re: #331 june_july

As a teenager I recall reading a science fiction story in which America has become a science-hating nation, in which a messianic leader implores the people to reject “scientific advancement”, and scientists are gradually removed from all positions of authority and power. They are forced to hide their work, or give it up. In the last scenes of the book a mob attacks a rocketship fleet that is full of scientists who wish to flee earth for a better future, destroying one or two rockets on the ground, while the rest of the scientists escape Earth and look to a better future free of superstition and in control of their own destiny.

I am reminded of that story too frequently these days, as forces of totalitarianism, group-control, and superstitious ignorance seem to threaten our future from all directions.

Sounds a bit like A Canticle for Leibowitz:

“A Canticle for Leibowitz opens 600 years after 20th century civilization has been destroyed by a global nuclear war, known as the “Flame Deluge”. The text reveals that as a result of the war there was a violent backlash against the culture of advanced knowledge and technology that had led to the development of nuclear weapons. During this backlash, called the “Simplification,” anyone of learning, and eventually anyone who could even read, was likely to be killed by rampaging mobs, who proudly took on the name of “Simpletons”. Illiteracy became almost universal, and books were destroyed en masse.”