The definition for a dystopia is “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding” (Dictionary.com). Many sources say that dystopian societies are imaginary, but this is not true. There are several instances around the world where dystopias are a reality to many people. Some examples of these oppressed areas are the North Korean dictatorship, Central African tribes, and Isis camps in the Middle East. The most prevalent example in today’s world are Isis camps. These Isis communities can be closely compared to Citadel City in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road in almost every single aspect. There is a plethora of examples that can be shown to demonstrate how these two communities are almost identical when it comes to oppression, but the most prevalent are religious oppression, brainwashing children into soldiers, and the poor treatment of women within the community. Many people in these dystopian like societies try to run from their problems when they are faced with adversity, but that only makes the issue worse. Currently the world hasn’t found a solution for the wrath of the Islamic State, but by looking at the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, one might see that a possible solution to the issue is to teach the oppressed people through western exposure, that their way of life is irrational. With this perspective, they might choose to fight for morality instead of run from hardship.

Religious oppression has been an issue in our world since people started to believe in a higher power thousands of years ago. Isis camps in the Middle East abuse their military power over innocent people by enforcing strict rules regarding religion. 

They've been known to threaten, fine, or beat people for smoking, listening to music, or allowing their wives and sisters to walk around uncovered in the head-to-toe black coverings that are mandatory for every woman living in ISIS territory. The morality police also force males to attend mosque for prayer and religious education classes (Engel). 

This is religious oppression at its worst. People are tortured or even executed for not following the religious laws of the Islamic state. This is similar to the religion that is forced upon the people of the Citadel. The citizens of Citadel are forced into believing that their dictator Immortan Joe is an almighty god that cannot be killed. He uses his power to control the city’s resources, and by doing this he can force people to do and believe everything that he says. The people of both Citadel and Isis communities are brainwashed by the teachings of the ones in power. Isis camps force people to learn about their god while also shutting down schools to make sure that they are not exposed to the outside world, especially western civilization. As for the City of Citadel, a post nuclear wasteland where there are no possibilities for a formal education of any kind, people believe what they are constantly surrounded by because they have never been exposed to anything else. At the end of the movie, the Hero Max kills Immortan Joe and shows his dead body to the people of Citadel. This proved to the people that everything that they have been told since birth was a complete and utter lie. This broke the chains of Immortan Joe’s religious oppression. The people were then free to worship whatever god they wanted. Applying this solution to Isis communities is tough because their god doesn’t physically exist. Although the Isis god or ruler cannot be killed physically, it can be killed figuratively through shattering the beliefs of the people under its rule. This can be done by exposing oppressed people to the truth through means of education. If the foundation of their religion, that is being brainwashed into the minds of innocent people, is destroyed then the people would be set free from their captors and be able to fight for what is righteous and true.  

Another dystopian quality that these two communities share is the use of child labor and child soldiers. Isis is known around the world for kidnapping young boys and forcing them into labor or combat. This is almost exactly what happens to the people of Citadel in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. The children are taken by Immortan Joe immediately after they are born to be put to work. Children in this society are bred to join the society’s army and work force. Since the child soldiers in both societies are taken at such a young age they have never been exposed to anything but oppression and ruthless killing, so this becomes normal to them. “though these War Pups are too small to drive and fight their faces are still painted like skulls, their little bodies pressed into the service of Immortan Joe. In the Citadel, little boys do not enjoy a childhood. They have no experience and therefore no concept of compassion or kindness or human connection” (Amato). The children in both places have been brainwashed to the point where they would do anything for their leader even ending their own life with the promise of a glorious afterlife. A similar solution to solving religious oppression may be able to be applied to this issue as well. Through exposure to the outside world children in both the Citadel and Isis camps can be shown what kind of lifestyle is available outside rule of their dictators. If the children in the Middle East camps are shown compassion and hope for a better tomorrow, their belief of a god that wants them to hurt innocent people for the promise of a utopian afterlife will be destroyed and they can start fighting and influencing others for the side of morality. If this belief is gone, not only will the children be freed from the chains of their mind, but it would seriously hurt the chances of Isis recruiting and brainwashing innocent children for generations to come. 

