Looking Backward (1888). . . wow what a piece of political propaganda it is. Bellamy’s book has almost no literary merit, by which I mean that the plot is almost non-existent and the character development doesn’t exist at all. The people are all one-dimensional props to deliver Bellamy’s politics and economic vision. That said, there are interesting things to wrestle with in the book and it was very important when it was written in the late 19th century. Indeed, it inspired a number of utopian communities and no small number of socialist reformers, I am told.
Bellamy’s character falls asleep in the late 19th century and wakes up in the year 2000 (his mechanism may be the silliest part of the book). The world has been transformed beyond recognition in the intervening century. Wars have been abolished. Poverty has been cured. People are healthy and happy everywhere. There is no crime. There is not selfish buying and selling of goods but everyone has a debit card from the government. The ruling mantra is to “do your best” and everyone is judged on a sliding scale of ability, not on productivity, creativity, or knowledge. Schools have been nationalized and literacy is in bloom.
There is so much to wrestle with, but one must begin by asking whether or not Bellamy’s vision accords with human nature. He claims it does. His character from the future says the system is voluntary and is “the logical outcome of the operation of human nature under rational conditions.” One wonders about this. What about, for instance, “original sin”? Are men not driven by economic concerns? Is a degree of selfishness not embedded in our very bones? Are not some people naturally lazy and will refuse to work? (Yes, Bellamy himself assumes such as he has such people being put in solitary confinement and fed bread and water until they agree to work—so much for a kindler and gentler world!) His world of perfection and radical equality came about peacefully and without real disruption, violence, or pain. Could any such radical change really be accomplished so peacefully?
Bellamy gives us a vision of a gentle and prosperous world, but isn’t his vision really one of National Socialism? The army is abolished (no war) but now a new army, an industrial army, is formed. Participation in the army of industry is mandatory. The government has the right to move people about the economy as it sees fit. The government controls all rations and all goods in stores. The government controls all imports to the nation. And, when performing a service for someone else, Bellamy says, “It is always the nation which he is serving.” Of course, Bellamy writes before the raise of national socialism as a real political movement in Europe and before the deadly consequences of such a vision would came to fruition in the 20th century.
I don’t know enough of the history of how influential Bellamy was on such people as German socialists or Soviet communists, but as I am Looking Backward today, I can’t help but imagine the tremendous damage Bellamy did to the lives and imaginations of vast swaths of people in the 20th century.