Let’s talk about Dystopian Societies for a minute…

America has a fascination with them and I am wondering why. I have a couple of thoughts and a couple of theories but that’s all they are.

Enders Game. The Giver. The Hunger Games. Divergent.

See a common thread? Now I’m not oblivious to the next argument I’m going to get hit with: Those are just a few books written over the course of a long time. I know. In fact, I know the dates:
• Enders Game: January 1985
• The Giver: January 1st, 1993
• The Hunger Games: September 14th, 2008
• Divergent: January 1st, 2011
See? I do my research. My problem isn’t about when they were written though. It’s about when they are being released by Hollywood as movies. To be fair, Hollywood is going to release movies that make money and that’s pretty much their one and only goal. But there are some common threads that we can’t ignore: Hollywood releases movies that people will pay to see – people are paying (and paying) to see the four movies listed above and they all have one huge underlying theme: the government is controlling everything.

Now for those that don’t know me, I am not a conspiracy theorist but I do find the theories interesting. I tend to stay out of politics to a certain degree but I think we are at the point where we need to ask ourselves some very important questions:
• “Why are many of the top-grossing, young adult movies being made about bad things that happen when the government has too much control?”
• “If Hollywood only makes movies that will make money, why is the Generation Y* (among others) so fascinated with the idea of these dystopian societies?”
• “Does this generation believe that we will one day end up in a dystopian society or is this a far off notion to them – like watching Star Wars?”

I’m not trying to blow anything out of proportion but we are talking about 10 movies here (Enders Game, The Giver, 4 of The Hunger Games series, and 4 of the Divergent series) and those are just the ones that are being adapted from books that have movies released within the last year or so. AND, these aren’t just 10 random movies; these are 10 movies that include some of the highest-grossing movies of the past couple of years. Also, this includes the not-so-obvious references to the same topic such as Twilight’s last movie.

The point is: should we be wondering what the fascination is all about? Does Gen Y think that this is going to happen eventually or is it as far off as traveling at light-speed between planets?

Please feel free to share your thoughts or comments below.

*Generation Y refers to those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. Also known as Millenials.