...
What does that mean for fiction? Especially science fiction? Well, let's just say some rubber-monster-punching embodiments of 1960's liberalism will be a little more smug about intervening on savage planets to stop barbarism.
Talking about SF - wasn't Heinlein a Rand fanboy ?
Pournelle and Niven were already around, but at least the former was still a liberal back then ...
Damn, Weber and Ringo will have a field day to present the Rand and Co. expy as the good guys, instead Williamson and Kratman (space marine) will adore put the objectivist ubershmen against the depravated, coward, inept, evil, tyrannical force of the space U.N.
Jean-Phillipe spoke the best out of any of his friends, so he asked what the white man wanted. He said his name was Alan and that he was from America. Jean-Phillipe thought he must have forgotten his french when he heard what came next, it just didn't make sense.
It will be the paradise lost for wing nuts
I just hope there won't be the unfortunate associations of Libertarianism with Objectivism in TTL- it'd be nice to not be associated with crushing corporatism.
Yeah their lost cause...image their AH.com full of TL where the Katanga survives and thrive (and naturally become a superpowers).
In a more serious way, depending of how things develp in Africa, the works of Ayn Rand can be seen akin to the Turner Diaries in TTL
Hey, Kurtz went into the jungle with good intentions, too, right?
Bob Denard as the Straight Man in Katanga? Nice.
BTW here Hubbard played a little but pivotal role in put Ayn in a new direction, little Ron was always a megalomaniac glory-seeker, so i see him milk all the publicity telling to everyone that was him to really inspire the endevour...and when the shit hit the fan it will be a PR nightmare for his new religion, can this put him on the black list of J. Edgar Hoover? It will be the ultimate showdown of destiniy
Talking about SF - wasn't Heinlein a Rand fanboy ?
Pournelle and Niven were already around, but at least the former was still a liberal back then ...
Heinlein was a very small 'L' libertarian. I read an interview he had with a Yoing Turk libertarian and he got extremely terse during the course of the interview with the youngsters rigid ideology. I don't imagine him getting along with Objectivists.
Though in his younger days maybe. He seemed to buy into those sorts of fads. He was a social credit guy funnily enough once upon a time.
And then there are those who argue that Heinlein was a fascist...
And a racist, and a sexist. And don't forget he worked on Upton Sinclair's campaign for governor...
And then there are those who argue that Heinlein was a fascist...
I've always thought he just liked playing with ideas. Starship Troopers can be read as praise for fascism and a militarized society, but that doesn't exactly square with the free-love communal lifestyle enshrined in Stranger in a Strange Land.
I don't think he'd be a Rand fan, either way.
Heinlein (and Asimov) bothy knew LRH and moved in the same circles. Quite a few period SF authors were heavily involved in Dianetics - john Campbell promoted it strongly, and Theodore Sturgeon and A. E. van Vogt were auditors!
The whole thing would definitely have a deep impact on SF. I just can so imagine fanboys pilgrimage to Katanga. The genre would need a long time to recover, if ever.
Well depends, luckily we're in the early 60's so travel in Africa is not very simple so the stream of fanboys and teens will be non existant and a lot of authors even if know Hubbard they don't consider him that much (and the king of con himself will try to distance himself when the Rand experiment transform itself in the new Congo Free State).
Roddemberry can use the objectivist as a template for the Klingons or the Romulans just to drop the anvil a little better and for a little butterfly in the media, well there is a famous artist who drawn a little know characters, if i recall it was a teen bite by a radioactive spider, well if Dikto let say leave Marvel to be on the little african adventure or try to put is idea in the comic and begin to fight against Lee ahead of time, we can get a lot of change in Marvel.
The whole thing would definitely have a deep impact on SF. I just can so imagine fanboys pilgrimage to Katanga. The genre would need a long time to recover, if ever.
Not sure the impact will be that severe, especially if Hubbard doesn't involve himself in the administration of Katanga (and I think Linkwerk said specifically in the other thread that he wouldn't). SF has always had its fans and followers, and the association of one or two writers with a nasty regime won't destroy it as a brand. Many of the genre's best minds - like Asimov - would never dream of involving themselves with Rand's project, and would almost certainly condemn it
On the plus side, if L. Ron does try to move over there, that will definitely butterfly Scientology out of the picture. He could never get away with it in an Objectivist state.