Why sci-fi plays such a big role in exposing oppression

Blazing Reader,

As technology advances, we are seeing a move from controlling people with swords, guns and tasers, to more subtle forms of manipulation. One example would be how Chinese-run TikTok has influenced "Western" culture. Another example might be how digital centralized banking could give governments full control over people's ability to pay for things they need to stay alive (e.g. food, housing, etc.). Another example would be mRNA injections that contain inserts warning that 2.7% of people (one in 37!) who get the shot end up with "severe adverse reactions" (AKA super sick, permanently disabled or outright dead).

The ability of technology to control or to free is why science fiction stories have played such a role in encouraging or exposing methods of mass control and oppression.

In Prof. Fiona Moore's essay on postcolonialism as it pertains to the cult TV science fantasy series, Doctor Who, she notes the connection between military imperialism and technological advancements:

"Csicsery-Ronay argues that, beyond this correlation, 'SF… has been driven by a desire for the imaginary transformation of imperialism into Empire, viewed not primarily in terms of political and economic contests among cartels and peoples, but as a technological regime that affects and ensures the global control system of de-nationalized communication' (232), that 'technological development was not only a precondition for the physical expansion of the imperialist countries but an immanent driving force' (233), and that even 'the classical genres to which SF is often traced (the pastoral, the romance, the utopian cityscape) originate in the imperial imagination (specifically from Alexandria, Byzantium, and Rome), as do their shadow-genres, the slave's narrative, the journey through hell, and the dark city' (238)."

You can read Moore's entire essay about "Postcolonialism in Late 1980s Doctor Who" over on academia.edu.

John C.A. Manley

PS And, if you haven't already, you can also read my sci-fi novel about how technology can free humanity or enslave us over at: AllTheHumansAreSleeping.com

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.