When did we forget how to dream?

When did our nation forget how to dream? When did we lose our sense of wonder, our belief in our ability to reach for the stars? Our belief in our ability to be more than we are? Some say it died on 9/11. Some say it declined with the economy. Anyway, at some point, we woke up and found ourselves a nation of cynics.

Science fiction is the avatar of our ability to dream of soaring to distant horizons, of proving there is no limit for us save our willingness to try. Since the days of Jules Verne, scientific speculation and flights of fancy have inspired the human race to reach for the unreachable and expand our frontiers, both internal and external. In the turbulent but hopeful era of the late 1960's, Gene Roddenberry introduced us to the world of "Star Trek" a dream of a future in which war and petty divisions were but unpleasant memories, and a unified, enlightened human race reached out to boldly go where none had gone before. In those days, we dreamed of going to the moon, and we made it.

Where are our dreams and hopes now? Where is that starry-eyed calling to move forward into a better world through our own ingenuity? Where is the determination to invent electric cars, solar technology, orbiting microwave power satellites, magnetic bullet trains and other inventions that could free us from Arab oil and greedy, ecologically destructive oil corporations? Grubby, self-serving politics and accommodation with special interests has killed carbon emission regulations, along with all meaningful incentive for green technology innovation. And, the most tragic part is that there is little or no outcry from the public. They're too busy voting for conservative politicians who reject change in any form, whether it be universal healthcare or clean energy.

Is a nation in decline when it abandons all hope in a better future? I think so. You can see the sad evidence in today's science fiction. Or, rather, the lack of it. Where today are the Captain Kirks and Mr. Spocks, the futuristic heroes who inspired us to dream of better days and grand adventures through invention and enlightenment? Science fiction has dwindled, reflecting the flagging spirit of a nation that has lost its will to dream.

Once, we dreamed of flying to the stars. Now, we fight for maintaining the status quo. Once, we dreamed of gleaming futuristic cities on the moon. Now, we march wearing the costumes of 230 years in the past. Once, we aspired to greatness. Now, we aspire to smallness. Once, we dreamed of a future where diseases were conquered and everyone was equal and healthy. Now, we scoff at dreams of self-improvement and ask to see each other's passports. We don't want to move forwards anymore, it seems. Only backwards.

Is there a Gene Roddenberry out there somewhere who can remind us of how to dream?

When the Apocalypse arrives...will anyone notice?

Science fiction films like '2012' and 'Day After Tomorrow' and science fiction stories like my novelette 'Meeting' depict apocalyptic futures involving mass flooding due to global climate change. In the real world today, science fiction is fast becoming science fact. Devastating floods continue in Pakistan and China, record breaking heat waves have triggered massive forest fires in California and Russia, as well as lethal droughts in Africa and Australia. An ice berg the size of Manhattan Island has broken off the polar ice cap and is drifting out to sea. Unprecedented events, these, and almost biblical in their devastating effect. But, not unexpected. Climatologists predicted decades ago that such things would happen, and they are right on schedule.

What is being done about this? Not much. The only meaningful legislation intended to fight climate change to pass through the U.S. Congress, after a long, bitter political fight has gone down in flames, essentially killing any hope of legislating reasonable emissions standards to slow global warming in the near future. The reason? Petty political bickering and entrenched special interests (namely, big oil) and politicians who value their own careers more than they do the world their children and grandchildren will inherit. So, as present trends continue, what can we expect to see in our daily lives? According to EPA studies: "longer heat waves that harm the sick, poor, and elderly; extreme weather events that can lead to death and injuries; and increases in ground-level ozone linked to respiratory illnesses like asthma."

So, the obvious question: Why does the public, even in the face of overwhelming and obvious evidence, remain skeptical that this world is rapidly running out of time? The obvious answer: They simply don't want to believe it. It's too difficult, and too inconvenient for the people to rise up and force the corporations to clean up their act and stop polluting our atmosphere with
CO2 and other dangerous greenhouse gases. After all...it might lead to more people getting laid off. As long as one can at least try to believe that the end is still a way's off...that "I'll be safely in my grave by the time the apocalypse comes" ...we can continue to live our lives comfortably watching reality TV, driving our gas-guzzling autos and blaming the Obama administration for everything.

So, what could we do, if we had the collective will? Plenty. According to leading scientists, the energy used to power, heat, and cool our homes, businesses, and industries and the fuel we use for transportation are responsible for more than 80 percent of global warming emissions in the United States. The major renewable energy alternatives (wind, solar, geothermal, bioenergy, and hydropower) combined could generate many times the amount of electricity the nation now needs. Several renewable energy technologies are available today, and others are projected to become commercially ready in the next twenty years. Wind power has the greatest near-term potential.

In short: It's not easy to convert our destructive civilization to a more ecologically benign one, but it can be done, and without destroying our economy. All it requires is the will of the people to speak out and motivate our legislators to do the right thing and stand up to the big-money corporate interests. The potential is there. But, time's running out.

I hope the epitaph of our civilization won't be: "We had other things on our mind."

New Age of Darkness?

"Flags" a science fiction novelette published by Lillibridge Press and now available on Amazon.com - paints a grim picture of a future in which the human race is one step away from destroying itself over racial, religious and ideological divisions. In real life, how far are we from this, here in the land of the free, where all men are created equal?

