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In Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" a physicist from a society with true equality and freedom visits a capitalist country on a planet much like ours.
He thought maybe they could establish relations, but decides he was very wrong.
When someone asks why, this is how he answers...
He thought maybe they could establish relations, but decides he was very wrong.
When someone asks why, this is how he answers...
“Because there is nothing here but States and their weapons, the rich and their lies, and the poor and their misery. There is no way to act rightly, with a clear heart ...
There is nothing you can do that profit does not enter into, and fear of loss, and a wish for power."
There is nothing you can do that profit does not enter into, and fear of loss, and a wish for power."
"You cannot say good morning without knowing which of you is 'superior' to the other, or trying to prove it.
You cannot act like a brother to other people, you must manipulate them, or command them, or obey them, or trick them."
You cannot act like a brother to other people, you must manipulate them, or command them, or obey them, or trick them."
"You cannot touch another person, yet they will not leave you alone. There is no freedom."
"It is a box, a package, with all the beautiful wrapping of blue sky and meadows and forests and great cities.
And you open the box, and what is inside it?
A black cellar full of dust, and a dead man. A man whose hand was shot off because he held it out to others."
And you open the box, and what is inside it?
A black cellar full of dust, and a dead man. A man whose hand was shot off because he held it out to others."
He ends by saying: "I have been in Hell at last."
And then reflects that his friend back home had been right, that this world of capitalism, money, private property, artificial scarcity, prisons, poverty, superpowers, walls, borders, and war is in fact Hell.
And then reflects that his friend back home had been right, that this world of capitalism, money, private property, artificial scarcity, prisons, poverty, superpowers, walls, borders, and war is in fact Hell.
Earlier in the novel he describes a deep contradiction in the capitalist state:
"Everything is beautiful, here. Only not the faces.
[Back home] nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women.
We have nothing but that, nothing but each other."
"Everything is beautiful, here. Only not the faces.
[Back home] nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women.
We have nothing but that, nothing but each other."
"Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes.
And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free — possessing nothing, they are free."
And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free — possessing nothing, they are free."
"And you the possessors are possessed.
You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison.
It is all I can see in your eyes — the wall, the wall!"
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison.
It is all I can see in your eyes — the wall, the wall!"
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
What is the physicist's world like, back home?
It's called "Anarres." His ancestors left the planet he's on now hundreds of years ago to escape oppression and build a better society.
Speaking to a huge crowd of protesters, as police approach, he describes what they built...
It's called "Anarres." His ancestors left the planet he's on now hundreds of years ago to escape oppression and build a better society.
Speaking to a huge crowd of protesters, as police approach, he describes what they built...
"It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced.
The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share."
The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share."
"In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, in hope, we know our brotherhood. We know it, because we have had to learn it. We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand."
"And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is.
You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing.
You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give."
You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing.
You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give."
"I am here because you see in me the promise, the promise that we made two hundred years ago in this city—the promise kept. We have kept it, on Anarres.
We have nothing but our freedom.
We have nothing to give you but your own freedom."
We have nothing but our freedom.
We have nothing to give you but your own freedom."
"We have no law but the single principle of mutual aid between individuals.
We have no government but the single principle of free association."
We have no government but the single principle of free association."
"We have no states, no nations, no presidents, no premiers, no chiefs, no generals, no bosses, no bankers, no landlords, no wages, no charity, no police, no soldiers, no wars.
Nor do we have much else.
We are sharers, not owners."
Nor do we have much else.
We are sharers, not owners."
"We are not prosperous.
None of us is rich.
None of us is powerful.
If it is Anarres you want, if it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands."
None of us is rich.
None of us is powerful.
If it is Anarres you want, if it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands."
"You must come to it alone, and naked, as the child comes into the world, into his future, without any past, without any property, wholly dependent on other people for his life.
You cannot take what you have not given, and you must give yourself."
You cannot take what you have not given, and you must give yourself."
"You cannot buy the Revolution.
You cannot make the Revolution.
You can only be the Revolution.
It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
You cannot make the Revolution.
You can only be the Revolution.
It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
