When I joined the US Army, there was still a Soviet Union. I remember the “good feelings” a segment of American society had towards the Soviet Union then, even going so far as to say the Communist state was a better and more noble nation than America. I said to myself: “Why would any rational person want to champion regimes that have killed ten times more people than the Nazis?”
Science fiction writers have used stories of parallel universes or alternative histories for social commentary and dramatic effect for ages. One of my favorites was Fatherland, a 1992 novel where Hitler and the Nazis won World War II. Its predecessor of the same theme was Philip K. Dick’s, The Man in the High Castle, 1963, which took it further with an occupied America divided between Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japanese.
Science fiction writers have used stories of parallel universes or alternative histories for social commentary and dramatic effect for ages. One of my favorites was Fatherland, a 1992 novel where Hitler and the Nazis won World War II. Its predecessor of the same theme was Philip K. Dick’s, The Man in the High Castle, 1963, which took it further with an occupied America divided between Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japanese.
From Wikipedia:
Fatherland is a 1992 alternative history detective novel by English writer and journalist Robert Harris. Set in a universe in which Nazi Germany won World War II, the story’s lead protagonist is an officer of the Kripo, the criminal police, who is investigating the murder of a Nazi government official who participated at the Wannsee Conference. A plot is thus discovered to eliminate all of those who attended the conference to help the improvement of Germany’s relations with the United States.
The novel inverts some of the conventions of the detective novel. It begins with a murder and diligent police detective investigating and eventually solving it. However, since the murderer is highly placed in a tyrannical regime, solving the mystery does not result in the detective pursuing and arresting the murderer. The contrary occurs in the novel: the murderer pursuing and arresting the detective.
The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Published and set in 1962, the novel takes place fifteen years after a different end to World War II, and depicts intrigues between the victorious Axis Powers—primarily, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany—as they rule over the former United States, as well as daily life under totalitarian rule.
The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Reported inspirations include Ward Moore’s alternate Civil War history, Bring the Jubilee (1953), classic World War II histories, and the I Ching (referred to in the novel). There is a “novel within the novel”, an alternate history within the alternate history where the Allies defeat the Axis (though in a manner distinct from the real-life events of the war).
In 2015, the book was adapted as a multi-season TV series, with Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick Hackett, as a producer.
Consider the following of an alternate America:
- Jews arrested at synagogues.
- Christians arrested at churches and police taking down license plates of those going to a drive-thru church.
- A sole paddleboarder being swarmed by Coast Guard and cited for being outside.
- A woman arrested for being at the park with her kids.
- Communist Chinese-made talking drones being used by police to monitor residents.
- Police telling citizens their “rights have been suspended.”
Well, you already get the punchline. This is not America in a parallel universe or alternate reality. This is 2020 America in real life, today, as of March 2020. The stuff of Orwellian dystopian sci-fi has become reality before our very eyes. Is any of this okay with you?
“Free” America, the country of my birth, the nation I served in the military to protect, and all of Western Europe (except for Sweden because they actually respect and trust their people) decided to follow the draconian containment policies of Communist China. We followed the Chinese-style containment policies of a dictatorship where people have no rights and can be imprisoned or killed at will rather than Sweden-style measures of a free society recognizing the seriousness of the disease but where people don’t lose their civil liberties, livelihoods, and businesses in total.
This is what our health “experts” told us: We had to do this. We had no choice. We had to shut down the economy to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. “Yes, yes, 30 million Americans are out of work and 94% of the nation’s 300 million are under de-facto house arrest, but we had no choice,” they said.
I violently disagreed, said so at the time, kept a diary to track the mortality numbers in America and abroad, and wrote an article too. “There would be 100,000 to 240,000 Americans dead in two weeks.” That was what we were told. How many did die in those two weeks? 31,608.
Even one death from this virus is too much. However, that does not mean we deliberately destroy our entire nation of 330 million Americans. The coronavirus is far more contagious than the seasonal influenza flu, but the mortality rate is basically the same.
I loathe hysteria and hate the political and media elite scaring people. Fear is what bad people use to control populations. That’s true in a sci-fi novel or in real life.
Here’s more context. The number of people who died in one year in America.
- 37,000 die from car crashes annually – over 90 per day (*numbers corrected 5/16/20) – out of our 6 million car accidents
- 606,000 died from cancer
- 88,000 died from alcoholism
- 83,000 died from diabetes
- 67,000 died from drug overdoses
- 50,000 died from suicide
- 12,000 and 61,000 deaths from the annual flu
To be clear, my commentary (and anger) is completely apolitical. I don’t care about political party or ideology here. What I do care about is elected officials in America behaving like dictators and the media spewing forth a steady diet of fear when the science says we’re going in the right direction. “Science” meaning what we know rather than hypothetical projections based on nothing.
