The Sheep Look Up

John Brunner

Written at the height of the first wave of environmental panic in the early 70s, this book seems frighteningly accurate today. While Brunner guessed wrong on a number of counts - there are still a few whales left alive- there were trends which he read astutely and forecast correctly. In particular he forecast increasing solipsism and isolationism in American politics and cultural life; he predicted a decline in the quality of political life, to the point where the American presidency would be occupied by a semi-literate figurehead whose job is to recite comforting and irrelevant platitudes into a microphone on his way from one glamorous gig to the next. His "Prexy" character seemed like a good fit for Reagan a while back, but the current Bush (the 2nd of that name) is an even closer match.

Brunner forecast the dumbing down of media and the intrusion of advertising into the most intimate spaces of daily life. He forecast the sidelining of "healthy lifestyle" products and choices into a yuppie trend (organic food becoming a boutique item) and the demonisation of environmentalists as "terrorists" and criminals. He forecast a degradation of community life, the rise of private security forces, and an increasing gap between (very) rich and (powerless) poor people.

The concerns, the anger and grief and bitterness that Brunner articulated so fluently in the 1970's are far from dated. If anything, his work seems fresher and more poignant now after 30 additional years of the indiscriminate damage and vandalism we call "growth". Many of the core issues of this book are more significant today than they were then - overconsumption, overpopulation, concentration of power in the hands of large corporations, irresponsible use of finite resources etc. His work serves as a depressing reminder that even though we have known the consequences for over thirty years we are s till shambling towards dystopia.