How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-americas-leading-science-fiction-authors-are-shaping-your-future-180951169/?no-ist

Great quote from this article:

That’s why ‘big ideas’ were prevalent in the 1930s, ’40s and partly in the ’50s. People felt the future would be better, one way or another. Now it doesn’t feel that way. Rich people take nine-tenths of everything and force the rest of us to fight over the remaining tenth, and if we object to that, we are told we are espousing class warfare and are crushed. They toy with us for their entertainment, and they live in ridiculous luxury while we starve and fight each other. This is what The Hunger Games embodies in a narrative, and so the response to it has been tremendous, as it should be.”

— Kim Stanley Robinson (emphasis added)

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

4 thoughts on “How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian”

  1. I disagree. The rich may indeed take ninety percent now (they probably did then too), but whining about it does no one any good. And trying to solve the inequality by taking it from them is class warfare.

    The 60s and 70s were different because we thought change was possible. Too many of us today (yes, me included) just sit and complain. We don’t expect change; we don’t work for change; we just complain.

    1. I like complaining.

      Solving it by taking it from them seems like poetic justice since they took it from us to begin with.

      I still think the best solution is eliminate most or all taxes and replace it with a carbon tax.

  2. Actually, some rich people didn’t take it from anyone; they created it. Inventive people got rich (some of them) by making something new–which created not only wealth but jobs, ease and better lives. I sure wouldn’t want to grow up in the world my grandparents did.
    Even the worst Robber Barons–occasionally–added value to the mix by their predatory, rapturous business practices. Of course, they’re children have been living on the backs of their forefathers (and us), just as you describe.

    1. Invention and innovation I applaud. I don’t care for patent trolls or giant corporations that buy (or steal) ideas so that their products can continue to thrive despite a better alternative. I see this happening frequently in technology industry.

Comments are closed.