Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Not So New

I'll leave it to wider read sci fi fans (it's been years since I've read much) to provide the evidence, but right wing dystopianism in sci-fi isn't a new thing, though its emphasis has changed. My memory is that over the 80s-90s it was generally directed at environmentalism or lefty Ludditism (real or imagined), or occasionally nanny-state stuff run amok, and courageously armed right wingers would save the day then too. What is new is the equation of leftyism with radical violent (or even nonviolent) Islamism, which is of course absurd given that, you know, we tend to be all about the guilt free sex and gay marriage and religious freedom and whatnot.