threeplusfire | just because you can, doesn't mean you always should

just because you can, doesn't mean you always should

The story about Clonaid and the claim of the first clone birth are all over the wires this morning. Didn't we all read enough science fiction stories to know that cloning never ends in happiness? I read "Nine Lives" again yesterday, and it is still a chilling thought.

It's a strange day when I can't even retreat into my sci-fi collection for respite from the world. Back to the wizards I suppose. Even if they do keep me up til odd hours before dawn, whispering.

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I have not read that one, I shall have to look it up.

I don't support complete escapism, for the record. But I find it very trying and not at all good for my mental health to slog through the madness without some small moment of dream.

My concern is that the culture of escapism is growing with the pace of a civilization moving steadily into decline. As the situation gets worse, people are more and more driven to art that soothes them - wizards, fairies, and other child-like pastimes. This seems to only hasten the process, since it allows one to avoid and cope with an unbearable situation.

See more here:http://revolutionsf.com/article/953.html

It is true that the one thing needed in our world more than any other right now is a person who will stand up and fight against the decline, the madness, the terrible wrongs perpetuated in the name of gods and states.

I feel a great unease because I do not know what I honestly believe in, here. Because I do not see answers. I believe, though, that education and teaching people to think critically is necessary. I hope to teach one day, to be the sort of figure one or two teachers were for me.

I think sometimes it might be my greatest failure, this lack of faith in any cause or idea.

Interesting article. I have long been a fan of Moorcock's work.

That you are being very honest. I question, however, people who wish to enjoy a civilization's cultural products and experiences, while at the same time deploring what that civilization actually does. Isn't there a connection between our culture and our politics? If you enjoy (or embrace) a culture, aren't you also endorsing its political choices and actions as well?

Would one have to eschew all cultural products in order to be clearly against the politics then? I think it might be a bit unfair to say that because I grew up with a fondness for sci-fi (as that is what my mother taught me to read with) that I must endorse the political aims of the world it sprang from?

I see a troubling lack of investigation into the connections between culture and politics, between what we consume as culture and how it consumes us, and about how people ignore the way our culture re-inforces and promotes certain political values and processes.

I wish I could say that the sci-fi and fantasy fans created some sort of "counter-culture", or represented some sort of internal dissent, but I no longer think that's true.

All I ask is that people look at these questions.

There is a great deal in our culture that is created and reinforced by politics and business. Which is extraordinarily troubling, because so many people do not take the time to look and think about these connections. You are very accurate there.

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=keith418&itemid=106460#cutid1

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