Review of "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy 1888

[@PandaRamble]

Amazing analysis, thabk you! Regarding the "prophesied" radio - listening to a remote broadcast via phone was demonstrated in 1881 on International Exposition of Electricity in Paris - I'd expect that newspapers reported about that (see Théâtrophone on wiki). I'm sure that store credit was a thing for a long time, cheques are a BC thing, the same goes with identity document(at least 15th century) and the concept of business card(widely used since 17th century). While unique, he just combined these and since you only have one store, there's just one credit. All very impressive though.

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

Excellent. Thank you. No doubt Bellamy, like many large scale thinkers, was drawing together numerous disparate ideas into one place. Same seems to be true of people like Madison Grant and other eugenicists.

[@spectralvalkyrie]

Hey thank you for this also I like the way you wear your bandana 💯

[@Porker_Hamfries]

Very interesting video. I find it interesting the parallels of the echo chambers in the book and in real life you pointed out. its honestly impressive how accurate he was with his predictions of the future. i wonder what future parallels we will see in another 100 years.

[@peterr.schuster6027]

Interesting review! I thank you for that as I watched video with great interest. Must say Mr. Bellamy was quite a visionary in many respects. It was particularly enlightening and certainly new to me when you point out certain eugenic aspect in Mr. Bellamy's thought. Nonetheless one objection must be raised In Mr. Bellamy's defense - his firm insistance on equality (and full democracy - meaning equal right to vote and ruling society by decisions of majority) does not go well along with fascism of any sort.

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

I concur. My understanding of Bellamy, though, is that his insistence on equality (voting et alia) was primarily for small communities composed of single ethnic (or racial) groups every member of which was equally & happily involved in the employment arena. This seems not only to be an impossibility, but also involves an unspoken (it would seem) necessity for purifying the racial lines and leveling the working hierarchy. Not entirely sure how a society is going to get to this point aside from brutal eugenic methods and unjust economic laws. It is a tragedy that for 100 years people have been trying to achieve this state using just such methods and just such laws.

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

Here is a neat article that links socialism and fascism claiming that they are different only in organizational pattern: www.abelard.org/briefings/fascism-is-socialism.php?fbclid=IwAR3i8IJ_hHc_1II2OysQeAey4xYTdL7FutuENAmDQ5LHWyIlh-1Xj0QdirA

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

So for instance, this from an article by Matthew Hartman entitled "Utopian Evolution: the Sentimental Critique of Social Darwinism in Bellamy and Peirce." - "Bellamy critiqued the Dawrinist social ethics of industrial capitalism and substituted his own agapistic ethics, which he outlined in his essay 'The Religion of Solidarity' (1874)... Under Bellamy's Nationalist system, in which the entire economy is placed under the control of the nation, greed has lost its central, motivating role. instead, workers are motivated by 'patriotism, passion for humanty.'" While I agree that unbridled capitalism can be ruinous to the human person, I would question how such a system as Bellamy's could possibly cope with those who don't want to be motivated by "patriotism" or "passion for humanity". How do we insist on people operating out of such noble motives as compassion, agape, or altruism? How do we get people to, say, care for the environment? Legal penalty? Political exclusion (as Galton seems to suggest)? or physical force (like the eugenicists did to those races they deemed ineligible to reproduce)? IDK, but it inevitably seems to necessitate the exertion of the will of some over the will of many. What do you think? Looking forward to your reply.

[@yellowball8]

Also look up the concept “River of Lethe.”

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

Thank you for that. Would this be in the context of Greek mythology? Dante's use of the image? or modern psychology?

[@sueelliott8085]

I haven’t read this book, but I read about it in a book about Orwell. It is a very sinister vision. There are always huge questions left unanswered by the advocates of extreme versions of political philosophies. I am British, and I think there is a place for public provision of essential services such as health care, and the provision of clean water, but pure Socialism does not take account of human nature. In reality there is little difference between far left and far right, and Hitler, and Stalin they were very similar. They both had to exercise extreme control over the population in order to fulfil their policies, and resorted to mass murder.

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

As I mentioned, the book is hardly worth reading - truly tedious in its execution. But the ideas are startlingly prophetic and terrifyingly formative to the whole progressive (nee socialist) plan that is and was being implemented. I have since come to modify slightly my view that it is a "socialist" dream that Bellamy puts forward - it is a progressive dream that claims a future transcendent of socialism. But the upheaval of socialism which so threatened the oligarchs of the Guilded Age was, I think, subsumed as the years went by and made into a tool of the oligarchs to bring about this new world order painted by Bellamy. Orwell seemed indeed to get this sinister future of "jackboot on a human neck" after discovering about the Holodomor: that wonderful breaking of a few eggs to get the socialist omelet. God's benison on you & your country as you go through your own fit of egg-breaking and turmoil.

[@sethtwc]

If this creator's explanation of the author's view of socialism is correct, It is apparent that the author does not have a proper understanding of what socialism is and how capitalism works

[@avalonmentorsliterature5575]

I would certainly agree that Bellamy's understanding of capitalism is grossly inferior. He seems to think that there will be abundant supply for all coming from willing work of high quality from all. I earnestly do not know how this would be accomplished. Either we enjoy high quality material in low abundance from people who love their craft (all of whom make proportionate income from their work) OR we have low quality material in high abundance from people who are disinterested in or loathe their employment (some of whom make minimum income, others make below that). But Bellamy's suggestion of having high quality cake and eating it too seems ludicrous.

[@sethtwc]

​@avalonmentorsliterature5575 I suggest checking out Noncompete, he is an anarcho-communist and has a series of videos dedicated to what life under an anarchist model could be achieved. Under a need based industry we would still have high quality goods but not produced in excess like now under capitalism