Fiction in real life: how our world used literature as a script instead of a warning.

Growing up we all had hope for the future that was solidified by the promises made by the older generations, promises of creating a better world for us than what they had grew up in. The future was the fantastical bedtime story our parents told us as we rifted off to sleep while snuggling our favorite stuffed animals. It was a story of peace, equality and advancements in the world for everyone. Then when we all hit middle school and were all handed our very first copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell we were faced with new aspects of possible futures. Futures filled with corruption, societal classes that determined your ultimate "worth" to the world; but our teachers told us that it was purely fiction. That it "could never happen as long as we continued to refuse to repeat history." So, we wrote the book reports, we took the tests, we studied the text. Then we grew up a little more and we were handed Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, we learned of governments controlling the media and condemning anything that went against their narrative while confiscating any texts that could threaten their new world. And again, we were told that it was only fiction and that our constitution would protect us, so we nodded our heads and continued doing the work. As we continued to grow this became a constant dance between us and our elders, them always leading and us following their rhythm. Even though we continued the dance we never forgot these books, yet instead we sought out more. We craved them like it was an addiction, we were intoxicated by the fictional aspect of all of this hate and corruption because the words of our parents and teacher still rang in our heads. We wanted more and more because they had us convinced that it would never actually happen to us, that it couldn't. So, we read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, then we jumped into the world of Divergent by Veronica Roth; and it continued to grow. Our need to consume knowledge of fictional dystopias or pain we would never experience. It was everywhere, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Lord of The Flies by William Golding, and as we grew so did the levels of fictional torment we consumed. It quickly evolved into The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

While we were all growing and reading and learning we never noticed that the world was also growing and darkening and filling itself with corruption. Until all of a sudden, we were all adults, cast into the smoldering remains of the world and expected to just live our lives as those dreams and promises of a bright future were nothing more than ash filling the air, burning our lungs and enraging our souls. But our elders were shocked when we looked to them with angry, tear-filled eyes that cast the blame onto them. We became the radical "snowflake" generation that just did not have what it takes to grow up the way everyone before us had, we were wrong for reminding them of their promises and the history we are repeating. Why did their children become the scapegoats for their misguided actions and beliefs? Why are we the problems for remembering every single book, movie or any other piece of media THEY handed us that taught us the signs of corruption and the rights of the people to stop it? Now that's what we're doing; we are gathering, we are protesting but we are also educating future generations in hopes of preventing this evil from infecting our world further.

I recently discovered Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler that tells the story of a futuristic dystopian version of America that is being ravaged by climate change and a group based around the phrase "God is Change". These books touch on societal collapse and how important the aspects of community survival go hand in hand. In book two (Parable of the Talents) there is even a presidential candidate that bases his entire campaign on the stance of "Making America Great Again" while using his charismatic demeanor to win people over while pushing the agenda of a group called Christian America. Both of these books are absolutely chilling due to the setting being 2024 America AND the fact that they were both written BEFORE the year 1999!

So, my question is, when did the fictional books we all love secretly become the blueprints that this world would be built on? Were we handed these books in hopes of them instilling compliance within us instead of the courage to stand up and fight corruption face to face? Did they all hope we would just fall in line because every kind of media had shown us all dystopian futures to make it seem "normal"? Were we the first rounds of experimentation to see if overexposure will build a tolerance level that would be acceptable to them?

What are your thoughts on how fiction is now nonfiction? Also, what piece of media "radicalized" you?