My father introduced me to sci-fiction when I was about 12. By the age of 15, I’d read most of the books by Stanisław Lem (you probably know this author by the poorly executed adaptation of his Solaris, starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone; the book is brilliant, the film is a lukewarm romantic drama in space…).
Lem didn’t just write sci-fiction or futurology, his work is a mixture of philosophy with psychology, and a sprinkle of politics on top. My favourite of Lem’s work is Obłok Magellana (The Magellanic Cloud). It takes the protagonist of the story, a famous marathon runner into an equally long journey from Earth to the Alpha Centauri system. Much of the novel seems to be focused on the individual and collective examination of the human psyche in relation to space travel, space isolation, and progress of future society.
And so, when I was reading the Silo trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust) by Hugh Howey, it pulled me in with the same intensity as the depth of the Silo’s 144 levels.
Whenever I read sci-fiction, it’s not for the technological developments that the author might come up with. I’m usually drawn by the symbolism of the story. And boy, the Silo has many layers, pun intended.
For starters, with all that is going on in the world right not, it’s extremely current. It’s difficult to not see the parallels with the world of politics right now.
But I don’t believe that politics happen in a vacuum. The human nature steers the ship.
And that’s why I love the Silo trilogy so much. The symbolism of the story is like a diamond, every time you look at it from a different angle, it has as a new meaning.
Plus, the story is a perfect analogy of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. If you read my other musings, you know by now how much I love philosophy. And this is because philosophy, unlike religion, is not dogmatic, it prompts you to ask questions.
The allegory of the cave is about people living inside a cave and the only thing of the outside world that they can see is the shadows on the wall created by objects passing by the entrance to the cave. The majority of them believe that this is what the real world is about. Equally, most of these people will not dare to venture outside of the cave to see for themselves. And these people who do venture outside, when they come back to the cave to tell the people inside that there’s more to life than this, they won’t be believed. In fact, the people in the cave might try to kill anyone who attempts to drag them outside.
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but this is a great analogy of me trying to tell people that a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle is delicious. I think some people would rather kill me than give it a try…
Anyway, we have a similar situation in Silo 18. As we later discover, there are another 50 silos out there but because nobody dares to venture outside thus nobody knows about them.
The people in the silos live in the belly of the earth, scared to death to go outside. Partially because the world outside is uninhabitable (again, this is not true) but also because that’s what they’ve been told from the people in power. Again, like in the Plato allegory, the majority don’t ask questions and just bury themselves in their day-to-day tasks.
It’s easier this way. It’s easier than to dream of the world outside.
In fact, these who do ask too many questions are indeed sent outside, but equipped with malfunctioning suits that don’t allow them to go far enough beyond the dead zone. And so, they die in plain view of those who stay inside, confirming the status quo.
In the meantime, in Silo 1, which is in the main headquarters of all of them, the people who survived the end of the world, who remember the before time, are made to forget. Some refuse to take the pills but unknowingly to them, the poison is in the water they drink.
I feel this is the analogy of what social media is doing to us. Well, we take it willingly, don’t we? The brain damage that is accrued by hours spent on the internet and the confusing content of narrated (either by the powers that be or our own algorithm) information / misinformation / disinformation – do you even know the difference by that point? It all keeps us in the space of one gigantic brain fog, brain damage, brain freeze. In the Silo trilogy the author uses sleep as a similar analogy.
Sleep was a vehicle for passing the time, for avoiding the present. It was a trolley for the depressed, the impatient, and the dying.
The most striking and sobering part of the story is the fact that even the people in charge (the mayors, the judges, the sheriffs) had no idea what was going on. Yes, they all had good intentions but were powerless against the machine of the system. This very much reminds me of living under communism. With the secret police and everyone playing into the hands of Big Brother, you cannot tell who to trust or what is true. Pure chaos.
And look around you, is this not what you see? Chaos? Misinformation? People shouting over each other? People hating and fighting each other? That’s how we know the system is winning. We are not.
Now, if by this point you are about to lose all hope, don’t. I lived under communism and guess what, we fought it off. We came out of the cave. There is always hope. And this hope presents itself not just as pure bravery. Audacity on its own is overrated.
One of the reasons we managed to fight off the communist regime was education (hence intelligentsia was often the enemy of the state). Also, education was often a ticket out of the country, but that’s another story.
What I find scary these days is that people keep telling me that they don’t like to study. I cannot comprehend that.
To study is to be in a state of discovery, creation, of a state of awe and wonder.
The world is so interesting if we live in discovery mode! I really cannot fathom why would you not want to study the world, yourself and the possibility of other words or point of views out there (Hello? Are there any other Silos or we’re the only one? – the book analogy comes to mind.)
Also, the etymology of the word: ‘to study’ is studēre (Latin) which derives from the word: “to read”.
Now, if you believe what the statistics say: more than a third of UK adults have given up reading. Social media distraction and difficulty focusing are factors in this decline.
The more distracted we become, the dumber we become. Period.
So, if you find yourself constantly angry and confused and resigned at the same time, you know that the system is winning. And before we know it, or maybe we are already there, we live in the belly of the cave, the darkness of the Silo, the deep freeze of the mind… a vehicle for passing the time, for avoiding the present. A trolley for the depressed, the impatient, and the dying.
[1] More than a third of UK adults have given up reading for pleasure, study finds, Guardian 2024.
Kommentare