"Ravage!" In My Best Soundwave Voice
That's from Emmanuel Goldstein's book-within-a-book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchic Collectivism excerpted in the George Orwell novel 1984. A person from a smarter species would likely have asked what does "oligarchic collectivism" mean? An oligarchy is a small group holding the reins of power in a country and collectivism is the ideology that emphasizes "we" versus "I". Combine the two and the Goldstein that Big Brother and the Party draw and denigrate as a traitor proposes a system to overthrow them ... that is pretty much the same as theirs. By making it (and Goldstein) the enemy there's no reason to change things in Oceania where Winston, Julia, the proles, and everybody else you see mentioned in 1984 live -- it would be a stretch to say thrive. The more I hear a phrase like "are you willing to embrace change" the more nervous it makes me. Only so much bad you can encapsulate into an hour show, a dystopian book, or even a Two Minutes Hate.
Since both the book and the year, we seem to be improving.
Anyway, that line came to mind as I was finishing Harry Turtledove's latest novel Fallout (ISBN 9780553390735) the second novel in his Hot War trilogy, as in the Cold War suddenly became hot when Harry Truman of the United States heeded Douglas MacArthur's counsel in Korea and sent some nuclear bombs to even the odds in the early 1950s. North Korea being a client of China that in turn's a client of the Soviet Union that is nation number two to have nuclear weapons, the Soviets under Josef Stalin lob nuclear weapons into Europe and to even the odds in Korea. This story's told at the highest levels of power as well as on the battlefield as well as on the home fronts, told expertly in the way Turtledove's known for. And in case you wonder whether anybody will be alive in this series after the next book, your guess is as good as mine, but considering nuclear weapons got lobbed in Turtledove's Worldwar series set in the 1940s without mass extinction, I'd say there will be.
We'll see.
We've already got Sarah and Jeffrey's school supplies and our daughter finagled an emoji-decorated outfit out of us (out of Mom, I was with Jeffrey in another store) and we feel about as ready as we can be for school to start a week from this Wednesday. I heard today that the first high school football game of this season will be broadcast in a few days. I would presume on a football field that has not been closed and converted to a garden, as some are in the world forced off the grid in James Howard Kunstler's novel World Made By Hand (ISBN 9780802144010) set in a near-future post-war in the Holy Land and apparent devastation of Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. It's a summer in the life of Robert Earle, a former software marketer who retreated after the "blackout" -- it's not called that in here, but the TV series Revolution brought it to mind -- and lost his family and now finds himself mayor of Union Grove, New York slowly and steadily urging people to move again. And himself.
Not all post-apocalyptic novels are bleak.
And I have days I wonder if I'd really miss electricity or having to go back to a barter system if I survived the mass riots first. I'm a little mad at myself that my cell phone falling on the ground and not coming back on again until this morning was even that important. It's a tool, and like any tool it's something I can put down and should be able to put down once I'm done with it. I don't have Internet access on it and I refuse to get it. Yeah, the family would never be able to watch the first two Shrek movies again like we did this weekend or catch up on Dance Moms or any other shows that seem to thrive on shouting matches. Couldn't run a fan, true, or an air conditioner or a car or even my lawn mower as I did yesterday to make our place look great in comparison to the vacated house on our right and to not look like we don't care. Heh ... I remember the lawn mower I used growing up in Florida and how Dad doesn't let me use it a heck of a lot because it was hard to go a straight line.
It still is, David
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