A Chilling Thought

I have been a fan of sci-fi author Orson Scott Card since he snuck up behind me as I was reading his classic Ender's Game and pulled one of the biggest out-of-the-blue endings that I still am stunned by over 20 years later. I have read all but one of the Ender and Ender's Shadow series of novels as well as many other that Card has written.

One I missed a year or so ago when it came out was Empire. While I can't call it one of Card's best novels, it certainly fits into his overall work. It is set in a near-time future when a civil war is attempted in the United States. There are some stereotypical characterizations of liberals and conservatives and the extremes of both. On the surface it appears to be taking the liberals to task more so than the conservatives. The ending was not as big a surprise as Ender's but it was an interesting one. (No spoiler here.)

Then I realize that Card has done a quite decent job of portraying what happens when a society and culture like ours gets so deeply divided along those political lines. The insanity of extremes is seen on both sides and those in the more rational middle are often caught there in situations beyond their control. It then becomes their job to bring things to a hopeful conclusion. Whether they are able to do that is the unanswered- and perhaps unanswerable- question.

Card then adds an afterword in which he explains some of his fears and concerns about the United States in these divided and divisive times. He is arguing strongly for those in the more moderate middle of both sides to wake up before it is too late and the extremes on both sides succeed at a perhaps even unhealable divide.

That's where this is a chilling book. He makes it all sound so possible even as we argue with its possibilities. But we have lived with this deepening divide in the United States for many years now. The current campaign, especially the Democratic side but to a lesser extent on the Republican, shows how divided we can become and how we can play with and feed those divides. McCain has trouble with the "true believers" on the Right. Clinton and Obama are fighting over issues of race and gender though neither are often mentioned that bluntly.

We have too many divides; too many litmus tests for correct thinking; too many disparate groups wanting their way to be The Way. It is into such a place that we walk with great fear for we may turn to one who seeks to unite us when the truth he that one may only be seeking self-aggrandizement. So far no one like that has shown up and no new civil war seems at hand.

But if we remain this deeply divided, it may not take much.