My name is Shan and I am an undergraduate student at Seattle University. I have created this blog to fulfill final project requirements for my Dystopian Literature class as well as to create awareness while complicating general understandings of class conflict and class inequality in a national and global context. I also seek to inspire productive discourse on the topic while (hopefully) moving individuals to action.
When going through this blog it is important to understand the context under which I am creating it. As I mentioned, I have created this blog as a final project requirement for a class titled Dystopian Literature and (Dis)Orderly Desires: Absurd Dreams and Global Nightmares by Dr. Robert Aguirre. Through this course I was able to “explore how dystopian literature illustrates our, past, and continued anxiety about our growing interconnectedness, particularly in how that anxiety manifests in a powerful desire for social order, which is the issue at the heart of this course” (Aguirre 2). Through the lens of this class, I was able to formulate my own opinions and assumptions on utopia and dystopia, which informed my research on class conflict. The first assumption is that the presence inequality and conflict between social classes is inherently dystopian while the human desire for equality is inherently utopian. The second assumption I operate under is that it would be impossible to entirely correct the issue of class conflict because it would be impossible to create such a utopia. What is a utopia for one person might not also be a utopia for the next person and even my own views of utopia are constantly evolving. I believe it would be impossible to achieve a social order in which everyone agreed and that our desire to do so is what creates the dystopia we so desperately try to avoid.
Unfortunately, this blog will not provide a universal solution to eliminate the issue of class conflict because that is not my goal to do so. My goal is to provide people with information on the issue of class inequality to inspire discourse and allow individuals to formulate their own unique opinions. I don’t believe that I should impose my views of utopia on anyone else nor to I believe that an absolute utopia can even exist. Even my idea of what a utopia should look like has changed over time so it’s unreasonable to think that everyone could ever have the same view of a perfect world. A utopia for one is not a utopia for all. We may never be able to achieve a perfect world however; there is hope in our ability to evolve in order to make this realization.
Resources:
Aguirre, Robert. Dystopian Literature and (Dis)Orderly Desires: Absurd Dreams and Global Nightmares Syllabus. 2015. University Core, Seattle University, Seattle, WA. Class handout.
When going through this blog it is important to understand the context under which I am creating it. As I mentioned, I have created this blog as a final project requirement for a class titled Dystopian Literature and (Dis)Orderly Desires: Absurd Dreams and Global Nightmares by Dr. Robert Aguirre. Through this course I was able to “explore how dystopian literature illustrates our, past, and continued anxiety about our growing interconnectedness, particularly in how that anxiety manifests in a powerful desire for social order, which is the issue at the heart of this course” (Aguirre 2). Through the lens of this class, I was able to formulate my own opinions and assumptions on utopia and dystopia, which informed my research on class conflict. The first assumption is that the presence inequality and conflict between social classes is inherently dystopian while the human desire for equality is inherently utopian. The second assumption I operate under is that it would be impossible to entirely correct the issue of class conflict because it would be impossible to create such a utopia. What is a utopia for one person might not also be a utopia for the next person and even my own views of utopia are constantly evolving. I believe it would be impossible to achieve a social order in which everyone agreed and that our desire to do so is what creates the dystopia we so desperately try to avoid.
Unfortunately, this blog will not provide a universal solution to eliminate the issue of class conflict because that is not my goal to do so. My goal is to provide people with information on the issue of class inequality to inspire discourse and allow individuals to formulate their own unique opinions. I don’t believe that I should impose my views of utopia on anyone else nor to I believe that an absolute utopia can even exist. Even my idea of what a utopia should look like has changed over time so it’s unreasonable to think that everyone could ever have the same view of a perfect world. A utopia for one is not a utopia for all. We may never be able to achieve a perfect world however; there is hope in our ability to evolve in order to make this realization.
Resources:
Aguirre, Robert. Dystopian Literature and (Dis)Orderly Desires: Absurd Dreams and Global Nightmares Syllabus. 2015. University Core, Seattle University, Seattle, WA. Class handout.