Please stop saying we're Living in a Hellscape
A rant at the end of the year.
For many reasons, we as people who care about current events are noticing things may be becoming worse than the generations prior, at the very least the last four years we’ve become very accustomed to saying we’re living in a “dystopian hellscape.” And frankly I’m tired of it. So my wish, my plea really, for my progressive, leftist, or even people who care about world, stop saying we’re living in a “dystopian hellscape.” Because we’re not, we’re living in the world.
I think I know why this happens, but frankly I’m sick of reading it, I’m sick of people saying it, and honestly I don’t know who or what it serves. Let me explain.
A caveat, I’m writing from Canada, frankly in a safe and pretty well off nation. I’m writing in the middle of winter, in my warm home. I have a house, food I can eat, I have an education, and the means to get money. I live a pretty privileged life.
I know there are people who suffer here, however most of the people who say we’re living in a dystopian hellscape are talking from safe havens like North America and in privelaged places like I am.
But this idea that we live in a “dystopian hellscape” has infiltrated so much of writing and thought that it’s become commonplace to say it. And it’s always in this ironic sense of defeatism that I feel progressive thought lends itself so easily.
We’re very much aware of what’s going on in the world: war, genocide, health issues, a pandemic, economic woes, skyrocketing levels of mental health problems, climate change, and the fact that I can barely afford groceries. All of this connected to the fact that we can access this information at all times at any hours of the day has led a lot of people to believe we live in a “dystopian hellscape.” This is also coupled with leftist thoughts and beliefs that to be a “good and valuable leftist” is to care about all these things constantly. To be in a constant state of alert, and constant state of depression due to the events of the world. And I know what you’re thinking, what right do I have to police your thoughts and feelings about how you feel about the world? You’re right I don’t, you can feel however you feel. However I have the right to disagree about your conclusion of the world.
I reached a point where I had to write about this when this pretty good blog article that was shared to me about porn culture and purity culture ended thusly:
And I mean, who can’t disagree with that right? We do live in a very capitalistic world, we do live in a place that disregards sex workers as this article suggests (“whorephobic”). But this article suggests I’m depressed, I’m not. It might seem unfair that I’m picking apart one slight half sentence that doesn’t have a lot to do with the rest of the article. But this type of language has become so commonplace that it’s infiltrated mainstream media.
This is even worse when we talk to people dealing with climate change, a very important piece of work mind you, but they can’t stop themselves talking about it like we’re living in biblical apocalypse
I understand the thought coming from that perspective, because every piece of news a climate researcher or journalist gets seems like we’re heading to a deep pit. But it’s become so rote, so commonplace for people to say things that was only reserved for religious apocalypse types that have a sandwich board that says “The End is Nigh.”
When I bring this up to other more progressive people, some of them agree with me, and some of them say that it’s just a joke to express their view of the world (if it is a joke, it’s a tired joke and we should drop it), and some of them really dig down and say if we don’t look at the world through this fatalistic view, then we will be missing all the “work” that needs to be done. I find this kind of view from my more younger progressives, who have a lot of spit and vinegar (complimentary), but also maybe lack the maturity because I was there once. I too thought the world was going to hell in a handbasket, although that was in the early 2000’s. And I’m sure many people would love to live in that world now. However what I’ve learned is that it wasn’t better or worse, it was just different.
The fear I believe is that if we look through things through pink colored glasses, then we will ignore the real issues at hand. That we will get so into ourselves that will miss the hurt people are feeling. I also find this almost like a mask that we must always be vigilant, and that I feel like the world is at a good place in some capacity then I will be the worst thing I can be, a BAD LEFTIST.
But let me give you the counter, there’s a space between hellscape and pink colored glasses. There’s realism.
There was this Reddit post a couple of years back on the r/NoStupidQuestions subreddit that asked: Has the world always been a dystopian hellscape and I just never realized it? And this is the real consequence of labelling everything a dystopian hellscape, because then we stop seeing real change that’s going on in the world.
We used to live in a world of feudalism, monarchies, barbarianism, holy wars, and where babies and mothers died from childbirth at such an alaraming rate it was commonplace. We used to live in a world with no penecillin, no anti-biotics, no running toilets, no trains, no buses, no central heating, no central cooling, no plumbing, cities stunk of feces, and children would sent off to work in factories.
You can say truthfully that there are places in the world that people do suffer from all of those things I listed right now, but if you are reading this substack I’m thinking the majority of you don’t. This is who this message is for. If I were to go back to that world then I can describe it as a hellscape, and it’s only because I know what the latter is, and that’s the present.
I could even say in the time I have been alive, the world has shifted and been different from what it was before. Also when people look back at the 90’s with nostalgia glasses with a caption that says “take me back!” they conviniently leave out certain events. Things are better now than from the 90’s. For example:
when I was a teenager in the 90’s, smoking was everywhere. In the US, 35% of teenagers smoked. It was so commonplace for people to smoke they smoked in restaurants, it stunk everywhere, forget about second hand smoke.
In the 90’s we had the AIDS crisis, the race riots, the many bombings, the Gulf War, the ozone layer, the Y2K panic. We experienced some horrific events in the world.
In the 90’s we also had commonplace homophobia. Transphobia? We didn’t even know the word trans as what it means today never mind gay marriage.
Mental health? If you said you were depressed, people would stay away from you and called you crazy. There’s a lot more knowledge and ideas about mental health especially with young people now than ever before.
Has things gotten worse for some? Yes of course:
The Housing crisis has collapsed on itself
Millenials are the first generation to have less money than their counterparts
Wages have become stagnant while inflation has gone up
We’re going through major climate change and that may not be stopped.
However people are stuck in the latter category and then become depressed, anxious, stressed out or using the term “dystopian hellscape” to justify their feelings. I’m sorry but I refuse to see the world in these two terms, everything is dandy or everything is awful. It’s a false dichotomy and I think I’m done hearing about it.
This tweet deserves to be in the Twitter hall of fame of Excellent posting, because it’s the posting equivalent of “if all you have is a hammer then all you look at is nails.” In this case, if “dystopian hellscape” is the only thing you read and hear then everything will be a “dystopian hellscape.”
And this is the damage by repeating over and over the words “dystopian hellscape” or things similar online, in writing, or even in speech with your friends. The world is different than it was before, and it will continue to be different as the years go by. It’s no use to us to look at things as “everything is awful” or “everything is fine” like that damn dog. Especially if we start freaking out and saying EVERYTHING IS ACTUALLY AWFUL.
Because what will eventually happen is that we stop looking at the complexity, nuance, and realism of the world in front of us. If you think everything is awful, then of course you will feel depressed. If you read that everything is bad, of course you will not want to experience the world around you. You will end up here:
There’s beauty, terror, love, hate, excitement, depression, joy, and anger in this world. We have access to the spectrum of feelings and ideas and it doesn’t make you a BAD LEFTIST by reaching out and trying out complexity. It also doesn’t make you less empathetic, it doesn’t make make you blind either. If you’re feeling this, try out looking for joy and love in the world, it’s out there.
We don’t live in a hellscape, please stop saying we do. We’re just living. Just like everyone else.