#493 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday October 27)
Good morning,
MORE DYSTOPIAN FILMS AND BOOKS
One of my favorite genres, which I wrote about last week, is dystopian fiction. Here are a few suggestions from others (with which I concur 100%), in their own words:
Skip Kessler: “Philip Roth, one of my all-time favorite authors, wrote The Plot Against America in which Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for President in 1940 and creates a pro-Hitler/Nazi administration.”
David Berkey: “Another flix you might want to check out is the Burt Lancaster/Richard Widmark movie called Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight%27s_Last_Gleaming I remember seeing it when I was in Junior High School and it left a lasting impression on me. For some reason it is not readily available in the usual manner these days, so if you want to see it, you’ll have to go digging.”
Peter Bain: “Thanks for including Seven Days in May. I have long considered this a seriously underrated film laying out in Rod Sterling’s chillingly clinical mannner precisely how a coup could bring about the end of the American experiment.”
Pat Lambert: “Nevil Shute’s haunting On the Beach? Set in Australia where he lived for many years. The countries with nukes, in a panic evidently from mistaken communication among them (who will ever know, really) have fired off enough radiation to poison the world, and the currents are gradually bringing death to the last living continent. Set in the Melbourne area. Boating, car racing, exploratory American submarine forays, all undertaken with reckless abandon because why not?”
David Berkey (again): “How does Dr. Strangelove not make the list? George C. Scott was hysterical (‘baby, don’t forget to say your prayers before you go to sleep’).” Brad Tabach-Bank notes, “who can forget Slim Pickens riding the bomb like a bucking bronco? Yee-hah!”
Mark DiMaria: “Somehow I was disappointed that you did not include among your dystopian futures the one imagined by the episode of the Simpsons from a couple decades back, in which Donald Trump is president ...” [NB: Mark, I didn’t say documentaries were allowed…although this did prove dystopian!]
Paul Kipnis: “Love/hate dystopian works. I love/hate this list. And it will give me something to do over the next weeks.” And that’s thing about dystopia. It infuriates, inspires, elevates, and depresses—all simultaneously!
NUANCE—IMMIGRATION
Most issues are not so clear-cut. We have been a nation of immigrants, welcoming people who want to work hard and pursue the American dream, while not having such a porous border as to diminish the country. David Rochkind commented about on Governor DiSantis’s “despicable” behavior in sending immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard and the “blue states.”: David suggests a more nuanced view of being open to people who want to work hard and adhere to the law, while not having a border so porous that folks on the terrorist watch list can’t get through. There was a time both parties sought constructive immigration reform (indeed, President George W. Bush worked toward it). As David says, “I do believe in the American dream but I also believe in national security. Having a porous border is not really a border and while those on the right enjoy cheap labor, the sheer number of annual migrants is stressing our social services and school systems.”
It remains possible to strengthen our border security, improve our processing of asylum requests, be kind to family units, and allow for reasonable immigration.
MORE ON NUANCE—ENERGY POLICY
Ben VandeBunt commented that social entrepreneurship can provide the opportunity to address climate change, if companies pursue both doing well and doing good. He then goes on to note the seemingly obvious, to wit, “every energy source has residual outcomes, from coal tearing off mountaintops and polluting streams w/fly ash to fracking to nuclear waste — Trump hates wind turbines and damage it does to views and birds (and says it causes cancer). The idea that we have an energy solution that is perfect is kind of nutty.”
I wholeheartedly agree. We are going to have to compromise with each other and reconcile from a number of less-than-optimal solutions. I think nuclear power (at least in the medium term) has to be part of the solution. There simply isn’t enough capacity for wind and solar, and we haven’t come up with the battery capacity to capture electricity in non-peak periods. All production in energy poses risk, and we will have to accept some. We already do, as current energy extraction and use kills people every day.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY—RESONATING IN OUR TIMES…
“But so long as men are not trained to withhold judgment in the absence of evidence, they will be led astray by cocksure prophets, and it is likely that their leaders will be either ignorant fanatics or dishonest charlatans. To endure uncertainty is difficult, but so are most of the other virtues.” –Bertrand Russell, Philosophy for Laymen (1946)
Have a great day,
Glenn
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