The John W. Campbell Award controversy…waking up is hard to do

Apparently there were some politicized speeches in the writing community recently, dealing with the John W. Campbell award. This makes some people shriek: interjecting POLITICS into our precious world of fantasy? Horrors! As if the PHILOSOPHY the politics protest hadn’t always been there, integrated into the field and the culture. Politics is how you focus social emotions for change. If you want the change, you tend to favor the politics. If you enjoy the status quo, you tend to complain about being poked.

One thing that comes up is what they perceive as the demonization of these icons. “People can be both good and bad” they say, as if this is news. Well, actually it is, because “can be” implies that this is not a normal condition.

People are ALWAYS both good and bad. Never otherwise.

Now, I can’t pretend to know the specific motivations for the specific speech. I’d have to read it all, and also speak to the writer receiving the award. But I can assume that it had to do with social attitudes. The ones I know about clearly had to do with race: two writers I know personally had specific communications with Campbell which he clearly failed my test. Remember that little test? “Given the same historical circumstances, would whites have been as damaged by slavery, or taken as long to heal?”

If you can answer “yes” quickly, you believe in equality. If you aren’t sure, you aren’t sure. And if you say or think “no”… you don’t. And that…