Like, all of us?

Seriously, with all the wars, diseases and problems still present, fuck, even with our current lifeorder, you seriously think the future we live in right now is utopian?

You should look up what a utopia really is. We ain't livin' in one.

With that being said, I definitely agree with your "Stop being so whiny" mentality. God, so many people've annoyed me to no end with being that whiny. Gets me all riled up, especially because these days it seems like everyone's doing it.

 

[Citrus]

We're far from a Utopia, but the world is a better place to live in now than it's ever been.

I never understand comments like "the world is so dangerous nowadays" or "violence is on the rise". Trying living a few centuries ago when you could get swept off and tortured to death because someone suggested that you might be a witch, and then come complain to me about how much the world sucks.

 

[SimuLord]

This is a dystopia, Huxley variant. People are, in the main, content and provided for, but social institutions and order have completely broken down. We've been dehumanized by our technology to the point where we can isolate ourselves from each other.

If I meet someone on campus, chances are good I can't chat them up because they're tethered by the ear to their iPods. It's an illusion of a crowd, but in reality it is naught but a collection of individuals completely socially disconnected.

We've achieved material comfort, but at the cost of our souls. That's not Utopia to me.

 

[Kurokami]

I mean, come on. We can love, hate, rage, and do whatever we want. At least in Canada.
So please, stop whining about how miserable your life is. It's fan-fucking-tastic.

You go home, open a can of pop, turn on your PS3, and complain about how much your life sucks because your internet failed. Mhm.

No, and I don't see the point of this thread.

I mean, come on. We can love, hate, rage, and do whatever we want. At least in Canada.
So please, stop whining about how miserable your life is. It's fan-fucking-tastic.

You go home, open a can of pop, turn on your PS3, and complain about how much your life sucks because your internet failed. Mhm.

bet the people in the 3rd world or many of the people in the middle east wouldn't say this
you dick

I assume his post was aimed at those of us able to read it, people who can afford internet and don't live in 3rd world countries.