Is your country a ‘Utopia’ or ‘Dystopia’? — How much do you know about your country
WRITTEN ON 13th MARCH, 2020
The Pandemic Covid-19 has been emerging since November 2019 like fires in a forest. Though, it’s not only of its kind that has brought such hassle in our lives. The 2009 pandemic of ‘Influenza’, 1918 pandemic ‘Spanish Flu’ and many other such diseases spread had taken over the world earlier too but the thing to worry about right now is the nonexistent vaccine of the CoronaVirus.
As humans, we belong to a certain region where we were born or live. That place exists in a country, this country is then owned(owned can be a wrong word but still let’s be honest) and controlled by a government. The three major roles of a government are as follows: national defense, administration of justice (law and order), and the provision of certain public goods.
Under these aspects comes the role of Government as ownership and under ownership comes responsibilities, which is interpreted by country type. We often consider two types: Utopia and Dystopia.
UTOPIA
A Utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.
The definition from Wikipedia is a minuscule factor of detail about Utopia. There’s more to this than meets the eye. To be clear, Utopia is what a government’s sole purpose keeping in mind on which it takes every decision. Think like this, every step we usually take leads us to something or somewhere, it’s like we have an aim to work for and thus make our way and path unto. And just like that, Utopia is every country’s governments’ main target. Some succeed, some stay working.
Utopia is a world in which everything and everyone works in perfect harmony. Remember the game SimCity? In SimCity — you are the government and your target is to build a city that is the biggest out of all of your Facebook friends and neighborhoods, you have to ensure complete harmony with all your Sims(the citizens) happy and in harmony and no red popups ensure happiness among them which you have to achieve(if you haven’t played that game then you will have a hard time getting my words). Why I am giving the example of the game is to make sure I am missing nothing and not advertising the game! Though, many governments have succeeded in achieving the point or level of a Utopia but failed to maintain and for this is the reason we have elections and change of government after a specific time period. Imagine having a single President for infinity period — no I am not talking about North Korea, he’s a supreme leader and it is a Dictatorship and we are discussing democracy.
Now, as we have talked about what a government desires, now let’s talk about what a government fears. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia.
DYSTOPIA
A dystopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is translated as “bad place” and is an antonym of utopia. A term that was coined by Sir Thomas More for Utopia which figures as a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty.
If the definition doesn’t provide adequate information and details about a Dystopia then consider the present. In the epidemic of Covid-19, all countries have become somewhat like what we expect from a Dystopia. The economy’s down, entries from countries to countries closed, people are getting sick, some of which are victimized are dying or have already died and out of that, it is just two months of the virus spread and we already have seen much, I wonder what’s more to be seen in the year 2020. At this time, it is restricted now to have public gatherings, meeting people, shaking hands, everyone you see some stranger they either have masks on faces or looks frightened, colleges and schools closed, many employers have told employees to work from home and whatnot. This might sound unfair and atrocious but it is the truth!
Obviously, no one would vote for a presidential candidate that portrays a picture of Dystopia and asks vote for the same. Come on, we all are aware that they all bring us near to something like that and disappoint us no matter what but we still expect them to be effective and productive, everytime. Uh, no one actually knows whether when this epidemic will end. Though we are meant to stay safe and not worry unnecessarily because we have governments to look out for us, the big boys there for us, or are they?
So I hope I have made myself clear about what are the two types of countries and the role of them governments. Both Utopia and Dystopia are abstract and I am pretty sure they don’t and won’t exist any of then and now. The major reason being, we just can’t go fully broke neither opulent, the government will selflessly act as a savior if any characteristic of Dystopia matches which present condition and why I said ‘neither Utopia’ because, it is also an imagination and it is thought of a ‘Perfect Country’ and we cannot go totally perfect, ever.