By late March, we knew the models used by the experts were grossly inaccurate and became clearer each day as the real numbers came in. Yet, political leaders continue to speak about infinite shutdowns rather than admit they wrongly and horribly destroyed the economy.
At the writing of this article, 80,846 have died from the COVID-19 virus. Do you know that numbers are intentionally being inflated? Someone dying with COVID-19 is not the same as dying from COVID-19. Why are these “games” being played? Health is supposed to be about facts, not political agendas or hysteria.
People are being shuddered in their homes who have little risk of getting the virus and if they do will only mild or no symptoms. But it is our vulnerable populations who make up the majority of deaths—especially nursing homes and long-term care facilities. In New York, the epicenter of virus deaths in America, the governor signed an executive order requiring these facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients! These facilities did not have the necessary protective equipment. Results: nearly 5,000 patients dead! These were preventable deaths!
In America, healthy people are being economically destroyed, while our vulnerable populations are not being adequately protected, and those on the margins are being so frightened by the media they won’t even go to the hospital or see their doctor. When the dust settles, we will be a weaker America, but the government will be just fine and have even more power and control over our lives.
All of this seems eerily similar to my very first sci-fi book and series which my inner creative mind forced me to type after not writing a word of fiction in nearly 15 years. Jews and Christians persecuted–oh yes, atheists too because they’re a “religion,” surveillance drones everywhere, dictatorial governments, the merging of Big Government and Big Tech. I wrote the book back in 2012 and published in 2013.
I won’t go into how I knew right from the beginning that the apocalyptic projections of death were so false as to be criminal, other than to say it was simple logical reasoning, which is what our leaders are supposed to do. Also, I’m not arguing and never argued to do nothing. But it’s not an either-or proposition. We can do both–protect our vulnerable populations and allow our economy to live with people able to work and run their businesses following COVID-19 health recommendations.
In one of my latest Liquid Cool novels from last year–BioPunk Blues, Liquid Cool #7, who are the villains? The World Health Organization. What I’m asking is does this new “reality” that we’ve been thrown into without our consent or input, using the COVID-19 as a justification (or an excuse), seem disturbingly and terribly wrong to you? Do you also feel we are now on a wrong cosmic path which will have dire future consequences for this country? My subconscious mind obviously perceived we were already on this bad path when I wrote my first After Eden novel seven years ago and all of this just brought it all into the light for all to see.
What do you think? Are you as disturbed by this “new reality”?
Write your comments below
Austin Dragon is the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. His works include the sci-fi detective LIQUID COOL series, the epic fantasy FABLED QUEST CHRONICLES, the international futuristic epic AFTER EDEN Series, the classic SLEEPY HOLLOW HORRORS, and new military sci-fi PLANET TAMERS series. He is a native New Yorker but has called Los Angeles, California home for more than twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, ex-political junkie, movie buff, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, futurist, and dreamer.
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26 Responses
I am just going to say those numbers you gave were for a year for each of those different deaths. This virus is killing that many in weeks not years and the only reason that number is not higher is because the money hungry government we have has put stay at home and social distances in place. From one church gathering hundreds died. They are not targeting religion as you suggest, because if they were really watching all Americans as tight as you think, any and all people who have gatherings in their homes would be getting fined as well. The whole of American has to act as one and stay apart or at least stay safe when out to keep the spread slowed or try to stop it. With each person having beliefs and a mind of their own that would not happen without a consequence for having done things that are essentially putting someone else’s life at risk. It’s a slap in the face to those who are on the “front lines” saving people or having to live out the rest of those lives having watched many people die under their care. Honestly I am an absolute nobody. I have a GED and Medical Receptionist background. I have been under the care of drs for an autoimmune disease and my mother is living on borrowed time with congestive heart failure and lung issues as well, beg to differ that if everyone still went about every day as if this virus were not here then things would be much worse and much more scary. We each have our own views on this and THAT the higher power foresaw coming and made rules to try and protect every life. I don’t believe for one second that a money hungry political government would want to close everything and give money away to the people just to see if they could control them. So that is my opinion on this and I just wanted to say thank you for sharing yours and for sharing that writing gift of yours with the world. God Bless!
Thank-you, Stephanie. Reading the first reply last helps clear up some of the other replies. Be well, Stay safe.
