It can’t happen here?
In the world of THE MIRRORED HEAVENS, America is a dictatorship—or more precisely, a military autocracy with the trappings of democracy. This is a vision of the future that I can’t say I’m thrilled about, but it’s one I stand by. I don’t see our republic as surviving more than a few decades into the 21st century, and I think there’s a decent chance it may be all over within the next few years, particularly when you keep in mind the following things:
1. Extreme economic conditions breed extreme politics.
2. The average voter has the logic/reasoning abilities of my cat
3. The Right is totally blind to its own autocratic tendencies, and totally demonizes the Left.
4. The Left is totally blind to its own autocratic tendencies, and totally demonizes the Right.
5. Extreme economic conditions breed extreme politics.
In short, we’re entering a high-tech version of the 1930s, and God only knows what could emerge from the other end of it this time. It seems pretty clear at this point, though, that when the delicate equilibrium that’s the Constitution finally collapses, it will be in favor of some kind of executive-branch-on-steroids, and so that’s what I created in MIRRORED HEAVENS. The agents and soldiers in the book colloquially refer to the president as the Throne, which (to my surprise) some people took literally, assuming that now America had a monarchy. Yet the whole point of dictatorships, as Caesar recognized so long ago, is that you don’t need to put a crown on your head. And as Orwell observed more recently, if you keep the basic loyalty-symbols in place (flags, etc.), you can do anything you want and people will get in line like lemmings. Someone will get us all in uniforms before too long, I suspect.
Tags: dictatorship, far left, far right, fascism
March 5th, 2009 at 11:02 am
i am so glad i am not average! nice post!
March 5th, 2009 at 11:45 am
hmmmm what would our future be like if Dave is even half right. I can understand your logic and course of events that could take place, but what about events man made/ or by nature that may have an impact on our political process? Things likely to take place include the continuing rise of water temperatures on our oceans, sooner or later a dirty bomb going off (god help us when this happens), shortage of food and natural resources. Not to mention nature or manmade super microbes? Shit!
Dave, do you have the schematics and power requirements for Jason’s suit?
John
March 6th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hey man. Keep insulting me by saying the average American voter is as smart as me and you’d best not close your eyes when you sleep tonight. And don’t think I don’t know how to turn that knob on your bedroom door. I’ve been saving that trick for your final act.
You’ve been warned.
March 7th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Dave, one contrast between now and 1934 is there was no precedent whatsoever for the use of high-technology in an autocracy. The governments were the sole owners of the means of production and communication in both fascism and communism. Today, the means of production are kinda useless and the means of communication are on Facebook and Twitter.
There’s definitely a possibility – even a strong possibility – for your dystopian scenario du jour, but I’m hoping we have moved along the evolutionary continuum far enough to make Holocaust a relative impossibility.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
@ Eric: I agree with you at least in part on the implications of the Internet/proliferation of media channels. It’s interesting to reflect on where we’d be without them: e.g., vote-hacking, for example, continues to be ignored by the major TV stations, yet it’s been discussed in detail online; as a result, there was a lot of awareness going into the 08 election.
But ultimately the Internet is dependent on satellites and phone companies, and there are certainly scenarios where those are commandeered by the govt. As to the possibility of ethnic cleansing in America, I’d have to give that one more thought, as I was talking more about autocracy in general than the specific policies such a regime would carry out. But it’s by no means inconceivable. It all depends on how bad economic conditions get. There’s even a sense here in which the Internet actually accelerates the political polarization that could lay the groundwork for the more dire scenarios–it’s an incredible tool for organizing/communicating, but it also at times seems to be a gigantic echo chamber/shouting match that makes it even easier to dismiss the humanity of those you hate.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
it also at times seems to be a gigantic echo chamber/shouting match that makes it even easier to dismiss the humanity of those you hate.
I am aware of that and try very hard to not let that effect me and my political forum… and maintain free speech.
Very hard balancing act
April 27th, 2009 at 7:05 am
“I don’t see our republic as surviving more than a few decades into the 21st century”
Good. The Freemasons set it up anyway so good riddance.