
It wasn't the communists who got us after all... You can read about its beginnings in Heinlein's immortal STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: At the height of America's secular decadence came Nehemiah Scudder, bearing the rod and the wrath of the Lord for those who opposed him, and the promise of earthly happiness and heavenly bliss for those who followed him...and America fell under an absolute religious dictatorship that was to last a hundred years. But nothing endures forever. The smoldering embers of liberty have burst into flame again. It is time for a new beginning. Contents: • The Innocent Eye: An Introduction by Henry Kuttner • If This Goes On - originally published in Astounding Science Fiction February 1940 • Coventry - originally published in Astounding Science Fiction July 1940 • Misfit - originally published in Astounding Science Fiction November 1939 • Concerning Stories Never Written: Postscript by Robert A. Heinlein
Is that intended as a recommendation of a scientific source about long-term trends cross-culturally? I got a big volume of the collected "future history" stories by Robert Heinlein out of the library a year ago, and I was disappointed by how poorly those stories have aged. I also figured out, by rereading Heinlein (a favorite author of mine when I was a kid) that he never informed any of his stories with much perspective from non-Western cultures (although I give him credit for being aware of that kind of issue). Since I spent three years in the 1980s and later another three years spanning the turn of the last century living in a non-Western country, I don't turn to Western science-fiction stories anymore for my social commentary. I like to read real science based on verifiable history to puzzle out social trends. I can recommend a source
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312...
and invite other readers here to recommend other sources. I'm not worried about fundamentalist religion "getting control" of science.