I don’t buy into conspiracy theories number one. I rely on proof of anything before I come to conclusions. I agree completely with Stephanie that it is different for everyone. I help a woman with COPD who is scared to death of this & shut in completely until its done. Is she wrong? My bosses laid me off because of lack of business last week. Are they wrong? My son in law who is a respiratory therapist says to much of a deal os being made of this. Could he be right..or wrong? My dad who is 85 & has had pneumonia twice has been super careful about contact. Is he wrong (hell no btw!) You know what I believe? If it had stayed overseas, most North Americans don’t give a crap. Its true time after time when it comes to disasters. We only think its a big deal when it comes close to home.
Lastly, my impression was this was supposed to be about whether we want our SF to reflect events like this and dystopic sci fi in general? My answer is a hard no. Dystopia, govt conspiracies has been overdone & overplayed. I want new thinking in my SF and escapism from the norm in writing. Always have.
Hi Terry. You misunderstand. I’m also not a conspiracy guy. We know who our vulnerable populations are but we have leaders obsessed with treated us all the same rather than focusing like a laser beam on those vulnerable populations–elderly and pre-existing conditions. NY didn’t and 5,000 people died in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The same in Pennsylvania and here in Los Angeles where I live. Florida did focus on those populations and didn’t have that disaster. I too make my decision based on numbers and parts the country still on lock down the data doesn’t support it but they continue. Why?
Appreciate the clarification. It’s been a long time since politicians could get oit of their own way and let the experts who actually know how these things should be handled do their thing and just conduct oversight to make sure money is available & spent properly to maximize impact:) And when you have no oversight of politicians and how they do their jobs, It’s the Wild West.
Wow I am amazed that the responses were so negative to this “Opinion” by the Author, I for one agree with his reasoning, If you are at risk then you should shelter in place using masks and gloves where appropriate. However putting the entire state under House Arrest because you want more control is tyranny . Those inflated numbers were how New York Hospitals were told to classify deaths,ALL Deaths were to be listed as Wuhan Corona Virus Deaths,as monetarily the pay out was $13,000.00 per Patient ,compared to the actual $5,00.00 before the Chinese Wuhan Virus . And the blood on the Governors hands by ordering the contagious to be admitted to locked in Nursing Homes was terrible. Then even after the curve was flattened, they move the goal posts to now include 0 deaths in some areas before allowing freedom. Hell even the Cuomo dicktator stated that 66% of new patients were from people that had self-isolated and didn’t go out into public..Those are Real numbers against locking people in. Which leads to no herd immunity, so there will be a second wave as all these shut-ins come out of their jails. then like H1N1 it will run it’s course, and then disappear. One death from this Biological Weapon released by China is to many. cheers
Just opinions, friend. And “biological weapon released by China” speaks to a big part of the issue with all this. Misinformation running rampant. No wonder no one can get their act together during this crisis. Lots of people we can point fingers at if we are going there not just overseas, not just one party. Cheers!
Thank you for being sane!
You are spot on. And thank you for being the first public figure to point out that the Emperor is naked. Governors and Mayors are assuming dictatorial powers that are clearly in violation of multiple parts of the US Constitution. Violation of First Amendment protection of freedom of religion “and the free exercise thereof”, as well as the “right to peaceably assemble”. Most damaging are the outrageous violations of the 14th Amendment guarantee of “equal treatment under the law”. Closing some businesses but not others, and inconsistently across jurisdictions.
SCOTUS has abdicated their responsibility as protractor and defender of the Constitution.
All this because money hungry media drove a scare campaign with theoretical models by government bureaucrats with ZERO data. Fauci is no longer a scientist, he hasn’t published in 16 years. He’s a virologist, not an infectious disease specialist. He’s been strictly a bureaucrat since 1984. And he’s almost 80 years old, and was never trained in experimental design or statistical analysis.
This is all about power and control of a frightened populace and if the Democrats have their way, conversion to a completely Communist economy. They want to highly tax every productive person and segment of society and make everyone dependent on federal welfare. This is not paranoia. This is the bill Pelosi is pushing.
Some of the people are rebelling. And ensuring their ability to rebel by exercising their Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms”. Because the jackbooted thugs of government will drag them away otherwise. Of course the media collided with Big Brother and demonizes these patriots.
I fear the American experiment in freedom and democracy is ending. Not with a bang but a whimper of fear. I am signing this in the name of the Founder who most understood the terrible power of government – Thomas Jefferson. Because I don’t want them coming for me or my business in the night.