[lbo-talk] It's Official: We're Ruled by Loonies

Eubulides paraconsistent at comcast.net
Fri Jan 9 13:57:03 PST 2004


----- Original Message ----- From: "Westrich, James" <james.westrich at umassmed.edu>

The Lem book that comes immediately to mind is *Fiasco* not *Solaris*. Not the world's tightest read but as usual with Lem a profound premise: the Earth spends dozens of years and trillions of dollars to send a space mission to a planet (Qinta) because it has a high chance of having life. Well, they get there and something is going on but I won't spoil any further other than the title, fiasco.

Also, they do not go "crazy" as such in Solaris.

Jim

=====================

[from Lem's "His Master's Voice"]

"A civilization as 'spread out' techno-economically as ours, with the front lines swimming in wealth and the rear guard dying of hunger, had by that very spread already been given a direction of future development. First, the troops behind would attempt to catch up with the leaders in material wealth, which only because it had not yet been attained, would appear to justify the effort of that pursuit; and, in turn, the prosperous vanguard, being an object of envy and competition, would thereby be confirmed in its own value. If others imitated it, then obviously what it did must be not only good, but positively wonderful! The process thus became circular, since a positive feedback loop of motivation resulted, increasing motion forward, which was spurred on, in addition, by the jabs of political antagonism.

"And further: a circle would result because it was difficult to come up with new solutions when the given problem already had some solutions. The United States, regardless of the bad that could be said of it, undoubtedly existed --with it's highways, heated swimming pools, supermarkets, and everything else that gleamed. Even if one could think up an entirely different kind of felicity and prosperity, this could still only be, surely, in the context of a civilization that was both heterogeneous and --overall-- not poor. But a civilization that reached a state of such equality and thereby became homogeneous was something completely unknown to us. It would be a civilization that had managed to satisfy the basic needs of all its members; only then, in its national sectors, would it be possible to take up the search for further, more varied roads to the future, a future now liberated from economic constraints. And yet we knew, for a certainty, that when the first emissaries of Earth went walking among the planets, Earth's other sons would be dreaming not about such expeditions but about a piece of bread."



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