339 Future Visions of Fascism
Concurrent news:
Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Minneapolis : https://x.com/mariashriver/status/2016618469740204114?s=61
Working definitions:
- Populism as a general rubric covering political stances that emphasize the idea of the “common people” and position this group in opposition to “elites”.
- Fascism as ultranationalist populism of the far right; wealth is transferred to the private sector
- Communism as ultranationalist populism of the far left; wealth is transferred to the “public sector”
With a framework of Retrospective, Contemporary, and Speculative, we can identify examples of works that portray fascism.
Retrospective is science fiction that looks back at past fascist events, generally WW2.
Contemporary is science fiction that was written to look at what’s happening in our present time, and makes some commentary on it.
Speculative is to imagine what fascism will be like in the future, to try to uncover what life would be like in a future fascist society.
- Speculative
- Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1921; psychosocial surgery)
- Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932; drugs, subliminal indoctrination, industrialized eugenics)
- George Orwell: 1984 (1949; control of language, ubiquitous surveillance)
- Frederik Pohl: The Starchild Trilogy (1963; computer-controlled society)
- Patrick McGoohan: The Prisoner (1967; mind control)
- Snowpiercer, AMC TV Series 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer_(TV_series)
- TOS Star Trek: “Space Seed” (1967; eugenics), various computer-controlled societies
- Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968; society taken over by sociopaths with mass media)
- Joseph Sargent: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970; computer-controlled society)
- Stanley Kubrick: A Clockwork Orange (1971; mind control technology)
- John Boorman: Zardoz (1974; technology hoarding, eugenics, religion)
- The Expanse (TV and book series, 2015)
- Alien (movie franchise, 1979-2025)
- Stellaris (Paradox Games)
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