Journal entry #5

• What is a “negative Utopia”? Give evidence from “Harrison Bergeron” that supports this idea. (1)
• Orwell was not the first writer to write about corrupt governments, but what was ‘genius’ about Orwell’s writing. (2)
• What type of person/group does the article state started to grow in the 1970’s.? What type of individual is recruited and what are the promised made of this Utopia? (3)
• Why have Orwell’s predictions not totally come true? What can we do to overcome his predictions (myth)? (4)
• What are three copycat events that have been made famous in the media. Where did these happen and why? (5)
• 1. A negative Utopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. In Harrison Bergeron, year 2081 everyone is finally equal and live in a society were no one is smarter, stronger, or prettier than the other. The government rules over the citizens with heavy handicaps if they show a “flaw” or put in ear pieces if they have “thoughts” and sometimes use violence when restraining a inmate such as Harrison Bergeron who escaped prison and broke in a television studio who was shot down by the handicapper general.
• 2. In Orwells writing the “genius” was that Orwell understood that using social and physiological techniques are much more efficient that torture, violence ext. possibly because social and physiological techniques draw less attention and if the government controlled all the social media and influenced the people to speak politically this would encourage indipendant thinking and if the civilians thoughts could be controlled than rebellious protest would occur.
• 3. In the 1978, Jim Jones convinced 912 people to commit a mass murder-suicide. Since Jim the world has seen other cult leaders like David Koresh in Texas and Luc Jouret in Canada, France and Switzerland following them to their own deaths. Hundreds of cult leaders have gathered an exceeding amount of followers by promising new physiological and spiritual utopias.