I suppose in many ways the Left, in concert with the Enviros, would have us all living our lives in ways similar to these:
- Clustered together in urban areas only;
- Stacked in multi-story vertical buildings with the smallest possible footprint;
- Walking only to our destinations or to Public Transit;
- Public Transit being the only way to move about in greater distances;
- No personal vehicles;
- No guns, no weapons, no knives, no sharp objects;
- No competitive sports for leisure;
- No competition in our jobs;
- No meat whatsoever in our diets;
- State-approved foods only;
- Only “natural” foods produced by workers in pre-approved working conditions in pre-approved nations and economies under stress-free and non-conflict agrarian areas;
- No liquor, no nicotine;
- Maximum number of calories allowed daily;
- Compulsory governmental healthcare, nothing privatized;
- Every public movement monitored by camera and microphone;
- Daily updated list of proscripted words and phrases;
- The general elimination of privatization;
- No outward or visible support of religion or belief system, particularly Christianity or Judaism, save for:
LONDON (Reuters) – A “fat tax” on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday.
Police officers in the UK are to be given head-mounted video cameras to film incidents and arrests, the footage of which can then be used in evidence.
Fast, powerful cars within a few years may be outlawed in Europe, an idea that has been raised ostensibly because Ferraris and Porsches produce too much carbon dioxide. For those who abhor sports cars as vulgar symbols of affluence (along with vacation homes, furs and fancy jewelry), such a ban could be a two-fer: Saving the planet while cutting economic inequality.
(New Jersey- WABC, July 11, 2007) – A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm.
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to charge motorists fees to drive into the most congested parts of Manhattan got a powerful boost on Wednesday from former President Clinton.
One idea some lawmakers think should be fully examined is something you might call “first number keeps you out.” If your license plate begins with a “1” you would be barred from the central business district on the first, 11th, 21st and 31st of the month. If “2” is the first number you are barred on the 2nd 12th and 22nd — and so on.
Would it shock and appall you to think that many Leftists want it both ways: crush you into zones, keep you from traveling into those zones?
I wish I could get everyone in America to read Brave New World. It is probably the most terrifying book written in the 20th Century.
You forgot the Soma in the water!
And the baby factories…
And the two way television screens…
And the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling televisions…
Books on paper are *bad*, into the memory hole.
And lack of sleep is ‘torture’.
And terrorists killing innocents without any thought to form government is ‘civil war’.
Office politics is ‘civil war’.
And that groups carrying guns and intimidating people to vote for them are ‘legitimate armed political parties’.
That ‘victims’ of ‘social oppression’ are to be allowed to do anything they want, to anyone, because they are ‘victims’.
People using weapons to protect themselves are barbarians and social outcasts, unless they are ‘victims’, then they are a ‘legitimate armed group’ seeking to establish their identity against the ‘oppressor’ class.
That we are all one, big, happy humanity, save those folks in East Asia…. or is it Oceania?
That Dead White European Males never formed a single useful thought for humanity, and it was all invented elsewhere and ‘stolen’ by those Dead White European Males even if it was invented *after* they invented it, since everyone knows they could invent nothing original and could only steal ideas.
Black is white.
Good is evil.
Quack!
Welcome to the era of Duckspeak.
Funny you mention Brave New World; I was going to say you forgot the Soma.
You have just described the current state of affairs in Canada. “The Brave New World” is alive and well up north, only it favours the criminals…and it makes me sick.
Veritas et Fidelis Semper
Shop: I lost my own copy; sounds like it’s time to re-order a copy from Barnes & Noble.
AJ: dang, I forgot Fahrenheit 451 as well!
Henry: thanks for the comment, please visit again, and thank you for the Soma link. . .
Deborah: it makes me wonder what an actual Left Wing world would truly look like. Hmm. Is this an oncoming post I feel. . . ?
BZ
Mr. Z – Can’t forget F451! A book censored by its publishers until Mr. Bradbury picked up a copy and was amazed at how unreadable it was… and then realized how much had been CUT.
Yes, books are censored in the US.
Little did we know! The 30th anniversary edition of F451 is the first edition in 30 years to be unexpurgated. Much, much better than the censored ones in-between.
You do not have to step into any of those worlds to find those things, but they tell us of the mind-sets necessary to get to: Utopia, Brave New World, 1984, F451, Logans Run (yes, the novel is readable, but barely). One of the most depressing compilations of short stories was ‘Science Fiction of the 50s’, which was extremely dystopian and failed utopia in context. Do not read if depressed or slightly ‘down’. Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Clement and such were not *all* that was published in that decade, and the dark views would eerily presage the 1960s and 70s in tenor and tone.
From The Time Machine‘s Eloi and Morlocks to the modern books, comic books and graphic novels that explore these things (like The Watchmen (it won a Hugo Award, it is a real novel for all the fact it was a 12-part series then turned into a graphic novel for ease of reading), we get to see how the fantastical dark nature of humanity plays out when it is for ‘the good of everyone’. The alt-history area has some good examples, like Spinrad’s The Iron Dream…. ‘it can’t happen here’… and Philip K. Dick’s works like The Man in the High Castle. Warnings of what could be or how the human soul’s darkness is not always overcome and that even the best of outlooks can have dark endings.