Editorial – April 2025: People Do Not Choose To Live In Dystopias.
People do not choose to live in dystopias,
they tend to get into them. chucked into them.
Hello, everyone.
Again, I’m leaving the editorial to the last few days of the month as the world gets ever more crazy, and the forever thought that no writer of science fiction is going to outdo reality anymore. The levels of violence between nations aren’t even matched by the stupidity of individuals in power. If this was fiction, it would be thought things like this would never happen in real life. Now, the question arises: Can fiction exacerbate the situation? You see the problem.
This is not to say that fiction hasn’t portrayed foolish rulers in the past. The TV series and film ‘Whoops! Apocalypse’ is still thought of as being the closest to this, and I’ve noted I really must pick up a copy for review, although it probably pales in comparison to present day after so long.
The reason we watch fictional reality disasters is often because it warns us of what could happen under certain circumstances. Science fiction can go to more extremes than other genres because that’s its nature. Something that professional publishers forget with their current path into SF or fantasy romance. There are some areas where we need sharp reminders. The fact that George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” have entered the mainstream and people who have never read the books can quote lines from them shows the impact they had in the 1950s is still continuing today.
Given the choice, I think ‘1984’ is the stronger novel because, unlike ‘Animal Farm’, it doesn’t rely on animal metaphors to describe a political regime with impunity. ‘1984’ is really about the extremes of conformity, just a conformity that removes free will. It doesn’t really show what happened to the other countries in this reality. If anything, Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is probably an example of doing that but avoids outright worldwide war. If nothing else, it does point out restraint rather than war, but would such a thing happen in real life? Inevitably, it is hoped that a country’s own population would rise against appalling rulers, but such civil wars are likely to fail against a country’s own military unless they also take a similar stance. As a result, dictatorships rule. Power does things like that.
If anything, it demonstrates that the average populations don’t really care too much about who’s in charge of their country, provided they can get on with their own lives. Of course, that changes when restrictions are passed to the population. Control the media, especially the news, and things will seem to be peachy, but really it’s anything the leader wants you to believe. When you have a population that already has a distorted version of history, it isn’t that difficult to distort it any further. If you have access to Quora, you readily see comparisons between the UK and the USA and the American mindset that thinks they came first.
Think how vulnerable you are if you just rely on social media for your news outlets. Control or limit your food intake, and you will find yourself in a different situation. Once they work, any dissidents get quietly removed, imprisoned, and sometimes killed. I don’t even have to name countries on that particular score. More ‘Animal Farm’ than ‘1984’ when those in charge have more privileges than the rest of the population, going completely against any political regime that has been instigated.
Currently, we see control taken by agreeing with parts of the country on some things and sneaking things in that they wouldn’t normally accept. The interval between elections exacerbates this situation. Democracy has suddenly become very vulnerable.
There’s a general consensus in fiction that people will choose a political lifestyle but not really see all the reasons why it won’t work, especially at a governmental level. On the world stage, there is invariably a need for equal status among similar rulers, so it then becomes a measure of wealth or power to ensure you’re not seen as a junior member of an exclusive leader club or seen as weak enough to risk conquest or being bullied. I don’t need to give that example. Under such situations, political choices tend to be forgotten, and a desire to show how tough they are with their people is likely to be worse with other countries. Often, that’s a lot easier than going to war with another country. After a few generations, such things become accepted as the norm. ‘Freedom’ becomes such an arbitrary word. When its leader dies, a political system under that kind of control is bound to fail.
What becomes a problem is when such techniques employed by such regimes are employed in the what are called the western countries. We are not talking cowboys here. When trade disputes cause disharmony between otherwise friendly nations, they create vulnerabilities. Wars are not always fought over territory but trade, but it’s the same sort of thing. Any country under such an attack has to do something or show weakness. It’s also a lot harder to back down unless both sides do it together. In any war, fighting on too many sides at one go stretches resources. On a friendly side, this is ever more chaotic. Trade is called trade simply because it’s a means of bartering between countries. If the home products can’t produce all that is needed, it’s hardly surprising that imports are needed and, if nothing else, provide alternatives of choice. Remove that option, and you effectively destroy competition to improve.
When we are unable to distinguish between the good and bad leaders in the ‘free’ world, we are facing a serious problem. I think I might have ranted enough. Never forget international commerce is actually effective.
Thank you, take care, good night, and it’s still 13 o’clock.
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
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