The Student Room Group

London is a dystopian hellhole

Imagine the daily displays of squalor and inescapable cyclical poverty. The failed immigration policies of governance; your neighbours now aliens. But love thy neighbour? Well, in your world "love" may be a universal language, but in the real world, for practicality, our language is English.
Your national identity so lost, we don't have that anymore... English? No such thing. A dirty word.

The exorbitant displays of excess from the privileged few, foreign money. Who cares where it came from? Depression is everywhere with the invisible tagline being "Not enough". Nothing is ever enough in this vanity fair. People are always wanting to take more and to consume more. They are always hungry but their wants will never be satisfied. Your employers know this, you will never starve, but you will do anything to maintain your current lifestyle or better yourself. So they are clever. They use you, they give you enough to maintain but never to leave your career; teasing you with the upper crust whilst you're locked in the heart of darkness. You look at the man next to you on your daily commute, he knows, you know. The key has been thrown away.

The young? These people are desperate to be "someone", on an endless quest to self-define and be validated. You're unique right? Have something that makes you different to everybody else?
But, they are no one, they are a statistic. No matter what their Twitter taglines suggest. The only thing that they can cling on to is their hopes, a more rational man would perhaps identify that as delusion. Morphine for the mind.


Inspire a generation?

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Reply 1
Insulting my city. Negged.
Original post by WGR
Insulting my city. Negged.


It's more of a societal view than that of any distinct city. It is pretty much on the money, but as is such with all dystopian views it omits the inclusion of hope. The realisation that not everybody is mindlessly trapped in this system and there are events always taking place which aim to change the course completely.
Reply 3
Original post by MrEFeynman
It's more of a societal view than that of any distinct city. It is pretty much on the money, but as is such with all dystopian views it omits the inclusion of hope. The realisation that not everybody is mindlessly trapped in this system and there are events always taking place which aim to change the course completely.

I went shopping on my local high street today. I had fun.
Reply 4
Original post by Ham22
Consume. Obey.


...
Original post by Mr_Vain
They use you, they give you enough to maintain but never to leave your career; teasing you with the upper crust whilst you're locked in the heart of darkness. You look at the man next to you on your daily commute, he knows, you know. The key has been thrown away.

The young? These people are desperate to be "someone", on an endless quest to self-define and be validated. You're unique right? Have something that makes you different to everybody else?
But, they are no one, they are a statistic. No matter what their Twitter taglines suggest. The only thing that they can cling on to is their hopes, a more rational man would perhaps identify that as delusion. Morphine for the mind.


Inspire a generation?


In all seriousness this is pretty well written I think this would make a great opening to a book :biggrin:
That is the same for any English city. I assme the OP chose London because its the biggest and would get the most attention.
Reply 7
Original post by Soontobesuper
That is the same for any English city. I assme the OP chose London because its the biggest and would get the most attention.


London's stark contrast of abject poverty and excessive wealth are unrivaled anywhere in the uk.
Im a country gal. The city is ... horrible. But if you want to get somewhere (as in business wise) then your more likely to do it there which is unfortunate. If only it wasnt so.... urgh.
However I wouldnt go as far as dystopian hell hole. Some people love it and hate other places. Different views and different opinions.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 9
Sounds like you need a bracing trip out to the country. Get some fresh air in you.
Reply 10
Original post by Plainview
Sounds like you need a bracing trip out to the country. Get some fresh air in you.


I like the Blake picture in your other display pic, a definite all time favourite of mine. What a man he was.

I grew up in the country, I miss it :frown: .
Reply 11
I'd probably emigrate from this country if there wasn't a London.
Very well written, by the way. I often agree with this.

However, ironically, I think people with this actually have quite an unrealistic view of what people would be doing otherwise. So you're in a system? Sure, it's not human nature to want to be trapped in a system (and personally I don't think we are trapped), but this isn't productive, it's an impulse.

This system of consumerism is the product of the near eradication (from the UK so far) of war, disease, absolute poverty, famine, and by proximity all the things that came with them that produced 'meaning'. What does it mean to be validated? Half the people in the UK over the last thousand years would give anything to live in the UK today, but as soon as we have the basics of equality and survival we complain about it and go on about 'meaning' whilst happily eating doughnuts and driving a car. [The latter was directed towards Ham22 more, because the OP mentions poverty specifically].

Poverty is very real, but relative poverty will always be real. I don't see how we can do more than give everybody free education, have a benefits system, and have a minimum wage. Apart from kick start the economy and provide more jobs, which can't happen overnight. I know it's easy to say when you're not in poverty, but there has been a lot of progress.

Would you rather be down a salt mine? Watching your tenth child die of typhus? Being hacked to death by members of a rival castle? A 'free' life takes on a glossy view because we don't experience it.

Life is what you make it. Don't wait for someone to give it meaning. You can't have no system - anarchy is fundamentally flawed - but this one is about as good as it's possible to get. I would be very interested to hear an alternative.
(edited 10 years ago)
It's pretentious 👎
Reply 14
Original post by Ham22
obey_consume.jpg


The only people that think like this are loser who think are owed a living in life.
Original post by Jizzle88
London's stark contrast of abject poverty and excessive wealth are unrivaled anywhere in the uk.


i don't know, Glasgow is a close runner up.

On this road I walk down, called Great Western Road there are massive houses in one area:

f5bb7db1097ed984a4e0cdbae8aaadee87ff67dd_645_430.jpg

and just 20 minutes down the road and it's a completely different world.
(edited 10 years ago)
London has undergone the biggest demographic change in the shortest period of time of any other city in the world.

Pre-WW2, London was one of the most homogenous cities in the world, now it is one of the least!

Such demographic change is unprecedented.
Original post by AspiringGenius
i don't know, Glasgow is a close runner up.

On this road I walk down, called Great Western Road there are massive houses in one area:

f5bb7db1097ed984a4e0cdbae8aaadee87ff67dd_645_430.jpg

and just 20 minutes down the road and it's a completely different world.


Glasgow is a far more cohesive city than London is.

Almost everyone there, rich and poor, feels strongly Scottish.
Reply 18
Original post by Jizzle88
London's stark contrast of abject poverty and excessive wealth are unrivaled anywhere in the uk.


Yep. Good example is Pimlico but there are many many more.
Original post by Mr_Vain
Imagine the daily displays of squalor and inescapable cyclical poverty. The failed immigration policies of governance; your neighbours now aliens. But love thy neighbour? Well, in your world "love" may be a universal language, but in the real world, for practicality, our language is English.
Your national identity so lost, we don't have that anymore... English? No such thing. A dirty word.

The exorbitant displays of excess from the privileged few, foreign money. Who cares where it came from? Depression is everywhere with the invisible tagline being "Not enough". Nothing is ever enough in this vanity fair. People are always wanting to take more and to consume more. They are always hungry but their wants will never be satisfied. Your employers know this, you will never starve, but you will do anything to maintain your current lifestyle or better yourself. So they are clever. They use you, they give you enough to maintain but never to leave your career; teasing you with the upper crust whilst you're locked in the heart of darkness. You look at the man next to you on your daily commute, he knows, you know. The key has been thrown away.

The young? These people are desperate to be "someone", on an endless quest to self-define and be validated. You're unique right? Have something that makes you different to everybody else?
But, they are no one, they are a statistic. No matter what their Twitter taglines suggest. The only thing that they can cling on to is their hopes, a more rational man would perhaps identify that as delusion. Morphine for the mind.


Inspire a generation?


But I can still enjoy a nice cup of tea every morning.

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