Charles Stross
British science fiction author Charles Stross has published an extraordinary attack on American political culture on his blog, describing it as bereft of mercy and suffering from a taint across every area of public discussion.
Using the examples of the protests of the USA administration about the release from Scottish prison of terrorist Abdelbaset Al Megrahi on compassionate grounds because of his terminal cancer, and the ongoing debate about healthcare reform, Stross attacked the entire American political establishment in a blog entry posted yesterday:
There is a cancer in the collective American soul — a mercy deficit that has in recent years grown as alarmingly as the budget deficit. Nor is it as simple as a left/right thing: no political party has a monopoly on merciless behaviour. Rather, a creeping draconian absolutism has cast its penumbra across the entire arena of public discourse, tainting every debate, poisoning and hardening attitudes across the board.
In a side note, Stross tells members of the far-right British Nationalist Party to just “fuck off right now”, noting there are “some folks I can do without”.
It’s not the first time that Stross has aired his political views in public; just days ago the author wrote a lengthy piece about privacy issues surrounding the United Kingdom’s National DNA Database, describing one of the practices around it as “merely a steaming turd in the punchbowl of the right to privacy”.
Interestingly, sci-fi blog io9 directly questioned Stross in January 2008 on the topic of when science fiction itself becomes a form of political intervention.
Stross answered that fiction is usually used as an entertainment medium; as such, political fiction is “at its best precisely when it doesn’t preach, but restricts itself to showing the reader a different way of life or thought, and merely makes it clear that this is an end-point or outcome for some kind of political creed.”
Commentary
Sorry Charles, but I’m going to call bullshit on this one. You’re way out of line with your attacks on American society, which paint all participants in the political process, even the self-sacrificing ones with everyone’s interests at heart, as cynical, cold-hearted and without mercy.
If you spend any time in America or with Americans, I think you’ll find plenty of people who believe that Texas’ record on capital punishment is appalling, that the healthcare system needs to be basically rebuilt from scratch, and even that the Second Amendment should be repealed so that everyone and their dog can’t just go around carrying an Uzi.
Sure, there are a stack of problems with the US political establishment. But there are just as many dedicated and hardworking people who are devoting their lives to fixing those problems, and to have any sort of credibility as a political pundit, you need to acknowledge that. The landslide election of the inspirational figure of Barack Obama – for all his flaws – is the tip of the iceberg consisting of a revolution going on right now in American political thought.
Frankly, your attack on the US political establishment comes across as just the sort of crass and arrogant generalisation and preaching from the pulpit that many accuse Americans of.
I’m an Australian, and I know plenty of great people on both sides of the Atlantic. So let’s get this pissing contest over and just get on with the job of creating great science fiction; maybe even science fiction that will inspire people to think outside the box and make fundamental changes in the way so many human societies desperately need.
Jeez. Looks like I’m not going to be interviewing Charles Stross any time soon!
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14 Responses to Charles Stross slams ‘tainted’ US politics
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I think Stross is right. But so is Renai :-)
Renai correctly points out that there are lots of rational well-meaning souls in US politics. Sadly, however, none of them seem to be able to get themselves elected, instead the yanks are infested with a political class who seems to believe in “Death Panels,” and that torture is the kind of thing that one debates instead of condemns, and that there’s absolutely no problem with turning up to a Town Hall meeting with the President of the United States wearing a T-shirt that points out that the tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and with an assault rifle slung over one’s shoulder.
If that isn’t extremism, it’s hard to see what is. How much worse will it get before America reminds us that it has suffered more political assassinations in the last two hundred years than literally any other modern democracy? A harsh word, a strong overreaction, a thrown punch, then someone’s using one of those rifles to back up their right to shout unintelligibly with an armed response.
I can see exactly what Stross is talking about. And I fear that since the election of Obama it’s turned worse, not better.
I mean, seriously. Death panels? For real?
