By: Brooks A. Mick
Robert A. Heinlein was The Grand Master of Science Fiction, widely acclaimed as the greatest modern writer in the genre. He was famous for writing a “Future History,” stories that had an internally consistent timeline spanning centuries, and characters that would often appear in more than one story, either in their lifetime or as historical figures from a previous era. ”Revolt in 2100″ is a novella that chronicles a revolution against a theocracy that had sprung up decades before. The founder of the theocracy never actually appears in one of the stories himself, but is mentioned in more than one. Nehemiah Scudder was a backwoods preacher who was charismatic, messianic, came on the scene in 2010, attracted a large following, and subsequently was elected President of the United States in 2012. He became dictator in 2016, and no further elections were held until the “Revolt in 2100,” when the Prophet of that day was overthrown and killed. The main character in the story is a young man, formerly a follower of The Prophet, who grew disenchanted and joined the secret opposition. Another member was Zeb, whose specialty was propaganda and psychological warfare.
Today we have Obama, quite frequently referred to by his supporters and his detractors as “The Messiah.” And we also have the Obama computer system which tracks all voters’ activities on Facebook and elsewhere. I do not know what they call it, but “Zeb” seems appropriate.
When I first heard Obama speak, my mental image was of an urbane and urban Nehemiah Scudder. Now, after reading about the massive data bank that the Obama campaign used to target the hot buttons of every single individual voter, I think also of Zeb in “Revolt in 2100.” The propaganda campaign used to provoke a revolt against the theocracy was much the same as the Obama campaign. Various emotional issues and semantically loaded phrases were used to persuade voters to pull the lever for Obama again, even though, objectively, his actions were ruining the economy, weakening the country’s defenses, and supporting our enemies abroad. The shiny mesmerizing objects such as green energy and gay marriage were continually waved around, the Republicans were charged with waging a “war on women,” and meanwhile the Obama administration enabled the takeover of several countries by the Muslim Brotherhood, our energy supplies were blocked from our use while we were made more dependent upon Saudi Arabian and Venezuelan oil, deficit spending proceeded unabated, Homeland Security was built into a paramilitary gang of thugs to intimidate the TEA Party, the IRS was sicced on conservative groups
So now I conceive of Obama as a combination of Nehemiah Scudder and Zeb. Not a pretty combination. But NOT the actual Zeb of “Revolt…” as that Zeb was wielding his semantic persuasions and propaganda for a worthy cause. Obama’s Zeb is an evil version, persuading people through propaganda techniques to accomplish the weakening of America–or worse.
If Heinlein was a prophet, George Orwell was the Minister of Truth in the Britis government in the 1940s. In 1942, George Orwell wrote, “Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense.” This caused a mighty uproar, as truth often does.
What I would say is that progressivism, as personified in Obama, is objectively anti-libertarian and thus pro-totalitarian. The warm-fuzzy intentions don’t matter. It’s the end results that count.
“As an ex-Indian civil servant, it always makes me shout with laughter to hear, for instance, Gandhi named as an example of the success of non-violence. As long as twenty years ago it was cynically admitted in Anglo-Indian circles that Gandhi was very useful to the British government. So he will be to the Japanese if they get there. Despotic governments can stand ‘moral force’ till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force.” – George Orwell
This might explain why Homeland Security has been turned into a para-military force, armed and jackbooted, and why Obama is so intent upon disarming average citizens or making ammunition scarce. Homeland Security was theoretically supposed to secure our borders, but is clearly willfully neglecting that. Meanwhile, they are dispatched to harass TEA Party rallies, where old, grey-haired folks who remember what American liberty and self-responsibility were all about are harassed in an attempt to intimidate.
It is amazing that, a la the semantic jiu jitsu of Zeb, TEA party rallies pushing for nothing more than a return to the limited government philosophy of the Founding Fathers are characterized as extremists and haters while the Occupy Wall Sreet mobs are lauded. It is despicable, actually, that this is not just allowed by so-called journalists, but it has been the MSM journalists who join in the mischaracterizations. They become a propaganda arm of the Obamians.
I do not think Robert A. Heinlein would approve of Obama or his administration. Their philosophies and actions are those that he would vigorously oppose in the main. ”Revolt in 2100″ is, read in this day, an incitement to resist the Obama Administration and its push toward totalitarianism.
“If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, ‘he that is not with me is against me’. The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle [...] is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security.”–G. Orwell
If you ignore today’s fight to preserve what’s left of American freedom, you are objectively aiding Obama’s destruction of America. I think Heinlein and Orwell would have been great friends.
And finally, don’t you find Heinlein’s choice of 2012 as the year of Scudder’s election as president to be amazingly prophetic in a “future history” novel?