{"id":4037,"date":"2022-03-31T20:53:53","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T01:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=4037"},"modified":"2024-06-07T15:48:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T20:48:41","slug":"review-lionel-shrivers-alternate-reality-novel-should-we-stay-or-should-we-go-highlights-how-government-paternalism-nhs-bureaucracy-runaway-inflation-and-other-statist-disasters-make-end-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/review-lionel-shrivers-alternate-reality-novel-should-we-stay-or-should-we-go-highlights-how-government-paternalism-nhs-bureaucracy-runaway-inflation-and-other-statist-disasters-make-end-o\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lionel Shriver\u2019s alternate-reality novel Should We Stay or Should We Go highlights how government paternalism, NHS bureaucracy, runaway inflation and other statist disasters make end-of-life decisions worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a review of Lionel Shriver’s Should We Stay Or Should We Go<\/em>, which became a Prometheus Best Novel finalist:<\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Life, aging and death are difficult enough for most people to deal with, even when we strive to think and plan ahead and make the best choices we can about our senior years – including the possibilities of assisted living and even euthanasia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploring those increasingly vital and common 21st<\/sup>-century issues in her kaleidoscopic 2021 novel Should We Stay or Should We Go,\u00a0<\/em>shrewd contrarian British novelist Lionel Shriver underscores how much worse the outcomes can be when oppressive laws, obtrusive welfare-state bureaucracy, socialized health care, forced medication, involuntary hospitalization, virtual imprisonment, anti-suicide laws, other bad government policies, abuses of power and even today\u2019s dangerous trends of exploding federal debt and rising monetary inflation can damage lives further while undermining our ability to make our own decisions about end-of-life matters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cleverly structuring her timely novel using the science-fiction trope of alternate realities and different time lines, Shriver imagines 12 parallel universes, all starting in the 2020 present of COVID-19 and Brexit and extending into future years or decades in the United Kingdom and all revolving around an aging married couple of medical professionals messily facing these issues and much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kay and Cyril Wilkinson are a long-married, pretty-normal, relatively happy and typically flawed British London couple, well-educated, cultured and prosperous enough, who make a pact in their early 60s to commit suicide together at 80. They want to avoid the indignities of later life, when they\u2019ve lost most of the ability to enjoy the amenities of living and might be too far gone into senility or dementia to retain control of their lives and deaths.<\/p>\n

In scenario after alternate scenario, Shriver shows that all too often, despite our best efforts, people can\u2019t fully predict or control their own futures. Yet, Shriver also ultimately makes a nuanced case for giving people as much control as possible over their decisions, since even the best-intentioned bureaucratic and regulatory systems of government predictably and largely make things worse by undermining liberty.<\/p>\n

Some of Shriver\u2019s parallel universes evoke dystopian and authoritarian futures evoking the horrors of libertarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz\u2019s cautionary warnings about the Therapeutic State or the monstrosities of cruel and petty hospital tyrants dramatized in Ken Kesey\u2019s classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest.<\/em><\/p>\n

Others are more optimistic about the possibilities of long life, workable cryogenics and a drug that unexpectedly cures aging. Yet, even these standard sf scenarios involve trade-offs and have multiple and unpredictable consequences, some not so good.<\/p>\n

Shriver dramatizes even such seemingly utopian visions with her distinctive brand of droll realism, undergirded by her sober recognition of mortality, the messiness of life, the inevitability of accidents, life\u2019s undeniable trade-offs, and how impossible it is for anyone to truly control their future.<\/p>\n

Although written with the tone and tropes of a mainstream contemporary novel of conventional middle-class aspirations and domesticity, especially as Shriver sets up her story and establishes her structural ground rules in the shorter opening chapters, the alternate-reality, multiverse-style plot fully places this story within the realm of science fiction, albeit with a firmer grasp of everyday reality and current politics than many sf works tend to contain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Each scenario is brought to brief but vivid and compelling life in the brisk and varied novel \u2013 a quick read at only 266 pages, divided into 13 chapters or pretty much one future timeline per chapter. Some chapters are grim, some more satirical or ironic, some hopeful but all are sharply sketched with sobering realism and tragicomic undercurrents.<\/p>\n

Her central characters are comfortable and educated Londoners \u00a0whose attitudes and assumptions as medical professionals fully reflect today’s mainstream elite class of progressive academics and professionals. The Wilkinsons take the modern welfare state, with its paternalistic and controlling philosophy and corresponding bureaucracy, for granted as a normative ideal. In England, where the UK’s National Health Service seems as entrenched as Westminster Cathedral, Cyril seems almost reverent toward the institution, which which he’s worked virtually throughout his nearly-ending career.<\/p>\n

