mahdisafari76

I believe that it’s impossible to break out of the social “matrix” imposed upon us, for the political systems will make sure that all we have access to is a constructed and fabricated reality rather than the real reality per se. Perhaps the best means of creating such a constructed reality is the media, this inescapable Adornian culture industry, which literally creates the reality for us, based on the propaganda and ideology of the dominant class, in a way that the Baudrillardian copy (unreal reality) becomes more believable than the real reality. The political systems, even the so-called democratic ones, will always prevent us from having access to the reality, for the enlightenment of the individuals is tantamount to the loss of the power of the governments. All of the different types of media and the entertainment industries, in my eyes, have been programmed in a manner that they only create the reality that the political system wants us to see (the constructed reality).

The popularity of dystopian literature originates from the fact that it’s easier for us, as disillusioned people, to envision the nightmarish and disastrous scenario than an idealistic and utopian one. It was in the 20th c that dystopian literature came to fruition, an era brimful of unprecedented cataclysmic events, such as world wars, which disillusioned people and smashed their idealistic perspectives. So after centuries of conceiving of a better idealistic world, people eventually came to the realization that a utopian world is impossible to achieve, for utopian ideals will eventually turn a society into a society. I guess French Revolution is the best example of such a perspective, for such attempts at creating an idealistic society, far bringing about a utopian world, ended up constructing a hellish and dystopian community.

As it happens, disability has given rise to the othering of those who are physically impaired. The disability scholars regard disability as a social deficiency, be it lack of understanding on the part of the people or that of facilities that help the disabled people get by. I believe that urgent steps, by the dint of different types of media, should be taken towards enlightening the people so that the disabled will feel more at home in the society rather than alienated, for being regarded as the” other” has a traumatic effect on the psyche of the disabled people. It’s the misrepresentation of disability that has psychological effect on the disabled, for misrepresentation brings about a stigma of some sort that further alienates the disabled. Even the binary opposition “disabled/non-disabled” can have negative effect. So the binaries should be deconstructed and done away with altogether, for binaries do nothing but stigmatize and “other” the people with disability. I believe that a pluralistic approach should be adopted that looks beyond binary opposition and embraces the multiplicity of different types of people.