Some of the best sci-fi presents a vision of the world that could become a reality given the right set of circumstances. Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" fits that description. The book was originally published in 1993, but Butler's dystopian scenario remains relevant, maybe even more so, in 2016.
Cover of the 2007 edition
In 2024, the apocalypse comes not as the result of nuclear war or a plague, but by society running itself into the ground. Climate change, isolation and economic collapse have reduced the US to a Third World country. Most people are poor or are on the verge of poverty and desperately trying to defend whatever they still have against drug addicted arsonists and scavengers who will rob, rape and murder to get what they want. Calling the police is useless when few people can afford their fees and officers are just as likely to steal their valuables as the mobs outside the neighborhood walls. Some of the older people in this dystopia cling to the hope that someone will come along and restore the nation to its former glory. Their new president ran on just such a promise, and his policies might just "make America great again" … for big business. He privitizes the space program and overturns those pesky minimum wage, environmental and worker protection laws, allowing major corporations unlimited freedom to do whatever they want to make a profit. They buy out entire towns and lure people in with promises of employment and security. The new workers realize too late that they've been tricked into slavery.
The world Butler builds sounds like a nightmarish vision of a Trump presidency, the ultimate worst-case scenario. However, Lauren Olamina, the novel's protagonist, has hope that something new can be built from the ashes. She believes that God is change, but it is humanity's responsibility to shape that change through our choices. Lauren and her companions can choose to be a part of a dying civilization, become scavengers or build a community that will give them all a fresh start. The stakes are not always so high in life, but we all should consider how we're "shaping God," or if we are. Lauren saw the results of sitting on the sidelines, waiting for God to shape himself, and it wasn't a pretty sight. You can't wait for things to get worse before taking action either. You have to pursue the change you want actively, otherwise you will be subjected to someone else's idea of change. If more of us take this advice, we can avoid letting the parable become reality.