That framework makes it all the more eye-opening, compelling and persuasive \u2013 perhaps even or especially to readers who share those beliefs – when Kay and Cyril discover to their surprise and dawning horror, in timeline after timeline, that the consequences of such welfare-state bureaucracy and the logic of the evolution of power can be, tragically or tragicomically, so brutal, sad and even deadly.<\/p>\n

Like some modern progressives who naively assume that their politics retains some basic elements of classic or true liberalism, when in fact there are very real tensions between today’s ascendant progressivism and declining liberalism (of any variety), Kay and Cyril are flawed and very real human beings who don\u2019t see their own contradictions or foresee the consequences until often too late.<\/p>\n

In a natural and organic way, Shriver explicitly introduces the fundamental principle of self-ownership at the foundation of libertarianism and classic liberalism \u2013 and poignantly and ironically puts those words into the mouth of Cyril, who paradoxically more than Kay is a slave to the assumptions and apparent good intentions of the NHS.<\/p>\n

Here is the telling argument (on page 144) among aging Cyril and Hayley, his controlling adult daughter, and his son Simon:
\n\u201cDad,\u201d Hayley said. \u201cPlease. You\u2019re eighty-one…. Wanting to put yourself in the way of a killer virus is just one more sign that you need protection from your own destructive impulses.\u201d
\n\u201cBut never mind that our money belongs to us,\u201d Cyril said, returning to first principles.
\n\u201cOur lives belong to us, whether or not we\u2019re your mum and dad, and it\u2019s up to us how we choose to end them. We may decide, in our wisdom, to stick around until a hundred and ten. Equally, we\u2019d be within our rights to jump off Blackfriars Bridge tomorrow.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s not how the law sees it,\u201d Simon (their son) said, pained.
\n\u201c\u201dAnd that\u2019s not how we see it,\u201d Hayley said triumphantly.<\/p>\n

Of course, libertarians are particularly sensitive to respecting every person\u2019s basic dignity and moral autonomy by ardently standing up for their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So it\u2019s fascinating to see how Shriver – a 2017 Prometheus Best Novel finalist for The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047,<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>her plausible dystopian-future saga of a beleaguered family migrating to escape the harmful consequences of an oppressive, collapsing welfare-state future \u2013 applies her blend of observant insight, mordant sense of humor, deep understanding of humanity and the economy, and appreciation for classical-liberal principles to these alternating futures.<\/p>\n

The scenario that disturbed me the most, midway through the novel, is explored in two alternate variations that I found chilling and almost Orwellian, a la Orwell\u2019s Prometheus-winning Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>but also seem all too reminiscent of the corrupt and failing British welfare state depicted by that other prescient British novelist Anthony Burgess in his Prometheus-winning dystopia A Clockwork Orange.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a><\/em>These paired scenarios reminded me of the profound warnings of Szasz, the great libertarian critic of the abuses of power inherent in government laws imposing involuntary confinement, involuntary drug\/electroshock treatment and other regulations of the emerging Therapeutic State – also a central reality of Ira Levin’s dystopian\u00a0This Perfect Day,<\/em><\/a> another Prometheus Hall of Fame inductee.<\/p>\n

Shriver writes her story in apparent full awareness of that context and those literary antecedents, and especially how they relate to worrisome trends within the UK\u2019s socialized National Health Service.<\/p>\n

Once you become a victim of such insistent \u201cgood intentions,\u201d it\u2019s hard to escape.<\/p>\n

