War Of The Worlds

April 5, 2015 – 4:35 pm

When I was young, I used to read a lot of science fiction. I remember the Hugo Awards being the Oscars of the genre, and it generally seemed to me that they were given to deserving recipients — Dune, the Foundation series, Stranger in a Strange Land, Ringworld, Rendezvous With Rama, Stand on Zanzibar, Neuromancer, etc.

I haven’t read any sci-fi-in a long time, and haven’t paid any attention to the Hugo Awards, either. But apparently they were on the itinerary for the Left’s “long march” through our cultural institutions, and have for some time now been politically subjugated by the usual suspects.

Apparently, though, this year there has been a gratifying backlash. Story here.

Posted by Malcolm on at 4:35 pm, filed under Books. RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

10 Comments

  1. TheBigHenry says

    Oy vey.

    Posted April 5, 2015 at 5:31 pm | Permalink
  2. Bill says

    Heinlein would be proud!

    Posted April 5, 2015 at 6:16 pm | Permalink
  3. JK says

    Off topic but Malcolm your post’s title seemed apropo.

    http://www.rferl.org/content/pakistan-saudis-yemen/26940925.html

    _________

    Somehow I doubt Riyadh’s got an equivalent of Salvor Hardin.

    Would be a handy feller to be have in the neighborhood.

    Posted April 6, 2015 at 2:18 pm | Permalink
  4. JK says

    Hmmm …

    http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-kill-eight-iran-soldiers-pakistan-border-052139494.html

    Posted April 7, 2015 at 6:22 am | Permalink
  5. JK says

    Hmmm some more …

    http://www.rferl.org/content/turkeys-erdogan-visits-iran-amid-tensions-over-yemen/26942709.html

    Posted April 7, 2015 at 6:25 am | Permalink
  6. Whitewall says

    Hmm, blue and purple as the color for “social justice”? SJ is only a cover term for what began over a century ago in Europe and Asia. With so many Gramscian successes over the last 50 years, it is no wonder the authoritarian Left is having trouble maintaining order and control…what I have been referring to as “ideological purity”. With this internal strife, it is no wonder a back lash forms and grows. Give the authoritarian Left enough power and they will eventually out themselves and drive away members.

    Posted April 7, 2015 at 6:47 am | Permalink
  7. Whitewall says

    Liberals writing for Brietbart? What’s next? Onions and potatoes living together in the same box?

    Posted April 7, 2015 at 6:52 am | Permalink
  8. libertybelle says

    “What’s next? Onions and potatoes living together in the same box?”

    Whitewall, Apparently, a revolt of the My Little Ponies, fighting against the evil of every pony having to wear an equal sign on their hindquarters, instead of their individual cutie marks. All individual talents were suppressed by an evil leader(a female pony no less), who forcibly removed their cutie marks and kept every pony cantering in line, lol.

    http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/08/my-little-pony-to-children-marxism-is-not-magic/

    Posted April 8, 2015 at 11:42 am | Permalink
  9. Whitewall says

    Libertybelle
    Even little ponies can’t escape. Social Justice slogans and PC conformity promote “equality”. Equality does not equal Liberty, even among those ponies. Maybe that is why we have a statue of Liberty in the harbor and not a statue of equality. It has been said that liberty does not fare so well under equality but equality fares very well under liberty. We are still being chased by the ghosts of Marx, Lenin and Stalin it seems.

    Posted April 9, 2015 at 7:52 am | Permalink
  10. Malcolm says

    I’m of the opinion that liberty and equality are antagonistic principles. Here’s Will Durant’s comment on the topic:

    Since Nature (here meaning total reality and its processes) has not read very carefully the American Declaration of Independence or the the French Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man, we are all born unfree and unequal; subject to our physical and psychological heredity, and to the customs and traditions of our group; diversely endowed in health and strength, in mental capacities and qualities of character. Nature loves difference as the necessary material of selection and evolution; identical twins differ in hundreds of ways, and no two peas are alike.

    Inequality is not only natural and inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization. Hereditary inequalities breed social and artificial inequalities; every invention or discovery is made or seized by the exceptional individual, and makes the strong stronger, the weak relatively weaker, than before. Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group. If we knew our fellow men thoroughly we could select thirty per cent of them whose combined ability would equal that of all the rest. Life and history do precisely that, with a sublime injustice reminiscent of Calvin’s God.

    Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire. To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed, as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom; and in the end superior ability has its way. Utopias of equality are biologically doomed, and the best that the amiable philosopher can hope for is an approximate equality of legal justice and educational opportunity. A society in which all potential abilities are allowed to develop and function will have a survival advantage in the competition of groups. This competition becomes more severe as the destruction of distance intensifies the confrontation of states.

    I recommend also Erik von Kuenhelt-Leddihn’s Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Times.

    Posted April 9, 2015 at 2:48 pm | Permalink

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