Semi-OT: The Icaran Empire Preview (the book one)

[El_Phil]

Frankly no I don't see what your getting at. A utopian society isn't just the physical side of things its spiritual, moral the whole shebang. Indeed the physical side was considered the least important by many proponents of the Utopian ideals.

You may call utopia endless greed and arrogance, but frankly that's a nasty perversion of the ideal. Those who proposed the ideal wanted the whole betterment of society as a whole. I'll grant you that is the aim of the Icaran rulers. BUT included in any utopian ideal was always the freedoms of thought, action and religion. Freedoms Icara does lack or at least limit.

I found this list of common features of dystopias:
* A hierarchical society where divisions between the upper, middle and lower class are definitive and unbending (Caste system)
* A nation-state ruled by an upper class with few democratic ideals - No mention of democracy so far.
* State propaganda programs and educational systems that coerce most citizens into worshipping the state and its government, in an attempt to convince them into thinking that life under the regime is good and just. - Sound familiar?
* Strict conformity among citizens and the general assumption that dissent and individuality are bad.
* A state figurehead that people worship fanatically through a vast personality cult, such as 1984’s Big Brother, We‘s The Benefactor, or Equilibrium‘s Father. - The Praetor is still saint like isn't he?
*A fear or disgust of the world outside the state - Not a big fan of xenos are they?
* A common view of traditional life, particularly organized religion, as primitive and nonsensical complete domination by a state religion, e.g Death-Worship in the Eastasia of 1984 - 'The Path' ringing any bells?
* The "memory" of institutions overriding or taking precidence over human memory
* A penal system that lacks due process laws and often employs psychological or physical torture
* Constant surveillance by government or other agencies
militarized police forces and private security forces - How else do the shadow daggers know what's going on?
* Corruption, impotence or other usurption of democratic instututions
* Insistence by the forces of the establishment that
it provides the best of all possible worlds that all problems are due to the action of its enemies and their dupes

I'm not saying Icara meets all of those exactly, but you've got to admit some of them are spot on and quite a few are very close. Hence why I say it's a dystopia.