Alternative Universes: Alternative Realitiez

I don't read much fiction any more, but I watch a lot on TV, and there is wonderful stuff to watch. 

One of the powers of fiction is it's ability to allow us to imagine how things might be if only...And once you think about the possibilities, you begin to see the real world differently.

"The Man in the High Castle" has an irresistible premise: What if the Third Reich had got the A bomb first and won the Second World War, and split up the United States with the Japanese? What if Germany held the East and Japanese the West? 

What would the world be like with America ruled by fascists? 

There was a spoof/comedy once about what America would have looked like if the South had won the Civil war, with families in suburban Washington having house slaves and slaves working in the state houses of the South, at country clubs, in factories, on automobile assembly lines. 

We now have a Republican Presidential wannabe telling us 51% of American Muslims want to live under Sharia law, that 21% agree with violent action against infidel Americans and who says he would close our borders to Muslims, even tourists. 

What would that world look like? 

We have Republicans who want to see college students carrying guns around campus, to be ready for the next mass shooter. They want people sitting at sidewalk cafes carrying heat, and of, course, bartenders with the AK-15 behind the bar. We could see all these 20 somethings drinking kegs at frat parties, erupting in shoot outs at the OK corral. Great TV. 

(What I want to know is, when, among all those shootings we have read about has a citizen ever pulled his gun and stopped the shooter and saved the day?  Now, I understand what the National Rifle Association says is the reason this has not happened is we simply don't have enough guns available, but once we have a critical mass, then the shooters will finally get theirs and how. But, really, we have a gun for every man woman and child in the country. How many do we need for someone with a gun to be the first to bring down a sneak attack shooter?)

Of course, I have said frequently, "Give me a baseball bat, and the element of surprise, and I'll go up against your Glock 9 or your AK-15 any day." Which is to say, the reason the shooters are never stopped by the citizen packing heat under his coat is the shooters are smart enough to keep their weapons hidden long enough to gain an element of surprise, so they can shoot without being shot.  I can see scenes where the shooter arrives and lays waste to the well armed young-uns before they can get their guns out of their belts.


In the old Westerns it was called, "Getting the drop" on someone. You draw first. This is an advantage. 

So, in reality, things don't happen the way Republicans and their benefactors at the NRA say they ought to happen. In fiction, anything is possible, but in dystopian fiction it can happen in the worst way imaginable.

Wouldn't you love seeing a dystopian drama about America under the rule of Donald Trump and his adoring haters?  We'd have just so much winning, I know, I know. But think about it:  We'd have airplanes flying off into the skies over Syria, Iraq and who knows where,  bombing the "shit" out of someone. And we'd all be so proud.  

With Ted Cruz as the Secretary of Defense, we'd make the sands glow with all the bombing and winning. Muslims would have to be segregated out because the majority wish us harm, so that would mean internment camps, "until our representatives can figure it out," which could take, well, years.  

There would be round ups of 11 million illegal immigrants, which would make the cattle cars of the Third Reich (which handled only half that number) look like a junior varsity game.  And we'd have that famous wall along our Southern border, and once the illegals figured out that was not a good bet, they would, like water running downhill, start flowing around through the Gulf States, California and hopping transports to Canada, where the unguarded border is a lot longer.  

Oh, that's just the obvious stuff. We could imagine much more:  ISIS now able to enlist far larger numbers both in the Middle East, where they overwhelm the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, not to mention the Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.  Indonesia's millions of Muslims turn radical and turn their attention to Malaysia and Australia.  Beheadings abound, and radicalization of America's previously happily assimilated Muslims results in a resistance with a vengeance.  White Supremacist groups organize through the Dakotas, Wyoming and Idaho and take over the police forces there. The Ku Klux Klan becomes just another Patrolman's Benevolent Association and the police hold their conventions in South America, where they can learn from the masters of a police state first hand.

I don't know, but I could see at least 12 episodes, just in the first season.  HBO, get me David Simon, Aaron Sorkin and Phillip Dick on the line. 

This just can't miss.