How much would you be willing to sacrifice to actually live? Options

[Mistress Bags]

First of all, a few of you may know my rather bitter and overly negative view of society, and if you do not, you will now. With that said, I do value my individuality even more because of its rarity in this society I'm so cynical about.

If you liked The Giver and Fahrenheit 451, this book that inspired this topic will thrill you. It's called Uglies (by Scott Westerfield). Last time when I read a book like this (The Giver), I immediately scrambled to all my forums to discuss it. Well, it's been a while, so new people... new opinions?

Uglies is a story about our world three centuries from now. At one point, we nearly destroyed each other in war, conflicts, politics; and we ruined our earth, made animals extinct by our folly, and used up nearly all our resources. The story is about how as a solution for our stupidity, our world became something like a utopian society. Everything is given to you, and nobody questions anything. You learn and lead a life normal to ours up until your sixteenth birthday, when then you'll be transformed by surgery into society's idea of what is beautiful. Once you're beautiful, you live in a part of town that is seperated from the "uglies," as they refer to the younger people, so naturally flawed. Once you're turned pretty, you party, have fun, and look beautiful. You don't learn, you don't think, you don't work-- you just live. You're very shallow, since this is a world where everything is beautiful. The ironic thing is, that description sounds an awful lot like the majority of today's society, does it not? Anyhow, one of the girls who is about to be 16 and turned pretty realizes that she loves herself how she is, so she runs away to be free and to be herself. The girl's best friend, Tally, who is also about to turn 16, doesn't want her friend to go, but does nothing about it and continues waiting until she could at last be turned pretty. The day she's supposed to be turned pretty, she discovers a nasty part of society that she never knew before. There's a committee who runs everything about society. They know everything about everybody... down to every last secret. They watch your every move. Well, they confront Tally about her friend, telling her to go find her, while threatening her to not turn pretty. Tally leaves, and find much more than just her friend... a secret about her not-so-perfect society. The group that Tally's friend ran away to wasn't just some random people gathering. It was, in fact, something started by two doctors who have all the secrets about turning pretty: when you're turned pretty, they not only change your appearance, but brainwash you to being a mindless drone of society.

Not to ruin much more of the book, I'd like to discuss this with you guys. The concept of a utopian society like this has its ups and downs. In one strike, it takes away greed, lust, poverty, murder, diseases, hunger, war, disputes-- basically, everything bad. Yet, it also strips you of your freedom of your individuality. All the people brainwashed don't know they're brainwashed, so of course, they're happy as can be... they know no better. Would this be a better way to live? Or would you rather continue as we are, and end up making ourselves extinct, just so the very few people who are actually unique can still have the ability to think for themselves?
How much would you be willing to sacrifice to actually live?

[*mipadi*]

There's a really great quote that deals with this in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. Unfortunately, I can't find the passage, since the book is chock-full of great points. But the main idea behind the book is somewhat like that idea, but more in-depth. It deals with the dichotomy between a regimented, dictatorial, but safe and placid society, versus a chaotic, anarchic society in which people actually live and grow. In Snow Crash, part of society is split into entities called "Burbclaves", which are basically autonomous suburbs which are safer than the rest of the world, but rigidly controlled and regimented. As the one character, a skateboard punk named Y.T., describes this environment, she ends it with a simple observation: "What kind of life is it, anyway?"

Our "war on terror" has made me think about this more and more lately. Sure, some might say we are "safer" now than before (a point I dispute), but what have we given up? The government wiretaps our phones without warrants. The government tracks what we check out of libraries. The government imprisons people without warrants and without trial. Thousands of young men and women have died in Iraq for vague political "values". Hell, we can't even bring water onto a plane anymore. And all for a bit of safety and security.

What good is living 80+ years if you're not really living?