Fiction subgenre: Dystopian societies

With the tremendous popularity of The Hunger Games, there has been a rise in the interest in Dystopian literature: literature that portrays a bleak future society. I've recently read and discussed with my roommates books like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Both of these involve government takeovers.

Fahrenheit 451 has a very interesting theme to me though. Bradbury suggests that the absence of literature will be our downfall. He paints a world where people have no interest in reading. They are more interested in TV walls. Suicide attempts are common. Firefighters do not put out fires - they start them to burn books. I started thinking about this and the importance of literature in our lives. Literature has the power to challenge our ideas and make us think more deeply about the problems in ourselves and society. Bradbury suggests that we will not have our freedoms taken from us, but will voluntarily give them up in favor of momentary happiness. I'm so grateful we live in a country where I can walk to the library and check out copies of the Bible, the Quran, and the Tanakh all at the same time.

What do you think of dystopian literature?