There have been shall we say – and this is surely an overbroad
generalization – two distinct sorts of schools in any sort of
futuristic writing.
Something which has been bugging me lately is that the schools do
overlap.
For instance, "Brave New World" was sold in (Cold War US) schools as
dystopian, but comparing the opening years of this century with the
decade closing the last one, and reflecting upon Mustapha Mond's
argument —that when the anthrax bombs start popping, centrifugal
bumble puppy starts looking like a pretty good alternative—, I'm
finding it pretty utopian* in comparison to reality.
-Dave
* my personal politics being along the lines of an otherwise
forgettable (and perhaps even regrettable?) late Cold War US film
whose motto was "be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes".
One might think that easy enough to do, and indeed we (for some
values of we?) seemed to be making a start on it in the following
decade, but both:
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/06/23/the-principia-misanthropica/
and Jane Jacobs' "Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral
Foundations of Commerce and Politics" suggest it is somehow difficult
for homo sapiens to combine excellence and partying without winding
up with the worst of both worlds.
