So I finally got around to re-reading Green Mars and Blue Mars. I read them the first time through years ago, and I had forgotten most of the story. Just like Red Mars they are both very philosophically naive. Robinson’s economic speculation is overly complicated and completely alien to human nature. I hardly know squat about economics, but I know what the Law of Supply and Demand is, and I know why it works. Robinson doesn’t seem to have even heard of it. He gets one thing right, though: He who controls the life support systems holds the power, especially in a hostile environment with a lag time of near zero between infrastructure failure and heart failure.
Here on Earth, money is the key to the life support systems, and you know who holds the power by who holds the purse strings. However, there’s enough pause between currency/trade manipulations and your paycheck to launder the effect. It’s hard to see and easy to dismiss, but if you want to know who has the power in our economy and government, just follow the money.
Technorati Tags: kim stanley robinson, politics, economics, economy, socialism
I read his book Pacific Edge from the Three Californias series. I thought it was pretty silly. Yet, somehow guys like him are the big dogs in contemporary science fiction. Go figure.