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Wired has a recent article about author Octavia Butler and how her work presaged the "Make America Great" again campaign.
Octavia Butler, who died in 2006, was the author of such visionary science fiction novels as Kindred, The Parable of the Sower, and Dawn. Gerry Canavan, who just published a book-length study of Butler, describes her as one of the greatest writers of her era.
"I think you'd put her up there with Philip K. Dick and Le Guin and Delany and these other people who really made an impact on the way that science fiction circulates," Canavan says in Episode 234 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "Especially that mode of literary science fiction that's somewhere in the middle between genre fiction and prize-winning novels, she has to be top two, top three in that list."
Butler made headlines this year when fans noted that her 1998 novel The Parable of the Talents features a fascist politician who rises to power by promising to "make America great again." The comparisons to Donald Trump are obvious, but Canavan says the character was actually inspired by Ronald Reagan.
[...] Butler had a singularly dark imagination, and often had to do multiple rewrites in order to tell her stories in a way that readers would find palatable. But Canavan says that in the current political climate, Butler's dim view of humanity is starting to seem ever more relevant.
"She often thought about how easy it would be for everything to just kind of go back to the way it was," he says. "That the things that seemed like they were permanent progress were really just a kind of epiphenomenon of the wealth of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, and that when that fell apart, all the bad days would come back again."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:41PM
I voted. Did you?
No, because it wasn't worth wasting my time. The voting system in place prevents my vote from being represented at the state level.
My individual vote would have no substantial effect on the election. If I was given the power of 900000 votes, I still would not have been able to change the presidential election results and I would've needed an additional 1000000 votes to actually get my preferred candidate.
A candidate received ~34% of the state's popular vote, but received 0% of the state's electoral votes. If that candidate were to receive 49% of the vote, then the electoral results would still be unchanged. Those voters are not represented.
In my state, presidential voting is a placebo button and enough people are already pressing it that I won't bother waiting for my turn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 18 2016, @05:03PM
You didn't vote? Then STFU you dick. You fucked up, along with about a hundred million other fucked up Americans who can't be bothered. Just STFU. You have the right to remain silent - use it. Doing so will help to hide the fact that you're an idiot.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Sunday December 18 2016, @05:42PM
The only time i haven't voted was one time i didn't vote early and was sick as a dog on election day: i thought "well, whoever is elected can't be that bad".
Then the NDP got elected into Ontario (Canada).
I'd go to work everyday and have maybe a 6 pack of beer for the weekend.
The welfare people across the road got case after case of beer and drank all weekend because the NDP raised what they got for 'allowance'.
My taxes went up to support THEIR drinking.
The next election, i voted and Mike Harris got elected because he made good promises: AND HE KEPT THEM!
The people across the street were made to work for their welfare (workfare): the drinking slowed considerably because they actually had to get up and go to work!!!! (IMAGINE THAT... HAVING TO WORK FOR YOUR CHEQUE!!!)
But because he did what he promised, people voted him out. Now the politicians in Canada (and it seems in the U.S. too) have learned "promise EVERYTHING, do NOTHING!!".
I have always voted since then, usually at the early polling.
Mostly i vote for parties other than the big 2/3, to try to institute change, but never, ever will i miss another chance to vote...
Trying hard to reform the electoral system (which the newly elected Liberals promised to do, but are now pulling back from): trying to push every vote ACTUALLY mattering.
I miss Preston Manning: the last politician i actually trusted.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 18 2016, @06:39PM
Never say never, my friend. I was sick for this election day, but I did make it. Had the election been about three days later, I would have missed it when they hauled my butt to the hospital. Close call on that one.
But, like you, I don't intend to miss an election for any reason less than a genuine emergency.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @09:38PM
Do you support early voting? If you had genuinely missed it due to your hospital visit, would you support early voting?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 19 2016, @12:38AM
Support it? Well, yeah, I do. But, I've never bothered to sign up for it, or check into it, or whatever. Maybe I should . . . .
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday December 21 2016, @02:15AM
Early polling is great: most of the time, I've walked in, voted and left. No waiting.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Touché) by turgid on Sunday December 18 2016, @09:13PM
That's all very tough sounding and stiff-upper-lip, and that's great if the people in receipt of the welfare are able to work. It's also great if the people on welfare aren't being exploited as a source of cheap labour for wealthy companies that would rather not pay a fair wage.
It's not great when the people are too ill, old, young or disabled to actually work for a living.
But you knew that anyway, and you were just angry because of that one family that you saw on your street, right?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Monday December 19 2016, @03:45AM
Wow
Get a real life.
That's the best you got?
Yeah, I'm all for fucking with everyone. SHEEIT.
If you CAN go to the beer store, lift a few two-fours of beer and spend your weekend drinking and ignoring your house, property AND kids, then yes.... Yes you can fecking well work for that fecking cheque.
If there is a problem, then no. But no, I don't believe you should get a free run because your on welfare AND able to work.
I knew a guy in Toronto who worked at a group home for multi-handicapped kids: he had nothing below his elbows and nothing below the knees because he was a phlobidimide baby.
He had no hands, no legs and found prosthetic arm and hands to be awful. He did use prosthetic legs. And he worked alongside us in the group home.
And he worked hard for his paycheck as a salary worker full-time, not workfare.
There is a lot of work most people could do: we're going to be training our son to do work of some kind, so that he isn't just sitting around bored, for one thing.
Get off it: there are a lot of people who were raised on welfare by parents raised on welfare and are raising their own kids to be on welfare.....
If you can work, get out and work. If you legitimately can't, or are elderly (especially if you worked your life through), then no.
But you knew that anyway, and you were just angry because of that one family that you saw on your street, right?
Don't be an ass.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @06:58PM
Call me all the names you like, but there is a problem with the voting system when "about a hundred million Americans" do not believe it is worth their time to vote.
The last time I voted, I left most of the ballot blank because I refuse to vote for candidates that I do not like. I periodically contact my representatives and let them know why I will not vote for them or tell them I will not vote for them if they sponsor "Bill X", but I've only received (at most) copy-pasted responses so far.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Sunday December 18 2016, @08:37PM
Hey now, be nice to those people. They're my friends. Fewer votes cast increases the power of my vote.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday December 18 2016, @07:37PM
Do you roll over and play dead when someone wrongs you? What do you do when you discover someone broke into your car and stole a few things? Maybe report it to the police, file a claim with insurance? Or do you do nothing because there's no chance your items will be recovered, so what's the point?
You don't vote because your 1 vote might decide an election. You vote because it makes life harder for all the powerful people who don't want others to vote. Voting reduces their power. They don't like that. Even if your vote is wrongly discarded, they still had to hoke up some crap reason why your vote shouldn't be counted. It gives voting rights activists material to work with.
Have you not noticed that the people complaining the loudest about rigged elections are the same ones rigging the elections as much as they can? Why would you play right into their hands by not voting?
I hope you fight tyranny and oppression somehow. Voting isn't the only way, but it sure is an easy one, much easier than marching in front of the capitol carrying signs, risking tear gas, beatings, and arrest. Much easier than suing. Much, much easier and safer than joining (or starting) an armed rebellion. The boycott is fairly easy to do. Signing a petition is another easy move.
If you don't fight back, then why shouldn't predators pick on you every time they see something of yours they want to take?