Fukushima photographer is shaken up, must be loss of belief in techno utopia. Nah, westerners forget it was a massive earthquake tsunami, so probably seeing ten thousand floating dead bodies and the smell and the land looking like the surface of the moon was a bit more disturbing, at least if he's human.
"actually convincing people that we’re capable of something other than this brutal response to disaster." I sincerely hope they are not, because the only way we're going back to 1700s era fossil fuel consumption in our lifetime is by killing all the population over 1700s era, which is quite a mass murder. So I'm glad of that. Also a nameless homeless family living under an overpass due to economic disruption is a small price to pay to feel ecologically superior. There's someone starving to death in TX but at least I got a cool new Prius... just human lives, ones that don't count anyway. You know, like a dystopia...
Careful avoidance of discussing how many people are already living the Dystopia, right now. Cops shoot black men first ask questions later, at least the few we let walk the streets instead of imprisoning. Indoctrinated since birth to live the American dream while getting a lifetime of debt, LOL just kidding about that "you'll have a great paying job" thing, but its all your fault for not wanting it more than the "successful" guy, who we're going to downsize next month anyway. No medical care, no financial future, no education. If it bleeds it leads, on the agitprop news, our whole city is a Roman Colosseum of martyrs. Dude born on 3rd base thinks he hit a home run says, hey, let them eat cake, why won't they pull themselves up by their bootstraps, its the land of opportunity for rich urban white men... the rest of you don't exist, aren't even people, mere consumers at best.
Dystopian fiction is a politically correct way to talk about the PRESENT, not the future.