Is America Becoming a Dystopian Society?

Fahrenheit 451 was written in 1951 by Ray Bradbury about a world where books are banned and burned and individual thought is suppressed. In short, it's about a world where censorship is used to control the masses.

1984 by George Orwell was released in 1949. Another book about government control of the masses, this time using brainwashing in various forms and the threat that "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!" Cities even come complete with two way televisions.

Brave New World, released in 1931 and written by Aldous Huxley, about a utopian society where the government keeps everyone happy through government induced stimulation, mainly the drug soma.

Three of the most powerful books written in the last one hundred years as well as three of the most challenged and banned books. All three considered "dangerous" because of their dystopian view points.

Year Zero, not only an album by Nine Inch Nails, but an alternate reality game that was used to promote the CD. Year Zero depicts another dystopian society, where the government is controlling the masses by a substance in the drinking water known as parepin. Cleverly disguised as a psychotropic drug to boost the immune system in the event of biological warfare, its purpose is to make one easier to control. According to the story line many under the influence of parepin experience hallucinations of The Presence, an omnipotent being.

Instead of getting the attention that Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury received over their depiction of futuristic worlds with the government in absolute control by various means, Trent Reznor was criticized for his marketing strategy of the CD. It seemed to go over most heads that Trent was expressing his displeasure with the Bush Administration and how it was handling things.

Consider that in the last few years we have seen the following happen:

Pharmacists are allowed to refuse to fill a prescription based on his or her person and/or religious beliefs. More than one case has hit the news about a pharmacist refusing to fill birth control pills. This not under minds the orders of a doctor but imposes one persons belief system on another person with political sanction.

Any agency accepting federal funds is not allowed to offer abortion counseling, perform abortions or promote anything other than abstinence.

More recently, parents were threatened with fines and jail for failure to vaccinate their children. Vaccine companies are now protected from law suits related to vaccine injury thanks to a provision put into the Homeland Security Bill.

All of these things fall under the regulation of morality and beliefs by the government. The government is taking the right to make personal medical decisions away from the people and making only one option legal. The right of pharmacists not to fill prescriptions was to protect those that didn't believe in dispensing RU486, "the abortion pill". In reality it did nothing but encourage some to exert their religious and moral beliefs on someone else because it agrees with the belief system of the current government.

Threatening parents with fines and jail times and forcing them to vaccinate their children under court order, in the public court is intimidation, coercion, and blackmail. If anyone other than the government did this it would be illegal. The government gets away with this by saying it's the law. Who passed this law? Better yet why isn't anyone questioning this law and others like it, as a violation of human rights?

If this isn't enough, the government is trying to go one step further. H.R. 1955, "A bill to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other purposes", passed the House 404 for to 6 against (22 abstained votes) and is now going on to the Senate. Under Subtitle J, paragraph 4, Ideologically based violence is defined as use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious or social beliefs.

Force. How does any group, be it political, religious or social, force change? Peaceful (and sometimes not so peaceful) demonstrations, protests, petitions, and letter writing campaigns. Others have the celebrity or means to do it through their art work, the articles and books they write or the music that they release.

It is understood that the idea behind H.R. 1955 is the same as the ideas behind the Homeland Security Bill, to protect the population against terrorists. The Homeland Security Bill gave the government carte blanche to wire tap, intercept emails and so forth of anyone they felt was a terrorist. According to government definition anyone who is unhappy with any given government policy and voices it can be deemed a terrorist.

H.R. 1955 (S. 1959) further reinforces certain parts of the Homeland Security Bill giving the government further means and justification to punish anyone who speaks out against it.

First government tries to regulate the entire populations morals, now it wants to control the populations thoughts and how it reacts upon those thoughts. Slowly the people are giving total control of their lives over to the government. The Constitution gives the people the power over the government, but more and more the government has control over the people. The dystopian society of science fiction is getting closer and closer to reality. If they were still alive, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley would be proud.