This essay first appeared in Cliterati on October 26th; I have modified it slightly to fit the format of this blog.
As long-time readers know, I’m very fond of science fiction and fantasy; the difference between the two is that the latter describes a world which (by our understanding of the laws of the universe) could not actually exist, while the former describes a world which could but does not (at least yet). As some have pointed out, though, the term “science fiction” is really too limited; very often the world described in such a story differs from our own not due to some scientific discovery or technical development, but in a social or cultural way. For this reason, some writers and critics prefer the term “speculative fiction”, which broadens the genre to include things like alternate-history stories; my tale “For I Have Sinned”, for example, imagines what our modern world might be like had the Catholic Church won the Crusades and successfully suppressed the Protestant Reformation. The story is an example of a type called a dystopia; while a “Utopia” is a fictional world better than our own (at least in the writer’s estimation), a dystopia is one that is worse. But just as the traditional science fiction of yesterday (e.g. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Destination Moon) can become the science fact of today, so can what was once the stuff of dystopian speculation become the true and horrible political reality.
The process is usually very gradual, just as technological development is; a poisonous idea becomes established in one place and spreads to others, expanding in scope once it’s in place. The wicked Swedish model of prostitution law, which defines women as moral imbeciles and men as their evil oppressors, is sold to the delusional, the misandrist and the ignorant as a means of “protecting” women from dirty, bad sex, and though it has been repeatedly beaten back in England and Scotland it has now taken root in Northern Ireland:
The Northern Ireland Assembly has voted by 81 to 10 in favour of making it a crime to pay for sex…Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to vote in favour of the measure. There is still some way to go before the bill becomes law, but the prospect of a ban on paying for sex in Northern Ireland has taken a significant step forward…Opponents included Justice Minister David Ford who claimed it would be difficult to enforce…
“Difficult to enforce” is an understatement; the US has criminalized both the buying and selling of sex for a century now, and though only a tiny fraction of all such transactions are caught by police it takes “sting” operations and other violations of civil liberties to accomplish it. In other words, even if you believe that stopping consensual behavior is somehow a good thing, prohibition can’t actually accomplish that. It does, however, provide a useful excuse for the construction of a vast police state; “protecting children from porn” was the rationale for establishing the UK’s internet censorship regime, but it’s now being extended to allow suppression of any viewpoint of which “authorities” disapprove. Nor will they be content with merely silencing such people:
People found guilty of Internet “trolling” in Britain could be jailed for up to two years…following a number of high-profile cases of abusive and threatening behaviour on Twitter. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling…[said] “This is a law to combat cruelty — and marks our determination to take a stand against a baying cyber-mob”…last month a man was jailed for 18 weeks for what prosecutors described as “a campaign of hatred” against a [politician]. “These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life…” Grayling said. “That is why we are determined to quadruple the current six-month sentence”…The government proposes to amend two existing laws to extend the maximum jail term and also the time limit for prosecutions, from six months to three years…
I edited this item to remove the cases politicians are using to win the support of the thoughtless and focus on their real motive: shielding politicians from criticism. Thoughtcrime is now a very real offense in Britain; perhaps you read about this case:
Robul Hoque…[was convicted for] his collection of Japanese Manga or Anime-style images alone…His barrister Richard Bennett said: “These are not what would be termed as paedophilic images. These are cartoons”…Police found the images when they seized Hoque’s computer…none were of real people. They were classified as prohibited images as they depicted young girls, some in school uniforms…exposing themselves or taking part in sexual activity…Six years ago he was prosecuted for having “Tomb Raider-style” computer-generated pictures of fictional children…
That’s right, he was convicted for having drawings of a taboo subject. Drawings. And pay attention to that line about how they found the forbidden doodles, because their power to search you for “evidence” (or any other excuse) is increasing all the time:
Registered gun owners in the United Kingdom are now subject to unannounced visits to their homes under new guidance that allows police to inspect firearms storage without a warrant. The new policy from the British Home Office went into effect Oct. 15…Britain’s gun owners were subject to the home visits before the update, but the inspection had to be conducted with prior notice…the Association of Chief Police Officers [claimed] the revamped guideline does not grant police any new powers…ACPO is also encouraging [informants] to call a new Crimestoppers hotline to report any [people they want harassed by police]…The Home Office is [pretending] that legitimate guns could easily be stolen and wind up in the hands of terrorists…
Of course, guns aren’t the only things which terrorists might use; knives, household chemicals, cars, computers, money…why, the list is endless! Clearly the police need the power to “inspect the storage” of those things in private homes, without warning or warrant. And if the owners aren’t home when they arrive, well, in the interests of national security the police should clearly be given the power to let themselves in, and if the place gets ransacked in the process you can be sure those in charge will dismiss any claims the householders make with the assurance that proper procedures were followed.
