Building on anticipation: Dystopia as empowerment

Abstract

A dystopia is the depiction of a dark future based on the systematic amplification of current trends and features. It relates to a complex narrative posture that relies on the critical observation of a threatening present that would lead to an apocalyptic future ‘if nothing was done’. Yet, however inescapable this future may be described as, the very existence of such a narrative presupposes that the political community it tries to reach is actually able to do something to thwart it. Oddly enough, a successful dystopia aims at making itself obsolete: once the world it depicts is identified as a possible future, it seems to empower its readers again, restoring a ‘sense of possibilities’ that eventually makes alternative pathways thinkable. The authors of this article propose to add to the range of commonly accepted dystopian novelists such as George Orwell or Aldous Huxley sociologists such as Ulrich Beck or scientists such as Eric Drexler. Through various examples, the article defends the notion that the dystopian posture can be used to characterize both fiction and non-fiction writers: a common ability, based on the same set of inextricably cognitive and normative patterns, to anticipate the future and eventually empower political communities to engage in further action.