Parables

 I read the Parable of the Sower and Talents out of order, and finally finished the "prequel" to Parable of the Talents today. It is hard to read about "the pox" after the last year, not because I think that particular situation is imminent, but because it does seem as completely unlikely as it used to. The seeds of that world reside within this one and it's disconcerting to sit with.

In the pox, a slow-burning pseudo-nuclear bomb in the form of economic collapse does not vaporize anyone, but it does slowly atomize society, until all that's left are predatory gangs, increasingly factionalized governments, corporate slavery and a teeming mass of people desperate, starving, and hoping not to be prey. Everyone is desperate, starving, struggling to survive and trust in the inherent goodness of human nature will get you killed.

It's not that I think we're that close to Mad Max, but you can see the seeds of that behavior in our "looking out for #1" society already, and after a year of shocking callous attitudes towards covid deaths it's only gotten worse in some sectors. There is a not so quiet social split happening between people who don't really give a shit who their behavior hurts and those who, frankly, find that appalling (every friend I know has a story of former friends along those lines right now), and the disconcerting premise of the Parable of the Sower is, there's no real reason the "who gives a shit, I got mine" people don't eventually "win," at least for a time. 

As for Earthseed, I find the premise intriguing, and I like the emphasis on radical acceptance when it comes to change, but I'm not sure it's ... sufficient to reform a society lost to desperation, ruled by a callous disregard for human life.

I'm not sure what's sufficient to change our course either. People comfort themselves by saying, "well, when the chips are REALLY down, people will come together." And there certainly is a critical mass of people willing to do that. But after the last year, when the chips have been pretty far down and a surprising amount of people have eagerly performed a callous disregard for death and disease so long as it didn't affect them directly, i'm not longer so sure the current argument for giving a shit, in sum, is sufficient. And what it takes to get there, I don't yet know.