#288 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday March 2)
Good morning,
WHAT SPECULATIVE FICTION CAN TEACH US
I’ve been a fan of dystopian literature, alternative history, and science fiction all my life. I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the value of that literature. What it offers is the opportunity to create a world or a situation from which the author can create metaphorical conflicts and resolutions that speak to our times.
Several recent ones come to mind:
Don’t Look Up. A thinly disguised metaphor for the climate crisis, in the form of a comet approaching earth. In some ways, holding a mirror up to current society and saying “this is nuts” is reminiscent of Doctor Strangelove.
Handmaid’s Tale. What can happen with excessive government control, particularly when tied to social issues and religion. Watch the first season on TV, based upon Margaret Atwood’s wonderful book. Ignore the subsequent seasons, just more of the same but with amped up violence (not unlike when Westworld tried to turn a great concept into a multi-season machine for capturing eyeballs with greater and greater violence and absurdity).
The Good Place. While sometimes dipping into the silliness of a sitcom, it addresses the critical issues regarding ethical behavior, Kantianism/deontology, consequentialism, the meaning of life (and death), the redemption of individuals, good and evil, the importance of mortality, and how we can be our own worst enemies. They all are laid out amusingly in a life after death context. Plus Kristen Bell and Ted Danson lead a great cast. You’ll be hearing more about this remarkable show in a future musing.
The Mandibles. What if the economy really goes to hell? Another great read by Lionel Shriver. Thinking the unthinkable, pumped up to the absurd to demonstrate the risks. The book is divided into two parts: The first is the economic collapse of the United States, centered around the “Great Renunciation,” when T-Bills are declared null and void, and the U.S. coping with a new international monetary/financial order (of which it is not a part). The second part is the increasing authoritarianism of the government, a couple of generations later.
Station Eleven. A pandemic catastrophe (written before COVID) by Emily St. John Mandel. What does the world look like when it must rebuild. And can art save our souls? This has been adapted as a miniseries on TV. It’s good as TV but better as a book. There is a hopefulness to the slow establishment of a society, centered around the Great Lakes.
The Resisters. By Gish Jen. Dystopia with AI, oversight by “Aunt Nettie” (like Big Brother from 1984), with two populations (the “Angelfair’ and the Surplus—much like the eloi and the morlocks from H.G. Wells). And baseball is involved…!
The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. A classic of the alternative fiction genre. What if Charles Lindbergh, noted isolationist, defeated Franklin Roosevelt and a treaty were signed with Hitler? How does the world change and how does America find itself again? Told through the reminiscences of a Jewish kid in New Jersey, who sees anti-semitism all around him. Good as a TV miniseries but better as a novel. Roth was a genius.
SCIENCE OR WOKENESS?
On the subject of science fiction…
To be a successful applicant for a position as a physicist at San Diego State University, one must demonstrate how they satisfy three of the following: “(a) are committed to engaging in service with underrepresented populations within the discipline, (b) have demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline, (c) have experience or have demonstrated commitment to teaching and mentoring underrepresented students, (d) have experience or have demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research, (e) have experience in or have demonstrated commitment to extending knowledge of opportunities and challenges in achieving artistic/scholarly success to members of an underrepresented group, (f) have experience in or have demonstrated commitment to research that engages underrepresented communities, (g) have expertise or demonstrated commitment to developing expertise in cross-cultural communication and collaboration, and/or (h) have research interests that contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.”
As John McWhorter notes, “They’re all admirable activities and aims. However, they are vastly less applicable to becoming or being a physicist than to, say, social work, education or even disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. That an applicant to the university’s physics department would be required to meet such benchmarks is a very modern proposition, and probably leaves most people now reading this job posting — physicists or not — scratching or shaking their heads.:
And while I’m a proponent of addressing historic racism and current racial inequities, it is hard to see that the too-few precious dollars devoted to the National Institutes of Health are being diverted toward a “framework to end structural racism across the biomedical research enterprise.”
I guess I’m concerned that we not sacrifice the best science (and scientists) in return for being further woke in all circumstances. Certainly scientific advancement in China is not dependent upon a demonstration of fealty to philosophical framework.
If you can get past the New York Times firewall, this is worth a read. Is it science or wokeness that will control our future? And how will it affect our standing competing with the rest of the world?
Have a good day,
Glenn
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