I mentioned Octavia Butler's novel, Parable of the Sower, in a blog posting I published back in August. At the time I wrote that earlier comment, I had not yet read Butler's book. Now, I have, and I found Butler's novel to be incredibly powerful. Parable of the Sower is the story of how a young woman brings together a group of people to survive (and perhaps, ultimately, to prosper) in a world characterized by widespread social and economic breakdown, occasioned by the impacts of global warming.
One reason that Butler's novel is so powerful is because it is so "real." While Butler published Parable of the Sower in 1993, the story she tells in her novel begins in 2024. We are right on track!
I couldn't help but remember Parable of the Sower as I read those blog postings from Tom Engelhardt and Pauline Schneider that I wrote about yesterday. We are heading, it seems to me, into a world not unlike the world that Butler depicts.
After providing a description of what's coming - what is actually already here, in so many ways - Schneider provides a list of actions she thinks we should take. I believe, as we think about making our own lists, and thinking about how to make the real and radical changes that are called for, that what Octavia Butler shows us in her story should be considered good guidance.
Before we even begin to make the real and radical changes that are truly necessary, we each need to find some friends. I mean that, literally.*
Each one of us needs to find some friends. We're going to need them!
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*The Hannah Arendt Center is hosting an examination of friendship and politics at its annual conference this year, on October 12th and 13th. Click this link for information. Here is a link to one of the key talks presented at the annual conference.
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