THOSE of us who grew up in the 1970s often look back on the science fiction of that period with a certain fondness, particularly if it contains a healthy message. Years later, when it became clear to me that the genre was deliberately softening people’s attitudes towards modern technology and its concomitant misuse, I realised that it was being employed as a propaganda tool. It is not for nothing that the father of science fiction, H.G. Wells, was both a Fabian control-freak and a one-worldist. Science fiction also reinforces the faded myth of Western ‘progress,’ despite the fact that nobody has walked on the moon for over half a century; if, indeed, they ever did.

Whilst a significant number of films and literature warn us about the cataclysmic drift towards socio-political dystopia, suggesting (by default) that the future of technology will be tempered by a combination of humanitarian fellowship, ecological awareness and sound logic, many people are nonetheless thrilled by the prospect of conflict between humans and machines. In that sense, the personality of your average science fiction aficionado contains something of a masochistic dimension.

As for the political ramifications, the capitalist apologists of the Right seem to think that technology will prise open new markets or perhaps lead to the planting of a Swastika flag on Jupiter, whilst the state capitalists of the Left believe that when the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961 it was an indication that justice and technology are fundamentally inseparable. Needless to say, it is very easy for people to find themselves seduced in this fashion and blaming everything that is wrong with the world on either communism or fascism must become slightly tedious at times. The only people who approach science fiction in a comparatively more rational manner are those who lack the materialistic mentality one finds on both sides of the perceived spectrum, individuals who have no desire to use technology to empower themselves at the expense of others.

When materialism is wedded to technology, however, it evolves into an extremely dangerous prospect. With the world becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable by the day, it is hard to tell exactly who or what is lurking around the corner. One thing is certain, the progenitors of globalism thought everything through many years ago. In the meantime, I prefer my science fiction to be exactly that: fictional.