Women in both societies are the most important aspect of maintaining the dystopian reign, but they are valued as the lowest members of the community. Women in the Citadel are treated merely as “breeders”, producing the newest members of Immortan Joe’s brainwashed army. While the boys are taken to fight for the Citadel, the girls are taken and turned into more “breeders”. The women in the community have no rights as citizens at all they are merely seen as “assets” (Amato). This is very similar to Isis communities in the Middle East. The women, under Sharia Law, are treated lower than dirt. They are forced to cover themselves in black robes head to toe, they are bought as property from their family, and there are no rules of sexual consent so, once the woman is “married” the men can do with them as they please (Friedland). Even these oppressive laws are not the worst that women experience in Isis camps while in the Middle East. Many times, after a community is overtaken by the Islamic radicals, the women of the community are given to the soldiers to rape as their reward. The women in both communities are only seen as assets to the dystopia, but they are actually assets to the opposition of the dystopia. If the women can be shown hope of a better life, they can be the driving force that crumbles the oppressive society. Genetically, women are considered weaker than men on a physical level, so it would be tough to overtake the society with force, but women have very strong wills and if they work together they can change the beliefs for other oppressed citizens.

America and other nations have been working nonstop to defeat Isis on a global level, but the methods being used aren’t working and many times are even counterproductive. The recruiters that Isis use to brainwash people are very smart and know exactly what they are doing. The focus of America’s foreign policy with Isis has been bombing camps and communities until everyone is dead or the main leader of that specific community has been killed or captured. This seems to be a logical solution. If we kill the people causing the oppression there should be no more oppression, right? This is what our government and the population of the western world is led to believe, but what this plan is doing is making Isis stronger. Every single day people are recruited into the radical Islamic state on one key selling point; that western civilization is evil and bad for the Middle East’s way of life. From the perspective of the people in the Middle East this is completely logical. If all you saw day in and day out was bombings of cities and death of innocent civilians, you would be forced to believe that western civilization is villainous. Therefore, our government’s way of taking out Isis is hurting the cause we are fighting for. 

Donald Trump has a foreign policy plan that he believes will shut down Isis for good. His plan has three main parts; work with Arab allies to lead the charge against Isis forces, deploying troops and bombing areas where Isis is believed to control, and defeating the radical Islamic idealism that fuels the hatred of western civilization (Corn). Everything in this plan is perfect except for that this plan has already been in action for the past eight years under the Obama administration (Corn). While our government has said to work at this issue in three separate ways, the main force, sometimes the only force, has been deploying troops and bombing suspect areas (Corn). This plan of attack has only fueled the ammo that the intelligent recruiters of Isis use to lure people in to their cause. 

The people of these Isis communities choose to flee from their problems when times get tough, but this only makes the issue worse. In the movie, Max leaves the Citadel to find the “Green Place”. This place was supposed to be heaven on Earth, where everyone was treated equal and nobody is oppressed by cruel militant power. Unfortunately for Max, but fortunately for the citizens of Citadel, this Green Place did not exist. Max was forced to come back and fight the Immortan Joe’s rule from the inside by disproving everything that had been brainwashed into their minds since birth. Unlike the world of Mad Max, there is a “Green Place” in our world. There are many places where people live free from oppression and are given equal rights. The Syrian refugees are fleeing to the green place of Europe, but are they really fleeing? Typically, they do not assimilate and therefore congregate in secluded sections of cities where there are more hardships. These hardships create opportunities for oppressors to gain control of the people and the ideology and oppression takes root again. Mad Max did not just kill Immortan Joe, he disproved the ideology. We need to create “green places” for the people oppressed by Isis, show them the evils of the perverted ideology, help them assimilate, help them prosper while giving them freedom of religion.

There are many places in the world where people live free from oppression and are given equal rights, but when someone leaves the radical Islamic state there is one less rational person to stand up for the people who are trapped by these communities. The people who manage to escape to the “Green Place” drastically improve their lives, but what about all the people that are left in oppression? The new plan of attack for nations that want to stop the rein of radical Islam in the Middle East should be to inspire the people who are oppressed and give them a way to take back their community. This can and should be done through exposing the dystopian society to a better way of life. When this is done, the people are freed their beliefs that have been brainwashed into their everyday lives. The method used to destroy the dystopian society in Mad Max proves that there might be a similar solution to crippling dystopian societies in our world. 
