Zoo City

                                                                     ZOO CITY

Lauren Beukes

Books for Bigots

It is time for another effort to find a Book for Bigots.  Such efforts are always timely, especially during legislative sessions.  Here in Iowa we are making a valiant effort to reinvent biblical times in the land of corn and soybeans.  Somehow our voters support this effort continuing to elect those so inclined.

This effort is so intertwined with obvious racism, protestant radicalism, formerly known as Puritanism. and the fear of sex one wonders how we as a society are functioning in a world run by scientific and technological achievements.  I will have to say, it is remarkable that the majority of a population can simply castigate the world they live in and create a make-believe one.

The world will not be a better place in a return to medieval fictions that no longer have any credence.  Neither Aquinas, Augustine or Luther could visualize or cope with the internet and many of us can not do so now.  The former world was not better than the current one.  For those who are dissatisfied with either their own lives or the lives they see around them, returning to a dismal past will not solve their insecurities and the meaningless of their existence.

The last, a meaningful existence, has lost all credence in a capitalist society.  We rely entirely on our economic machinery continuing to work efficiently.  This economic machinery is an absolute necessity for employment, income, housing, medical assistance, safety ad infinitum.  Bringing back the ten commandments will not help.  Beliefs have never kept us safe; they are in fact proven dangerous.  We, as individuals, are totally dependent on our economic system functioning and this fact causes anxiety.  

Back to Books for Bigots.  My latest offering is ZOO CITY by Lauren Beukes.  The scene is Johannesburg, South Africa, a city divided between those who have and those who have not.  In the book, we live in that part of the city which has  not - - a really unhealthy place: a place where the people live on the remnants of what once was.

This is a place Bigots as well as us decent folk would prefer not to live or experience.  It is a society that has failed in every way. Our current flock of Bigots have it in mind that life in America is failing them and they believe bringing god back into our lives will somehow fix it.  Reading FOX CITY would benefit them in several ways.  One would be that they can visualize a world much worse than their own; a world however, that looms in front of them as a possibility - - possibly even a probability.

The efforts of our legislature here in Iowa will not fix the anxiety of the people who vote for them.  Realizing that their lives are totally dependent on others causes anxiety.  Their deities are not able to reach down and fix something that eventually will fall.  Our economic system and consequentially, our lives, will not continue unabated simply because  biblical precepts are once again taught in our schools and the pledge of allegiance is again required to start the day.   Make-believe is not the answer: make-believe always seems better until it is not.

In a society where all are dependent on others for their existence, exchanging that dependence from those others to some fictional being will not be of much help.  The notion that our life here on earth is only a stopping point in an eternal existence may give some relief to those of more than ordinary anxiety, but what it does, since it is simply a matter of make-believe, is to require an effort to enforce such belief on others.  One cannot have doubters in a world operated by belief.  

As Bertrand Russell intimated, people don't kill other people over whether two plus two is four, people kill each other over the belief in different gods or whatnot.  Belief has been and will continue to be the thing that causes the most grief to the human race.  Unfortunately believing is really simple: anyone can do it. It is exceedingly easy to adopt a belief;  but to change a belief or to denounce a belief is another matter.  Beliefs get stuck in place which is causing the current legislative efforts here in the land of corn and soybeans.  

I realize this is a long way from a discussion of ZOO CITY, but what is the purpose of reading a book unless it is to make you think, not only about the book, but the world around you.  This, Z00 CITY accomplishes.  ZOO CITY portrays an existence we all want to avoid.  Unfortunately, current efforts here in Iowa will not succeed in doing this.  Our legislature may think they can stall off the future with legislation, but this has never been successful and it will not be successful now.  It would really be good if our legislators could recognize this.  Bigots should read this book.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo