Dystopia in the 21st century: the plague of apathy

Abstract

Different crises and catastrophes seem to be our future. Trapped in a continuous present, the individual observes how everything is presented to him as a historical event where he can only take part as a passive spectator.The aim of this paper is to study the emergence of political apathy in our century. Our study has it´s roots on Mark Fisher’s work, Capitalist Realism, where he analyses the neoliberalism´s project in the beginning of the century. Fisher exposes a scenario that allows us to reflect on the apathetic character of the individual and the apparent acceptance by a large part of the population of dystopia as a framework for thinking about the future in the 21st century. An apathy that is not expressed by a lack of phenomena on the right or left, but because none of them denies or confronts this dystopian vision of the future. We explore a narrative example of this through Edward Wright’s film Shaun of the Dead, which perfectly captures the thesis of capitalist realism. This work of fiction has also allowed us to explore the commodification of dystopia, which has become so widespread in recent times and whose extension has an ideological component.Finally, we have been able to put forward an argument about apathy as the result of an ideological and discourse construction that is imposed on the subject. Understanding that its development has specific historical conditions and reflects the results of the victory of capitalism when it comes to naturalising itself.