All of us are time travelers, and though the process is both slow and unidirectional, it inevitably brings us into a world very different from the one where we started. Unfortunately, we cannot merely hop into the TARDIS and return to the past or visit a different future if we don’t like the one in which we find ourselves; we are stuck there, like it or not. Tyrannies don’t materialize without warning overnight, nor are they usually imposed from outside any more; the world around us is a prison we have allowed the powerful to build, stone by stone and bar by bar. They capitalized on our fears, our intolerance, our greed, our envy, our laziness and our wrath, and though we could have stopped them many times over we were always more concerned with what other people were saying, doing or thinking, and thus handed our self-proclaimed “leaders” the weapons they needed to dominate us all. Welcome to the future, and if you think all the things I described above are hunky-dory just wait until the inexorable action of legal precedent brings your face under the boot next.
It’s probably time we spent a few generations in slavery. I think most people have taken freedom and liberty for granted too long. It’s sad that the only time humans are at our best is when we are fighting for survival.
Northern Ireland has –obviously–been a haven of po-faced Churchianity for a long time. It is the one area of the UK where religion has a lot of power still (outside the Islamists). Its adoption of the Swedish model was always most likely .
The present UK govt got in because people were sick of the arrogance and tinpot authoritarianism of the previous New Labour gang. The present shower are just as bad and are widely known as BluLabour since the only thing they want to preserve (and extend) is their own privileged position.
I wish I could say the Republic of Ireland was better, but Maggie’s repeated stories about how Dublin repeatedly kowtows to the group responsible for the Magdalene laundries scandal shows that it isn’t. As tempting as it would be to say one side “must” be better because most of the people there are Protestants or Catholics, the truth is that when it comes to sex worker rights, both Irish goverments are the equivalent of these guys:
http://static.neatorama.com/images/2007-02/south-africa-brothers-roger-ballen.jpg
This trolling hysteria has always creeped me out. Every single time these media scumbags have brought it up, I’ve smelled a rat. Death and rape threats? Illegal already. Now these authoratarian psychopaths have taken it upon themselves to police our language and behaviour, and accuse us of being bigots and promoting hate speech with no evidence whatsoever.
I hope one day history finds them guilty.
I’m not so sure that dystopias happen slowly; look at Germany in the 1930s—that was pretty rapid.
And in the UK the post-war ‘social-democrat’ consensus lasted for about 30 years; but it didn’t take Thatcher, Blair et al long to demolish it with the new orthodoxy of Hayekian ‘neo-liberalism’; this is a polite way of dismantling and ‘privatising’ bits of the state, relying on the market which is always right in its actions, and enriching your chums. The ‘trickle-down’ effect was imaginary; the ‘trickle’ is upwards; inequality which was lowest in the post WW2 era now reaches the pre Great War levels. And all the major parties have bought into this, and promote it along with it’s partner ‘austerity’.
And in Britain we have the distinctly odd position of European railway companies, usually owned by their state, now having franchises to run railways in Britain; Britain has the highest railway fares in Europe, with the suspicion that the profits so generated are used to subsidise continental railways.
“Trickle Down” works.
Who cares about inequality? I don’t. What I care about is do the guys at the bottom have enough food to eat. You look at the US – and the answer is most definitely YES. Go to any Wallmart and just look at the fat people there. Everyone has a cell phone … and cable TV … and high speed internet.
And yet there’s all this complaining about “inequality”. I say … if you’re upset that someone else has more than you – then get off your ass and yourself some of that!
Really tired of hearing people complain about “poverty”. In the US we don’t know what poverty is anymore. I have been overseas to third world countries – I HAVE SEEN IT FIRST HAND. And it’s nothing like what exists in the US. It’s laughable on it’s face that any American (or anyone in a developed Western nation for that matter) even has the nerve to talk about poverty.
I’d guess that once again, krulac, we come from opposing and irreconcilable philosophies. But you should be concerned about inequality; reduce it and you increase the health of the population, increase opportunities and decrease “anti-social” problems.
As for Walmart and obesity: it’s more expensive to eat healthily than to eat junk food, and junk food is often what the poor exist on.
Frankly, economic “equality” is a terrible goal for a society, because it has no fixed point of reference. The condition of equality is satisfied if each person owns a mountain or a molehill, and it’s so much easier to grind down mountains into molehills, than to build molehills into mountains…
“Inequality” is the symptom, not the disease.
The idea is not total “equality”, but rather a reduction in inequality.
Thus in 1980 the ratio of the average CEO earnings to the average worker’s wage was 40:1. Thirty years later, the ratio is now about 300:1. And during this time, the real value of the worker’s wage is now barely any better than it was, and for some it is worth less. It’s the 1%—better the 0.1% who gain.
