Sloane Taylor hosts my SCIENCE FICTION guest post on her fine blog:
Sweet as Honey...Hotter Than Hell!
Check it out:
http://sloanetaylor.blogspot.com/2016/06/new-release-for-thomas-olbert.html
Monday, June 20, 2016
A Visit with Sloane Taylor
Sloane Taylor hosts my SCIENCE FICTION guest post on her fine blog:
Sweet as Honey...Hotter Than Hell!
Check it out:
http://sloanetaylor.blogspot.com/2016/06/new-release-for-thomas-olbert.html
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Divided in Crisis
http://mochamemoirspress.com/products/sf/
Science fiction delves into the darkness of the human soul. It also speculates on how societies present and future may react to extreme crisis, up to and including the apocalypse. History teaches us that societies in real life often unite in times of crisis. After the 9/11 attacks, our society certainly united, in common hatred for the common enemy.
But, it would seem it takes an attack on the entire society to elicit such a visceral feeling of tribal unity. Attacks against carefully selected sub-sections of society do not seem to elicit unity. Quite the opposite.
Orlando, Florida. The most recent mass shooting in what is becoming a darkly monotonous parade of senseless death did little or nothing in unifying society. Perhaps because segments of the public saw different faces of evil when looking at the carnage. The LGBT community saw hatred directed against them. Right-wing politicians saw an opportunity to strike terror into the collective consciousness of the public by raising the devil of Islamic Radicalism and reiterating mad cries for closing the doors of the land of opportunity to anyone who prays to Allah. Other right wing politicians used the opportunity to stoke the fires of the culture wars by suggesting that the patrons of a gay night club simply "reaped what they'd sown." As usual, the obvious question of gun control was raised, and as usual, still more right-wing politicians kow-towed to the gun lobby in blocking substantial progress on the issue.
The usual arguments and counter-arguments were raised. On one side: Why was a man on a terror watch-list able to purchase an assault rifle? For that matter, why is anyone able to purchase an assault rifle? On the other side: Why weren't the patrons of the night club armed with assault rifles? (Yeah, those right-wingers in North Carolina would love that...gays with assault rifles.)
The right wing continues to hold the unlimited right to bear fire-arms as sacred while giving at best meagre lip service to the right to live, shrugging off mass shootings as an immutable fact of modern life while bemoaning abortion as murder. (Say...if a gunman shot up a maternity ward instead of an abortion clinic, I wonder if the pro-lifers would picket the NRA? Nah...they'd probably advocate arming the OBGYN staff. And, the pregnant patients.)
No, unless the enemy hits us all at once, we will not unite against him. We won't even agree on who he is. Instead, we'll just use the selective attacks, the terminations with extreme prejudice as propaganda material for waging our private feuds and hateful slights, even before the bodies are cold.
Now, that's an effective strategy for any enemy of our society. Attack the factions one by one, and watch them turn on each other. "They came for the Jews, and I didn't protest because I wasn't a Jew. Then, they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't protest..." Well, you know the rest.
http://www.phase5publishing.com/dissent
Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=dissent%2Bolbert
Barnes & Noble
Lulu
http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-olbert/dissent-book-i-of-the-nexus/ebook/product-22599006.html
Kobo
Goodreads page
Free sample
PDF
Saturday, June 11, 2016
The long, hard trek of progress...
Science fiction tracks the millennial progress of future societies, following them into very strange places.
But, truth is stranger than fiction. In real life, social progress moves at a crawl. More than half a century has passed since the days of bus boycotts and struggles over segregated lunch counters, water fountains, public swimming pools and restrooms. And, racism is still alive and well. Laws may change, but the evolution of human cultures and mindsets is glacially slow.
Today, a new battle is being fought. The players have changed, but it is still over something basic to everyday life. Again, the battle for civil rights is waged in the dingy field of the rest room. Again, conservative politicians in the American south are trying to pass a law making it a crime for certain people...certain people unwelcome for their differences...to share the same rest room as the other, more "normal", more valued members of society.
