“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair published in 1906 described an extremely pessimistic vision of the exploitation of the American factory worker. The descriptions of the meat packing industry in the book led to passing of the Meat Inspection Act. Sinclair was frustrated that most people were more concerned about eating bovine tuberculosis infected beef than the exploitation of people, but, nonetheless, it was pessimistic novel which lead to positive action.
— Source as a comment to another comment:
I disagree with the premise of this article. Sometimes an extremely pessimistic vision of a possible future CAN change things…by making it so people are determined to fight to prevent that possible future from ever happening.
The novel 1984 by George Orwell was published in 1948. It is an extremely pessimistic vision of a possible future for mankind….and many of us over the generations who read it really really did not want to live in such a future and acted accordingly.
Black Mirror’s pessimism could be similar.
Also in Black Mirror technology in of itself is never portrayed as inherently bad in any episode. It is the people and the way they choose to use the technology that leads to the horror. In that way every Black Mirror episode has that element of optimism. If only each new piece of tech in reality could ever be introduced so we maximize the positives rather than the negatives.
Which in turn is a comment to an article, named ‘Black Mirror’s pessimism porn won’t lead us to a better future.’
Which is just an obvious attempt at provoking-journalism — or how this term is named correctly — these modern day publishing houses produce.
Click baity. With quality lower than your average commenter or some obscure blogger like me or you.
Advertising included.
Welcome to the modern internet.
And as of the Black Mirror, that’s the point of the negative thing. So it’ll improve our lives, after all.