"The marks of imperial decadence appeared not only in grotesque displays of public opulence and waste, but also in the collapse of faith in reason and science."- James Traub
"Moorcock has imagined a far future where human beings (modelled after 19th century gentlemen and ladies and their haughtiness towards common life ) experience the last utopia: a few years before the end of the universe, when entropy has consumed all order existent, these beings are capable of manipulating reality by mere thought, but at a high cost.
They are mundane, immortal and completely arrogant and devoid of things like morality or affection.
Instead of having actual feelings or preferences they simply mimic one they find interesting by inspecting the past of the human race."
While it may describe our world today, the events depicted took place hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
Obviously the author was wildly optimistic about humanity's ability to survive in the long run.
By that time in the trilogy, humanity had been reduced to a small group of wealthy, all-powerful lords and ladies.
They are all decadent dandies playing a sick version of gods. Tragically, they distract themselves with mindless games without purpose or meaning, while the universe dies around them.
Kind of like flying to the edge of space while so many back on Earth are hungry and dying of avoidable diseases or lack of clean water.
Today with these endless excesses and gross grotesqueries of the ultra-wealthy shoved in our faces at every turn, Moorcock's decadent and decaying world does not seem so far-fetched.
Or so far away.
We seem to have arrived much sooner than he expected.
Decadence.
Decline.
Collapse.
Sadly, this time it isn't a book, and it isn't fiction.
It is real life in 2021.
I had a very good psychotherapist for a number of years in the early 2000s, she was an avid reader in general and especially of science fiction. I think it can teach us a lot.
ReplyDeleteFor quite a while now I’ve noticed the gradual ‘science-fictioning’ of various areas of life. For example, at my workplace, if we are up to date with training, we are said to be ‘compliant’. It does not sit well with me.
I have also had the feeling for a number of years that we are in the final stages of our civilisation, which now appears to be falling apart at an alarming rate.
Here in the UK, we are moving ever closer towards a medical apartheid between vaccinated and un-vaccinated people and it saddens me deeply. As a person who has chosen to remain un-vaccinated, I truly feel my days are numbered; unpleasant terms reminiscent of 1930s Germany, such as ‘plague rats’ are being used to describe people like me who choose to say ‘no’ to unwanted medical procedures. I don’t think it will be long until we are forcibly separated from the rest of society.
However, feeling like some kind of (potentially literal) deadline is looming has been great for focusing my mind. I’ve improved my diet, exercise habits, spiritual practices, reduced my consumption and decluttered and donated more in the last few months than in the previous 15 years!
Thanks Gregg for this blog, which is a wonderful space. I often come here when I catch myself losing vigilance (I am a recovering compulsive shopper) and it always helps.
I love the idea of the 'science-fictioning' of life because it fits the feeling of what is going on right now. Probably some sci-fi author has already described the exact scenario we are now living through. Moorcock definitely nailed part of it.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, 'compliant' is an awful word. Who loves compliance? Governments, the police, teachers, doctors and other illegitimate authority figures.
I will not comply. Non-compliance has been my thing for my whole life. I am not buying any of their crap, or their ideas.
The deadline thing I also feel. Something is looming, and I don't think we are going to like it. Not the compliant, and certainly not the free thinkers. Good on you for preparing. That is the best possible response because it helps us to gain control in a situation where we have very little control.
I am thrilled that our blog has been useful to you, and hope to keep it that way.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts here. It helps us too, you should know.
I had a horrific dream the other night: the snippet that stays with me involved a luxuriously dressed party of revelers disembarking from a line of limousines into a fashionable, high-end restaurant and club - there was a small front-end loader type machine driven by a man in a tuxedo (the machine itself was encrusted with rhinestones) working feverishly to keep the mountains of bodies piled up as far as the eye could see on either side of the sidewalk under control as they rolled off and spilled onto the pavement. One of the men who had alighted from the limousine was screaming at the driver of the front-end loader because the body of a child had rolled down across the path of a woman I will assume was his wife. Interesting how our dreams can take all the information and emotions of our day and condense them into something that capsulizes what we were feeling but weren't quite ready to deal with.
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