Where are the utopias?

As the severity of our collective ecological crisis becomes clearer with each new report, it’s no surprise that dystopia is a central theme in so much popular culture. For example, here are just a handful of the latest major titles produced by the Netflix paperclip maximizing algorithm:

• Annihilation, in which an electromagnetic “Shimmer” is swallowing the planet and scrambling genetic material. As with the Jeff VanderMeer novel that provides the source material, the film covers themes of destruction.
• Bird Box, in which people are driven to self-destruction by a mysterious illness.
• Io, in which a lone hold-out on an abandoned Earth looks for a way to resurrect the planet.

Each of these titles has enough structure and content to make worthwhile viewing for any science fiction aficionado – a category in which I include myself. They’re certainly more valuable cultural product than other Netflix titles, like “Cooking on High” and whatever that one about Westminster is called (with apologies to all the adorable exploited puppies).

Although “the sci-fi is good,” these titles, and the collective trend they represent, nevertheless suggest tragic and potentially dangerous limitations of our collective imagination. In each of these titles, a lone protagonist struggles to rescue herself from overwhelming destruction. Each narrative is steeped to varying degrees in a stew of hopelessness and celebrates the mere act of survival. Their portrayals of individualistic human endurance is exciting, and watching our society stripped down to a Hobbesian fever dream is appealing to, presumably, the standard movie-goer. The impulses that dystopias like this entertain run counter to the mentality we need in this particular moment. They detract from the importance of broad coalitions and the value and beauty of an inclusive society.

The good news is, there is a ton of material out there for some serious, thoughtful utopian (or, at least, anti-dystopian) sci-fi. For example, here are a few fantastic books I’ve read recently that would make great films (are you reading, Netflix algorithm?):

• The Dispossessed, in which an individualistic society is viewed through the eyes of a physics professor from a planet of political pariahs who is first of his exiled people to return in 200 years. (Side note: Before making yet another screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, is it too much to ask that we get a major studio to take up a Le Guin title?)
• New York 2140, in which a group of people from different segments of society imagine a future for New York City, where a 50-foot rise in sea levels has reshaped divisions.
• Ecotopia, in which a journalist reports on a country that seceded from the United States to form an ecologically sustainable society.

I get that there would be fewer explosions, and a premise based on problem-solving and unity doesn’t provide the kind of material a filmmaker needs to dream up the deeply affecting sound design and SFX seen in Annihilation, for example. But film doesn’t have to exist only as an outlet for the confusion and rage more and more are feeling about our situation. Nor is it unreasonable to argue that by feeding only these dystopian impulses, filmmakers have reinforced our willingness to shrug our shoulders and resign ourselves to a dystopian fate.

There is also some evidence, outside of the entertainment industry, that people are craving bold, optimistic thinking about our future. When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey revealed their Green New Deal plan to make society more just and sustainable, they were criticized by many in the political class for utopianism. “This solution is over the top,” so many said, gnashing their teeth and adjusting their monocles with the air of someone wanting desperately to be seen as a climate policy expert despite never having done anything in that field. Now, early polling shows that voters are hungry for a popular environmentalism – particularly in the much-coveted millennial demographic, which stands to suffer worst if we fail to shift our climate trajectory meaningfully.

Despite all of the mental conditioning we’ve received to resign ourselves to fate and do our best to survive, despite all the “trust no one” sci-fi we’ve consumed gleefully, we still know that utopias are possible. So where are they? Somehow, the Netflix algorithm has neglected that better part of our nature.