Alternative Histories

shlomi on December 31, 2017

Authors of Alternative History novels (and TV series) often hinge on specific events: what would happen if Hitler won? After all, the Nazis were close on more than one occasion. Or if the creation story of Jesus never coalesced? Or, in one of my works in progress, Jewish Qabala really worked, starting with descendants of Nachmanides, entirely displacing non-Judaic systems and disrupting the search for the New World.

We’re at that time. The Angry White Men have disrupted what’s been a stable, if fluidly changing, political system. This time is, globally, a schwerpunkt, a turning point, for many futures. Futures that three years ago, in the glow of a liberal view of the world, accepting refugee in numbers unmatched since World War II, accepting people for their love, not their gender or orientation, we could not have imagined.

2016 and 2017 was that slow slide to insanity, led by der Amerikanischenführer. Toward a general-run government, toward a kleptocracy. Let’s see what 2018 brings us…

 

 

Competency Test

shlomi on December 31, 2017

You-Know-Who pic: If they're cosidering a reality TV star for president / Judge Judy pic: Don't we need a reality TV star for supreme court justice too?

h/t to Freedom Memes

I had this little nugget, in draft form, on my desktop for an NPR 3-minute fiction contest, but wasn’t happy with it at the time. Rummaging through my draft posts at year end, I’m seeing just how prescient and sad it all is.

Read More about Competency Test

Alt-reality

shlomi on January 23, 2017

Charlie Hebdo, Synagogue shootings, Orwell 1984, Orwellian Doublespeak, vaccines, war on terror, war on cancerI’ve got a word — augre — to describe augmented reality (as opposed to VR or virtual reality). Currently social media and news call it “AR,” which is, I think, a geeksnob way of obfuscating things.

The neo-nazis and other fascists infesting America took a page from Orwell’s 1984, redefining their brand of hate as some kind of political alternative to the spectrum of what was, until this point in American political history, bounded by parties respecting the idea of democracy — or, at least, a republic.

It’s clear that the idea of “alt-” is the new Orwellian doublespeak. Alt-right. Alternative facts. This, friends, is doubleplusungood development. And while it’s thrilling in a “we’re going down the maw of the kraken” kind of way, it’s a danger sign about our society, and the validity of language as a means to describe the reality around us.

On Language, Lies, and Reality

shlomi on June 29, 2016

The British voters supported the referendum proposal to leave the EU. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (which describes the exit process, as as 261 words can) requires that the constitutionally represented leadership call for the cancellation of the treaty.

Oops. Britain does not have a constitution. Does Cameron press the button? His party leadership? The Queen?

In the meanwhile, all the major selling points touted by the ‘Leave’ promoters have already been “rolled back.” This is code, I think for “we lied.” The regrets Britons feel among those who voted to leave are already being heard. As are the complains by heretofore legal EU workers being asked when they’re going home so they won’t take “British” jobs. Not that the askers would do the work these migrant workers are willing to do. (See case studies in every country in the globe with any immigrant population, legal or otherwise.) These are disingenuous comments, as honest as the reasons for Britain leaving the EU; hate speech would be much more accurate.

Finally, referendums do not have the force of law in Britain. This means that the government can be advised by them — although with Prime Minister Cameron’s resignation, it seems that the (deluded) will of the people will be heard.

It’s entirely possible that between the Lisbon Treaty clause and the referendum-level of the vote, all British leadership has to do is select a scapegoat to declaim the referendum and then everything can return to normal.

Except that the genie out of the bottle isn’t the referendum, but the magnitude of the isolationist, xenophobic, sentiment.The bottle is shattered, and, stay or not, Britain needs to focus on basic needs such as education and deprogramming that the right wing there, as it has here, has done on major population and ethnic segments.

This is yet another example of the use, misuse, and ultimate semiotic nullity of words of power.