"Mack Reynolds - Equality in the Year 2000" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

Scanned by Highroller.
Proofed by an unsung hero.
Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.



Equality in the Year
2000
Mack Reynolds

To Arthur C. Clarke
With whom I couldn't agree more when he wrote in his excellent
PROFILES OF THE FUTURE: It is impossible to predict the future, and
all attempts to do so in any detail appear ludicrous within a very few
yearsтАж If this book seems completely reasonable and all my
extrapolations convincing, I will not have succeeded in looking very far
ahead; for the one fact about the future of which we can be certain is
that it will be utterly fantastic.

INTRODUCTION
Almost a century ago, an obscure, unsuccessful writer named Edward
Bellamy wrote a novel. Looking Backward, the success of which was as
much a surprise to him as it was to the rest of the world. Indeed, it shortly
became the most influential Utopian book ever written. Sales were in the
millions; it was translated into twenty languages: countless editions were
issued and it has never gone out of print. It deeply influenced such men as
John Dewey. William Allen White, Norman Thomas, Thorstein Veb-len.
Franklin D. Roosevelt reported that in his youth, it was his "Bible." Not
too long ago, when a committee of three literary personalitiesтАФJohn
Dewey, Charles Beard, and Edward WeeksтАФwas named to designate the
twenty-five most influential books published since 1885, Bellamy's novel
was voted unanimously as second only to Marx' Das Kapital.
But a century is a longtime, and although Looking Backward is still
highly readable, even inspiring to those who envision a better world, it is
very dated. Much of what Bellamy foresaw in portraying his future society
has already been accomplished: much can never be.
So it was that I had decided to use the fundamental plot, the basic
characters, and aim for the same goal as did BellamyтАФa portrayal of the
world in 2000 A.D. as it might be if man comes to his senses. The novel,
dedicated to Edward Bellamy, was entitled Looking Backward: From the
Year 2000.
As mentioned, Bellamy was amazed at the reception of his Utopian
story. All over the country, "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up, particularly in the
colleges. Thousands of letters poured in, praising, criticizing, questioning,
sometimes reviling various aspects. In defense, he wrote a sequel,
expanding his ideas, going into more detail. It was entitled Equality, was
unsuccessful, and soon disappeared from the scene.
The present writer finds himself in the same predicament. Letters
began pouring inтАФnot all of them flattering. In defense, I have written my
own sequel. Equality: In the Year 2000.