The proposed law, absurd on its face, would require transsexuals to use the rest room corresponding not with their identified gender, but with the gender listed on their birth certificate. This law is not only impossible to enforce (short of having security guards check everyone's birth certificate upon entry) but impossible to obey. Try to imagine transsexual men...who look like men, who wear beards, who wear male clothing and may even have post-operative male genitalia...using a women's rest room. I'm guessing it wouldn't be popular. Nor would transsexual women...who look like women, who wear dresses, nylons and high heels...using a men's rest room. (Try to picture what would happen to them.)
The proponents of this law would have us believe it's about protecting the privacy and safety of women and girls who feel invaded by males entering "their" rest rooms. (Just as white people may have felt similarly invaded.) That's not a male next to you, Miss. That's another female, whether you know it or not. That, of course, is not the real issue. The proposed law goes much further than that, in forbidding the passage of all forms of anti-discrimination law, not only affecting transsexuals, but gays and lesbians as well. The law simply legalizes discrimination. Not only in the rest room. Not only at the lunch counter or swimming pool. But, everywhere.
The fact this law comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's historic decision on marriage equality is no coincidence. It's a retaliatory assault on the entire LGBT community. An attack on the simple human dignity of those who are different, preying on fear and ignorance. The cowardly bigots behind the law, as usual, cry "victim" and equate discrimination and alienation with religious freedom.
Lacking the advantage of time travel in real life, we can't see how this will play out in the future. But, if recent events are any indication of the tide of history...In twenty or thirty years, this issue will have gone the way of racial segregation. But, the ghosts of the past will, alas, linger for generations beyond that. Fear of the unfamiliar and all the cruelty it spawns is ingrained in the human psyche. It will take evolution, not revolution to change that.
******
But, truth is stranger than fiction. In real life, social progress moves at a crawl. More than half a century has passed since the days of bus boycotts and struggles over segregated lunch counters, water fountains, public swimming pools and restrooms. And, racism is still alive and well. Laws may change, but the evolution of human cultures and mindsets is glacially slow.
Today, a new battle is being fought. The players have changed, but it is still over something basic to everyday life. Again, the battle for civil rights is waged in the dingy field of the rest room. Again, conservative politicians in the American south are trying to pass a law making it a crime for certain people...certain people unwelcome for their differences...to share the same rest room as the other, more "normal", more valued members of society.The proposed law, absurd on its face, would require transsexuals to use the rest room corresponding not with their identified gender, but with the gender listed on their birth certificate. This law is not only impossible to enforce (short of having security guards check everyone's birth certificate upon entry) but impossible to obey. Try to imagine transsexual men...who look like men, who wear beards, who wear male clothing and may even have post-operative male genitalia...using a women's rest room. I'm guessing it wouldn't be popular. Nor would transsexual women...who look like women, who wear dresses, nylons and high heels...using a men's rest room. (Try to picture what would happen to them.)
The proponents of this law would have us believe it's about protecting the privacy and safety of women and girls who feel invaded by males entering "their" rest rooms. (Just as white people may have felt similarly invaded.) That's not a male next to you, Miss. That's another female, whether you know it or not. That, of course, is not the real issue. The proposed law goes much further than that, in forbidding the passage of all forms of anti-discrimination law, not only affecting transsexuals, but gays and lesbians as well. The law simply legalizes discrimination. Not only in the rest room. Not only at the lunch counter or swimming pool. But, everywhere.
The fact this law comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's historic decision on marriage equality is no coincidence. It's a retaliatory assault on the entire LGBT community. An attack on the simple human dignity of those who are different, preying on fear and ignorance. The cowardly bigots behind the law, as usual, cry "victim" and equate discrimination and alienation with religious freedom.
Lacking the advantage of time travel in real life, we can't see how this will play out in the future. But, if recent events are any indication of the tide of history...In twenty or thirty years, this issue will have gone the way of racial segregation. But, the ghosts of the past will, alas, linger for generations beyond that. Fear of the unfamiliar and all the cruelty it spawns is ingrained in the human psyche. It will take evolution, not revolution to change that.
******
Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=dissent%2Bolbert
Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dissent-thomas-olbert/1123585538?ean=9781942342892
Lulu
http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-olbert/dissent-book-i-of-the-nexus/ebook/product-22599006.html
Kobo
Goodreads page
Free sample
PDF
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