What Digby Said

I'm borrowing a title from Atrios. My version has a few additions, though.

I just finished Octavia E. Butler's Lilith's Brood (also published as Xenogenesis), which actually turned out to be a subtle and damning examination of do-gooders, those who are out to save us from ourselves. I'm not sure that was intentional, but the aliens who rescue humanity operate on the same basis as the people in this post from Digby. They are going to fix things in the way they "know" is best, because they "know" we're not capable of doing it ourselves. That includes making our decisions for us, because we're not capable of doing it right.

Digby's post focuses on anti-evolutionists and forced birth advocates, who are largely on the right side of the aisle (not entirely, especially the latter). Don't think that syndrome is exclusive to the right, however. I'm reminded first of the politically correct assholes who want to scrub the n-word out of Huck Finn lest someone be offended by reading what is perhaps the greatest work of American literature. They're the same people who have children arrested for being jerks, which kids are on the average of about once an hour.

And they all lie about it. The worst are the Christanist-jihad organizations like American Family Association and Traditional Values Coalition, who don't consider factual accuracy as a legitimate tool of public discourse, but PETA has had its moments. (It is remarkable, though, that the right seems to have the least problem with making shit up.)

PS -- I didn't like the book. Butler is (was -- she died last year) a highly regarded writer, mostly of science fiction, and I suspect, after reading this trilogy and her duet, the Parables books, that is largely due to feminist/post-colonialist critical theory. I could be wrong, but quite frankly, her work seems to creak along under the weight of its own seriousness, and I have never encountered a writer as humorless, ever. Even Hemingway could be light from time to time. I mean, one of the things about entertainment is that it should be . . . well, entertaining. (The review will be up at GMR on May 6.)