Octavia Butler’s America

One of the most terrifying aspects of existence is the inherent uncertainty of the future. We never truly know what’s going to happen until it does. Of course, this doesn’t stop humanity from making endless predictions about the future, most of which will turn out to be very wrong. There is an important distinction between two different types of predictions, however: those trying to be accurate and those trying to make a general statement about life. The latter category is the genre of speculative fiction, specifically science fiction and dystopia. No, robots have not yet taken over the world and killed all the humans. No, we have not colonized space. And no, we do not drive flying cars. But thinking about these scenarios gives us insight into the world that we do end up living in. History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme, and good authors are able to find and communicate these ever-present themes of humanity.Although we don’t have firemen who burn books (thank goodness), Fahrenheit 451’s “parlor walls”—screens that churn out endless amounts of mindless entertainment that many people are addicted to—are scarily reminiscent of social media today, especially short-form video content. These pieces of media should serve as warnings, and it’s necessary that we learn and understand them so that we can prevent the scenarios they depict from ever coming to pass. One sci-fi series that is both incredibly relevant and prescient today is Octavia Butler’s Earthseed duology, especially the first book. Titled Parable of the Sower, it was published in 1993 and is set between 2024 and 2027. In the book, Butler portrays both the destruction and rebuilding of a specific community; but notably, the America her story is set in is in the process of breaking down. In media, we often see either functioning civilizations or post-apocalyptic wastelands, with no in between. In fact, this gap dates back to Enlightenment philosophy. Thomas Hobbes defines a “state of nature” as a society without laws or a political structure; later, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau use this definition to theorize about the responsibilities and structure of a government. However, none of them consider the in-between step that Butler addresses: how do you get from a state of nature to a society? Parable of the Sower seeks to address this question. The America that Sower is set in is falling apart: climate change has led to environmental disasters, the government’s ineffectiveness has led to a lack of trust in authority, and behavior has become increasingly driven by a desire for profit and power. The protagonist, a teenager named Lauren Oya Olamina, lives in a walled community in LA, where it is too dangerous to go outside except in large groups. In an interview in 1998, Butler described the book as “an if-this-goes-on story… a cautionary tale … And if it's true, if it's anywhere near true, we're all in trouble.” Although we haven’t devolved into the almost-total anarchy present in Sower’s world, much of the book rings eerily true. So, what solutions does Butler present?One of Lauren’s most important characteristics is her condition called “hyperempathy”; because of drugs her mother took while she was pregnant, Lauren now feels the pain of others as if it were her own. Butler emphasizes how much of a practical weakness this is for Lauren: it makes her useless in a fight and uniquely vulnerable to all the dangers of her world. But when Lauren’s community is burned to the ground, it is her empathy that allows her to bring together a new group of people as she travels north. She doesn’t trust blindly, and she will use violence when necessary, but her willingness to view other people as human beings is what ends up saving her while she’s on her journey. Traveling in a group is much safer than traveling alone; just as the Enlightenment philosophers of earlier postulated, we form societies because it makes us live longer, not just for the sake of it. In Sower, Butler argues that empathy is the necessary trait in order to create communities and keep civilizations functioning. Otherwise, our systems break down, and the world becomes an ugly place. Today, empathy has become a precious resource. Because of the internet, it’s so easy to see all the suffering in the world, and eventually, we become desensitized. Polarization and the anonymity of online discourse has created a breeding ground for endless amounts of hate. The online world has begun to seep into real life: politicians can say whatever they want and get away with it, people are being radicalized by algorithmic rabbit holes, and political violence is on the rise. Our society is still here, but it feels like it’s breaking. It’s so easy to forget that everyone else in this world is a human being. But remembering that, and holding onto empathy, is what makes life meaningful.