Dystopia

I read a story this morning at one of my most regular online haunts. An erotic story, superficially, but the socio-political aspects of the plot were more than a little thought-provoking. It was set in a near-future UK where economic collapse had led to a nationalistic/theocratic/fascistic one party state where boylovers had become a convenient scapegoat, their public execution by stoning becoming the modern equivalent of the Roman 'circus'. The means by which this 'dehumanisation' had been achieved were quite plausible, really only a ramping up of the 'trial by tabloid' depressingly prevalent in the 'real world', 'historic sex offence' this, 'paedo' that, with self-seeking politicians and religious leaders jumping on the bandwagon to maintain their positions of power and privilege - and wealth, needless to say. The plot twisted around a boy genius who effectively sold his body to further his education after his rich parents had been discredited and expropriated by the regime, inveigling his way into the system by becoming the 'loved boy' of a typically hypocritical member of the government before going on, as a young adult and boylover himself, to subvert society and wreak revenge on those who had hurt him and his family. The new society, though, despite it being ostensibly by and for boylovers, would be no more to my taste than its theocratic predecessor, most notably because the stonings continued, only the target - the theocrats and bigots - having changed, and because it became obvious that the now-grown boy had become just as greedy and self-seeking as those he had usurped. This was, I have to say, deliberate on the part of the author - 'power corrupts' was the message of the story's last sentence - and chimes with something I strongly believe, namely that plurality and tolerance for the views of others, even if you fervently disagree with those views, are the only viable basis for a workable, cooperative society. I'm commitedly, unashamedly rational, sceptical and atheistic, but as soon as I try to impose those views on anyone else, I become just as fascistic and authoritarian as the worst of theocrats. Freedom of thought and belief are essential, as far as I'm concerned, for society to live and breathe.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B