Hi Mark,
have to say, there’s a pretty obvious example of a rational, well-meaning soul getting elected ;) Barack Obama. As I recall one of his first acts was to start the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay jail. And he’s got a massive amount of support behind him. This doesn’t count?
I’m sorry, I have to live in optimism :)
Renai
I too have noticed this distinct lack of compassion on the part of Americans. Sure, there’s lots of talk. But very few of them ever actually DO anything. Sure, they’ll make poignant posts on their blog or some message board somewhere but nothing is actually done. It’s always someone else’s problem. on 9/11 when all air traffic was diverted away from the states, Canadians took thousands of stranded air travelers into their homes, giving them shelter and food, showing compassion to complete strangers from all over the world. I cannot see Americans doing the same thing on that scale. When it comes to compassion, they are sorely lacking.
Bit of a low blow invoking 9/11 Mandamus ;) There were plenty of selfless American acts surrounding that particular event, surely?
He has some things right, and others wrong.. I’ll still buy his books :)
Same here MandyJane :) I don’t care if he doesn’t like my comments, I’m still going to read him! Particularly liked Accelerando.
I loved Accelerando!
I love MandyJane !!
lol.. I love you too, Sandrider :D
Before you nominate Mr. Obama into sainthood you should first look into how he has shored up every policy of excess of the Bush/Cheney administration as the permanent policies and powers of the presidency. I.E. Domestic spying, military spying on U.S. citizens within the U.S., rendition, indefinite detention without charges or representation at Bagram instead of GITMO,the practice of torture for punishment rather than information, ETC.
As for health care reform his first and essentially only act has been secret meetings with health care corporation to make deals that negate any attempt to cut costs and guarantee increased profit by mandating 50 million new customers in exchange for 1)funding of the Democrat party for the next election and 2) to prevent funding of the Republican party for the same. These for-profit corporations are in the business to make a profit by denying health care, not providing it.
Both political parties are now populated by corporate politicians That will sell their constituents into corporate slavery to the highest corporate bidders the democrats to retain power now that they have it and the Republicans sell out the entire world and its economy to gain a few political point in the next election (read corporate donations to buy the propaganda to buy a few votes.
To put it bluntly Obama punked the voters with his high sounding neoteric while planning all along to play politics as usual.
Hi Anon ! Welcome to the United Corporations of America !
It only gets worse, wait til you find out about the Gulf of Tonkin.
I’m not a big “SciFi” fan in general, I’m a Frank Herbert fan
and big-time Hater of Keith J. Anderson, so I don’t know alot
about most of the people Renai talks about here.
But this guy here, well, for the most part he’s right. The American
Federal government is and has been a big, evil machine rolling over
and crushing anything in its way, including its own citizens. All the
while extorting its citizens to cheer & wave the flag.
So on the overall point, I say : “Meh.”
I’m more surprised y’all didn’t pick up and point out the obvious
conversion of this guy to Islam – explains most of his ideas, anger,
and etc.
And to that I also say : “Meh.”
And I’d say that with just a little different education, location
of up-bringing, and so on, he could have just as easily ended up
a raving British Fascist … so …. Meh.
The particulars of a british author damning the US and than decrying the British dNA bank for its assault on privacy its just too funny. In a country like Britian, not so Great Britain, where video surviallence seems to come cheaper than groceries, privacy is a non issue. Thank the stars that the US is too cheap, too big for that sort of digital invasion for now.
Stross seems to have not done either country a boon with intelligent criticism, but instead regaled us all with pedantic diatribe that you generally only see on fox. The same fox that speaks of death panels with fervor, and is infected with polemic taint that we all seem to be infected with, according to Dr. Stross.
I think probably Charles is against much of his own country’s policies as well ;) But yes, I agree his rant did come across a bit hypocritical.
The Majority of Americans are for the 2nd ammendment, because it offers a defense against a repressive regime. As far as concealed carry law, studies have shown that if universalized, there will be less murders committed against innocent victims. Finally, England has an appalling record of maiming injuries by stabbing and bludgeoning, outnumbering murders in the US