From: YANJUNA@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: Ross Perot and SF: From the NYT.
Organization: Yale University
Date: Sun, 04 Oct 92 13:55:35 EDT

   Since no one else has posted this yet, and since I really don't want to
either grade further problem sets of my students, or write couple of more
pages of my dissertation, I am posting selections from "Ross Perot or
Superstoe?  Science Fiction Got There First"  from New York Times Week in
Review Section page 4, from Oct. 4 1992.  (Since it is a newspaper, I
believe it is OK to post it, but if it isn't, somebody warn me about it.)
The writer is Margot Slade.
 
   "Science Fiction writers are the Kilroys of politics, the bane of
candidates who try to fashion novel ideas -- only to learn that a novelist
was there first.
   "In 1969, in _Bug Jack Barron_, Norman Spinrad created the talk-show
hostas powerful public-opinion maker; Jack Barron, a kind of souped up
Lary King with a touch of Ted Koppel through whom political movers and shakers
are forced to move and shake.  And in 1975, John Brunner depicted in
-Shockwave Rider_ a plugged-in America whose citizens rely on an electronic
web of computers to register opinions and transact business.  The Federal
government controls the electorate by amassing data on every user and
manipulating the flow of electronic information.
   "Now, does this idea sound familiar?  A Presidential candidate suggests
an 'electronic town hall' with regular national referendums on issues
and computerized voting following televised debates.  It would 'allow
every single citizen a vote in the most important matters confronting our
country.'
    [Deleted:  The writer states that the idea originated not from Ross
Perot, but from a book called "Superstoe" by William Borden, published in
1967; two years earlier than Perot.]
   "In 1967 [Borden] published _Superstoe_ about a cabal of intellectuals
-- schoolteachers from North Dakota -- who take over the American Government
by essentially constitutional means, although they do engineer a timely
epidemic and a few discreet homicides.  The object is to create a 'pure
democracy' guided by logic and led by philosopher kings.
   "At the head of this democracy is Paxton S. Superstoe, 'a combination of
jolly Zen master and benevolent dictator, with a ruthless streak.'  At its
heart is a technopopulist notion, the National Referendum Communications and
Voting System, in which citizens listen to televised debates, then vote
through computer hookups.  The object is the eventual abolition of Congress so
the people can make Government policy.
    [Deleted: Borden comments that Perot's electronic town hall sounds like
Superstoe, but Perot aides states that, to their knowledge, Perot has not
read -Superstoe_.]
    "Paxton S. Superstoe is not everyone's notion of a hero.  His philosopher
kings tread Plato's well-worn path to dicatatorship.  If less than 40 percent
of those registered vote, his advisers decide the issue; he counts on voter
lethargy.
   "Last week, Mr. Perot proposed an electronic vote that inevitably turned out
his way; he said his 800 number for people calling to say whether he should
run would only tally 'yes' votes.
   [Deleted: SF writers as prescient ]
   "'Modern fiction is generally more Joyce than Dickens -- it concerns
various forms of excessive individualism, and accepts society as a given,'
said Jim Chapin, a writer, political consultant, and science-fiction fan.  'it
is left to science-fiction writers, who are a little out of tune with their
own society and habitually deal with alternate realities, future histories and
fantasy worlds to ask, 'How should we be organized?' and 'What would happen
if...?'"
 
    Personal observations:  As far as Chapin's idea of literature goes, I more
or less agree with it.  Issac Asimov, and Orson Scott Card (I think, it may
have been Algis Budrys) also state essentially the same thing in some of their
editorials and book reviews, and Card further states that it is perhaps the
main reason why the mainstream critics hate science fiction.
   As far as politics itself is concerned, since I'm not an American, I will
not comment too much about it, except it's amazing how many bright kids,
even here, are ignorant of the economic issues.  (I am a teaching assistant
in introductory economics.)  Most of the students tend to be uninterested,
and even those who do have a stand on the issues tend to rely more on
cliches and emotional outbursts rather than a reasoned argument.
Also, the part about voter lethargy rings frighteningly true.
   On Borden's book:  Elitists as being a group of schoolteachers from
North Dakota?  Come On!  (Though the obvious question to ask would be
is Superstoe still in print?  Where is it available?)
   Finally (and most importantly), about _Bug Jack Barron_, one of my
favorite books;  It's back in print (YEAH!!!).  (I wish they would bring
some Spinrad short story collections back in print.)  However, Barron
reminds me more of Geraldo Rivera more than Larry King or Ted Koppel.
               [Possible spoilers for Bug Jack Barron]
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(Also, the idea of sacrificing children to keep old people alive has an
eerie ring.  I first read the book only a few weeks before the news of
using brain tissues of aborted infants to treat Parkinson's disease became
public.)
 
        Does anyone know about the plans to turn -Barron_ into a movie?
 
                                      Junsok Yang (YANJUNA @YALEVM)
 
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