No it’s not … it’s COMPLETE “equality” that is the goal of those who are bothered by this issue. They want to eliminate the benefits and rewards of INITIATIVE. It’s completely based in envy and greed.
And … I can waive a magic wand and make everyone completely EQUAL tomorrow – and everyone’s gonna be dragged to the same lowly level of misery with no hope of escaping.
Every attempt in history to make people economically equal has resulted in everyone just becoming miserable.
No thanks.
I don’t think we’ll reach common ground here, krulac. It’s not envy, something closer to altruism and compassion. It’s not complete equality, or to deny that some “should” have more than others. The income needed for “happiness” is said to be around $50,000; the happiness returns on incomes above this are nugatory. (I guess that is the income necessary in westernised countries.)
Nordic countries, particularly Denmark and Finland regularly report being the “happiest” in the world; both have high taxation, comprehensive social security, low levels of inequality, low levels of social problems and low levels of corruption. Perhaps it’s in the genes, perhaps they are a much more uniform society with common aims and goals.
The US and the UK are much more “mixed” societies.
At $50,000 I’m barely making it, though I’m working toward the day (after my house is finished) when I can survive on half of that.
Statistics like this need to be taken cum grano salis.
The rough equivalent in the UK is £30,000 which is about 10% more than the average (median) income. This statistic might mean that people would be happy if they had just a little more income.
And money isn’t, as they say, a sure fire way to be happy, just to be miserable in luxury.
Nothing in the universe is “sure”. But statistically, wealthier people are happier. And even if money can’t buy happiness, poverty sure buys a lot of misery.
True; but if $25k would make you “content”, would $250k make you ten times happier? Or $2.5m or whatever; I very much doubt that there is a linear relationship here. And there must come a point when you have so much that you can’t spend it all.
The whole “inequality” debate is based on envy. I envy no man. I am master of my own universe. I don’t think it’s the job of government to make the population more “healthy” and “anti-social” problems can be blamed on a lack of individual responsibility.
Also – you are incorrect about the cost of eating healthy. I eat healthy and I know.
Maggie, I like you. I have great respect for you. That being said, I have started feeling no small amount of frustration as I read your postings day in and day out. It has nothing to do with your logic, mind you.
The trouble is, I don’t feel I can adequately explain why here, because I would have to touch on things that, at this moment in time, are probably best discussed either in private, or at least not on the internet.
If I said anything, it’s that I’m getting a strong defeatist vibe, from the main posts and from the commenters. Again, I’m not sure I can go further without being written off as someone who’s naïve or who “just doesn’t GET it.”
It makes me wish you had paid a visit to my neck of the woods (you actually would have passed through it on your recent train trip from Chicago to Seattle).
You’re not the only one that gets a “defeatist” vibe. I have increasingly got a huge helping of that since I started reading this blog. Maggie posts a lot about what is WRONG. She should probably post more “good news” articles.
BUT …
There ain’t no good news. I haven’t seen her ignore any upbeat stories – the fact is – those stories are few and far between. So all the store offers right now is “defeatism”.
But this is reality – and we have to deal with it.
But that’s what I’m trying to get at, we aren’t “dealing with it”. No one is. Perhaps you could say we’re coping with it, but dealing with it would imply (to me) that action to change things is being taken.
Where is that action? Is anyone planning anything or is everyone who could actually do better than the leaders we’re saddled with now content to simply bellow into a microphone on some AM radio station, or write blog after blog about how ‘the people need to wake up and take action’ and hope that someone, somewhere is inspired enough to actually implement their plans for a better world, or write comments on those blogs and broadcasts about how things would be ‘if I were King…”
And before some attempt is made to turn this back on me, allow me to make the point that I have not devoted a large share of my time to writing (or blogging, or broadcasting) about how horrid the world is and how we’re all doomed.
I just don’t get it, do I?
The world has always been shit. The Hindus will tell you that the reality of life is suffering. You just live through it and do the best you can.
This will never change. You just make up your mind to live through it or become a martyr.
None of these issues will ever be solved permanently. Hell, the Western Capitalist democracies are responsible for the highest overall standard of living in the history of the planet yet there are still a vast number of people who want to push thoroughly discredited Marxist systems on us.
It never ends.
Krulac – I don’t buy that there’s no good news. What we’re seeing is panic among the current tribe of authoritarians (and I include the “establishment” GOP as well as the Democrats) because they know that their rackets have been exposed and are being defeated as we speak.
While Irish punters are going to have to go overseas for a while (or at least I would in their place), I really doubt that Britain’s new censorship regime will succeed. It’s not that hard to disguise where you’re from on the Internet.