The growing hysteria over immigration in this country is becoming truly frightening. Gone is the America embodied in Lady Liberty standing tall and proud with her torch upraised, a shining beacon of hope and opportunity to all the world's peoples who hungered to breath free, unshackled by the tyrannies of the past. The America we seem to be degenerating into is one retreating behind a wall of fear and intolerance. Our growing chorus of reactionary activists envision a ridiculously huge fence sealing our immense border with Mexico, stretching out like the Great Wall of China. Impossible to build or maintain effectively, of course, but conservative politicians and demagogues continue to advocate it to appease the terrified masses. What next? A vast army sent to guard our Great Wall of Texas? Machine gun turrets? Mine fields? High voltage wires? How far are our conservative elements from advocating extermination camps for illegal aliens?

Sound far-fetched? Think about it. Some conservatives today are advocating deportation for anyone born in this country to a parent who was an illegal alien. One has to wonder how many generations back they would ultimately take this. Are any of us safe? And, of course, they would require everyone to produce identity papers. We seem to be slipping closer and closer to something resembling Nazi Germany. And, have you seen the political platform of the Texas Republican Party? It includes "Opposing all criminal or civil penalties against anti-gay activists and any actions they may take to oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values." If taken literally, that essentially means it would be legal to kill gay people at will. And, of course, the Texas GOP wants to get us the heck out of the U.N. Their platform can best be summed up as: "Attention foreign devils and anybody different from us, get out or we'll kill you." This platform is nothing new, of course; The Texas GOP has maintained it for years. What's scary is that the National GOP will not condemn or oppose it.

America is fast becoming a nation of xenophobes who want to close our doors to the outside world and reject all races, cultures and lifestyles that differ from our safe, comfortably familiar norm. The Islamic civilization took a similar turn back in the middle ages. Like us, they were once an open, enlightened, progressive society. Once they turned to xenophobia, their once vibrant culture stagnated, and they've been stuck ever since in the 10th century. That may well happen to us if present trends continue.

Fang-tastic

Like vampire and paranormal fiction? Check out Roxanne Rhoads' blog site Fang-tastic at: http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/

You'll read interesting interviews with great authors of vampire, paranormal and fantasy fiction, learn about their books and have the opportunity to post comments and win prizes. I have a guest blog up on that site. Post a comment by Tuesday, and you might win a free copy of my book "Unholy Alliance."

Happy Reading!

Chaos Theory: Tales Askew

Check out "Chaos Theory: Tales Askew" a wonderfully unusual collection of FREE online speculative fiction. One of my stories "Genesis Cave" is in the current issue, along with some other fine and memorable tales of the bizarre. Happy Reading! http://www.genspace.com/ctta/

Rising Dark Tide

"Meeting" a novelette published by Lillibridge Press and now available on Amazon.com, deals with apocalyptic futures and ecological disaster.

Sadly, such things are coming true all around us every day. The ecological impacts of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are getting worse by the day as an estimated 210, 000 – 2,520,000 gallons of filthy crude oil continue to poison the sea-water, moving toward the coast like some rising dark tide out of horror fiction. The spill, estimated to be over 130 miles long and 70 miles wide, will soon hit the coastlines of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, devastating local economies and threatening hundreds of species in the Gulf of Mexico, including endangered and rare species. All this of course comes on the heels of the recent coal mining tragedy in West Virginia. One of the worst coal mining disasters in history, though not the first of its kind. Or, probably, the last.

What more proof does this nation need that fossil fuels are killing us? It wasn't enough that 97% of the world's leading climatologists have been warning us for decades about the dangers of global warming? Or, that oil spills like the current disaster have happened before, and are continuing? Or, that the build-up of coal-ash sludge has threatened entire communities in coal mining states? Public opinion is shifting slowly, haltingly toward the development of clean, renewable energy, like wind and solar. (About bloody time!) But, it's not enough. New clean energy legislation making its way through Congress is a step in the right direction, but it's long overdue, and probably not strong enough. Such legislation seeks to compromise with the interests of big oil companies, whose interests are only in making a profit for themselves, not in protecting the environment or local economies.

The big fossil fuel interests have been allowed to grow far too powerful. Corporate oil money fills and poisons the political process like the oil slick fills and poisons the gulf. The governors and representatives of coal states toady for the coal companies. This will only get worse as the Supreme Court's monumentally disastrous decision to regard corporate political bribery as 'legitimate free speech' (What were they smoking?!!!) opens the flood gates for more corporate influence toward weakening already insufficient environmental protection standards.

The only way to fight corporate influence is through a groundswell of public opinion against the fossil fuel industries. It's not there yet. I hope it won't take more needless deaths or irreparable ecological and economic harm before the people rise up and vote en masse against an escalating disaster. It would be great if all that anti-banking and anti-corporate populist rage (well deserved at that) could focus against an even greater threat to our future: fossil fuels. Remember: no matter what we do, the oil wells will run dry in another 50 years. Coal will be gone in maybe 100 years, tops. We simply have to switch to renewable energy sources eventually. Common sense dictates we start now, while we still have an environment left to save. Before coal mining destroys the last mountain range and poisons the last river, before more oil slicks devastate coastal fishing and threaten our food supply, and before global warming decimates more populations with coastal storms, flooding and drought.

The Sierra Club, Greenpeace and many other environmental organizations are trying to fuel public awareness of these issues. I hope more people listen, before it's too late.

Marginal Boundaries

Hey, check out the first issue of Marginal Boundaries, a fresh new face of unusual speculative fiction. I'm proud to say my short story "A Stitch in Time" is included in this fabulous first issue! http://www.marginalboundaries.com/issue-one/