IMAGE: I created today's image. The background photo is one I took last September in Dallas, TX; the words, as credited, are from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25(1). Please feel free to use the quote image if you wish, but kindly include an attribution to me (Jan S. Gephardt) as the creator and a link back to this post. Thanks!
My mid-week posts this month have been a series of meditations upon what I think are outmoded science fictional tropes, be they ever so time-hallowed. There are just some times and settings in which I can't suspend my disbelief of these extrapolations.
The series was inspired by my thoughts while reading Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey. Let's get this straight, right off the top: I have some issues with it, but it's still a wonderful space opera, well crafted and thoroughly worth reading.
Misogyny is alive and well, but mental health care is not.
Last week I examined the reasons why I think a highly educated and intelligent work force of relatively few people, supervising lots of robots, were a far more realistic and likely extrapolation than a dense population of "expendable" humanity.
I also said I thought that Silicon Valley and the current aerospace industry--not the coal mines and textile mills of yesteryear--were the likelier model for ideas about what you'd find among workers in space.
Granted, the tunnels of Ceres do bear something of a resemblance to the visual effect of this Industrial-Revolution-era coal mine. And the leadership's disdain for the denizens of this world seems about on par with this era. But I think it's a misleading extrapolation.
It was never clear to me exactly what sort of governing system Earth supposedly had set up on Ceres(don't look to the wiki for help, either), but it clearly wasn't a representative democracy. Why not? Apparently, we readers weren't supposed to ask or care, and the residents certianly weren't supposed to weigh in on the matter.
Which means it doesn't take a genius to figure out why there might be unrest. Seriously, people! Nobody needed a gang problem (although the form of government certainly might foster one) to foment unrest on Ceres. Heck sake, the quality of the food alone probably set off riots! (remember: fungi and fermentation only. Yeep).
The food alone ought to set off riots on Ceres. Given the abysmal governance, no wonder the locals got restless!
But given the realities I foresee for the "immediate to intermediate future" of space, whether the governing body is a corporate overlord or a government, the days of the “company store,”debt bondage, and indentured servitude would either be a non-starter or at the very least won’t last very long in a realistic future setting.
Rational human beings will recognize those ideas for the royal shafting they are (as they always have, truth be told), and they will sooner or later find a way to overturn it.
I'm extrapolating that only the bright and well-educated will make it into space--the career-driven, who wouldn't know what do do with a baby. But they certainly will know what to do with anyone who tries to mess with their freedom of speech or assembly. How long did the Gilded Age last? Two decades? And they didn’t have the Internet. I’m betting on much, much sooner than later.
I haven't read the whole series, so I don't know if the misogyny changes later on--but changing science fiction culture itself to stifle misogyny is not for the faint of heart. If you remember Gamergate, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't click on that link!
All I'm saying is, The Expanse series is supposed to begin a couple centuries on from now. Sisters,if we haven't raised consciousness and kicked some butt by then, God help us!
IMAGES: Many thanks to Amazon, for the Leviathan Wakes cover image; to Fact File for the coal mining photo; to Vox, for the photo of a riot on Ceres from The Expanse; and to Shout Lo, for the "Equality Loading" image. I deeply appreciate all of you!
My theme this month is "working toward a better future." That probably is a pretty common and predictable topic at the turn of the year, when it seems as if we have a new chance to "get things right."
NOTE: everyday actually is a new chance. Every hour. But many of us do tend to think about it more around New Year's.
How "right" we can get things depends in part on the cards in our hand, however. Last year at this point, for instance, certain decisions already had been made. Votes had been cast, and irrevocable changes set in motion. We dodged a few bullets in 2017, but some dies already had been cast by this time last year. In this context, I've been thinking about a pair of "takes" on current events, by two commentators whom I respect.
Leonard Pitts, Jr., by Al Diaz, Miami Herald Staff
The first is a recent column by the ever-perceptive Leonard Pitts, Jr., a columnist based at the Miami Herald. He wrote that "our sense of what is allowable and acceptable on the public stage, have been eroding for years, but 2017 saw the process accelerate like Usain Bolt. It was the year things that are not supposed to happen happened all day, every day."
He goes on to lay out the argument that we've come to a place in the public discourse where "anger, coarseness, political destabilization and a trickle-down nastiness [is] visible both in anecdotes and in hate-crime statistics."
But he doesn't leave it there. He's one of my favorite columnists because he always takes it to the next step. He ended his column, not with a groan of despair but with a call to action: "civil society is not something you take for granted. It’s a choice you make, a thing you have to fight for. Which will be a fitting mission for 2018 and beyond."
Even if some things look bleak as we move into 2018 and beyond, let us "maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights." Let us all affirm together we "know that a new day is on the horizon,"because we are working to make it so.
Let us never lose hope, and never allow our weariness to keep us from continuing to fight for "the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again," and we live in a civil society where the dignity and value of all persons are respected, basic human rights are demanded for all, and where we cherish the well-being of this fragile globe that we call home. It's only too late if we give up on the values we hold most dear.
I feel more conflicted about this one than I have about my previous gratitude topics. Not that food security is not a marvelous blessing--it truly is, in every sense of the word.
But I'm aware that all around me--in my community, across my nation, and around the world, there are many, many people who do not share this blessing.
To express public gratitude for it, in the knowledge of such widespread lack, almost feels like gloating. That's not my intention at all. If I could, I'd extend this blessing to everyone in the world, so that no one anywhere has to go to bed hungry, or wonder where their next meal will come from.
Here in the USA, today is Thanksgiving. Everyone in the country is presumed to be eating their fill, then waddling into the next room to zone out in a "food coma" while watching American football games. However, despite the best efforts of community charities, not everyone will be able to do that. Statesman Jacques Diouf put it well:
How can persons of conscience work to fight food insecurity? Acknowledging that we who can eat well are blessed, we can make charitable donations on both the local (link to find US agencies) and international (this link: UN) level to help fill immediate shortfalls.
bolstering U.S. foreign aid, and making sure it gets to the correct recipients;
improving the quality and scope of domestic programs that not only seek to keep everyone fed, but acknowledge their varying abilities to feed themselves (if you think "if you don't work, you shouldn't eat" is a just demand, do you then believe that the disabled and the very young should all starve?).
Creating systemic improvement is a large, difficult goal, fraught with practical difficulties, cultural pitfalls, and unintended results. It also is desperately necessary, as long as people anywhere are hungry.
Creating changes in public opinion is a way to begin. Funding empirical studies by unbiased researchers is a reasonable step forward. Involving all involved parties in design of solutions is a reasonable, respectful necessity that is likeliest to result in the best solutions. Many initiatives have already begun. We all must work together to bring the best ones to fruition.
IMAGES: The "Seven Days of Gratitude" design is my own creation, for well or ill. If for some reason You'd like to use it, please feel free to do so, but I request attribution and a link back to this post. The "Food security definition" quote by Pattie Baker is from Quozio, via Pinterest; her book Food for My Daughters is available from Amazon Smile and other fine booksellers. The Jacques Diouf quote is identified as sourced from Live58, though I couldn't find it on their site; I did find it on the website for GRIID (the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy). The quote from Ray Offenheiser of Oxfam America is courtesy of The Huffington Post, via Pinterest. Many thanks to all!
I find it difficult to understand how people can disagree with this, but there's a whole bunch out there who apparently do. And who also manage to sleep just fine at night. There's got to be a better way. IMAGE: Many thanks to Charlie Gaines' "Union Stuff" Board on Pinterest for this image.Also to the late Cesar Chavez.