Shriver\u2019s novel is especially horrific and poignant in its portrait of the aging couple, forced by the British State and its anti-suicide laws into a senior-citizen facility where they are deprived of just about every comfort and choice available in life \u2013 with their personal property, clothing, books, Ipads, and smart phones and access to television channels taken from them, making their situation precarious and untenable.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt from pages 146-147:
\n(The old-age home orderly dumps their suitcases out and searches them roughly)
\n\u201cWhat is this, airport security?\u201d Cyril asked incredulously.
\n\u201cMedication,\u201d Lance announced, holding up (a laxative) bottle.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s only over-the-counter sienna,\u201d Cyril objected. \u201cSurely I can be trusted to manage my own bowels.\u201d
\n\u201cWe control all your medication,\u201d Dr. Mimi (the facility\u2019s Nurse-Ratched-like overseer) said.
\n\u201cIf you overdosed on that, think what a mess you\u2019d make for our staff. Speaking of which, Cyrus (Note: Mimi gets his name wrong, again, adding insult to injury) —
\n\u201cI think I\u2019d prefer \u2018Dr. Wilkinson,\u2019 if you don\u2019t mind.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy, funnily enough, I do <\/em>mind,\u201d Dr. Mimi said, clapping her hands in delight. \u201cAll our stakeholders are on a first-name basis, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll be with us long enough to get used to the friendly atmosphere! But like I was saying, treasure: when was your last poo?\u201d
\n\u201cI can\u2019t see why that\u2019s any of your concern,\u201d Cyril said coldly.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll put you down for an enema then,\u201d Dr. Mimi said sweetly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>You can sense from Shriver\u2019s wording that Dr. Mimi – clearly evoking Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, <\/em>with a gleeful if poisonous spoonful of Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter books \u00a0– takes fiendish and malicious pleasure in being in control, and that she\u2019s not just a petty tyrant, but monstrous. And when Cyril notices them confiscating all his books and magazines, here\u2019s what happens once he\u2019s put into his separate room in the rigidly controlled facility:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to request the return of my reading material, please,\u201d Cyril said, and this sadistically jolly glorified lollipop lady couldn\u2019t have appreciated the degree of self-control required to remain civil.
\n\u201cWe find militant political magazines and big, boring books about how terrible the world is, well,\u201d Dr. Mimi said. \u201cThey\u2019re a wee bit dark for a self-harmer. The material might also get into the hands of other stakeholders, who could find it upsetting.\u201d
\n\u201cSo what are we supposed to read?\u201d Kay asked with alarm, doubtless anxious about her copy of Margaret Atwood\u2019s The Testaments,\u00a0<\/em>which was definitely \u201cdark.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ll find our community activities so exciting, princess, that you\u2019ll be too knackered to read any old books.\u201d (Dr. Mimi said.)<\/p>\n

It gets worse from there, including compulsory attendance at meals, with anyone resisting told that \u201cwe reserve the right to force-feed. The council has placed your well-being in our hands, and we take our duty of care ever so seriously.\u201d\u00a0(Note: The \u201ccouncil\u201d is an agency of the UK government, so this is virtually imprisonment \u2013 except that today\u2019s actual criminals are treated vastly better in modern prisons.)<\/p>\n

The Wilkinson\u2019s plight, the abusive consequence of a paternalistic and increasingly authoritarian government-regulated system, becomes absolutely inhuman when Kay and Cyril, who still love each other, are ruthlessly separated once inside the senior facility. They are forced to live in separate rooms \u2013 no shared bed or sex allowed, which was the one thing that the husband most loved about his marriage, especially touching and hugging and just sleeping next to his wife, a point Shriver emphasizes early on more than once.<\/p>\n

Other later scenarios also prove intriguing, and go farther into various science-fiction scenarios, some unexpected, with amusing or chilling twists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author Lionel Shriver (Creative Commons License)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overall, Shriver\u2019s novel is not only gripping in its clever structure and smart variations but also illuminating, especially to the growing millions of us who are aging and facing similar issues, from decline to loss of mobility.<\/p>\n

Given how important such issues are and will be even more tomorrow, as the average age of the world population continues to rise and many more people continue to live into their 70s, 80s and 90s, Shriver\u2019s novel works as both a cautionary tale and urgent wake-up call.<\/p>\n

People may not always make the right or best decisions about their own lives, of course, but when their rights are stripped away, Shriver shows that far more often than not, the outcomes are far worse \u2013 and often inhuman.<\/p>\n

Her latest novel reminds us that nothing is more important than human liberty and human dignity, even as we near the end of life and face the prospect of losing some of our ability to fully exercise our rights as rational, self-aware individuals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For a full list of winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the\u00a0 international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a review of Lionel Shriver’s Should We Stay Or Should We Go, which became a Prometheus Best Novel finalist: By Michael Grossberg Life, aging and death are difficult enough for most people to deal with, even when we strive to think and plan ahead and make the best choices we can about our senior … Continue reading Review: Lionel Shriver\u2019s alternate-reality novel Should We Stay or Should We Go highlights how government paternalism, NHS bureaucracy, runaway inflation and other statist disasters make end-of-life decisions worse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2399,2353,8,35],"tags":[62,1377,134,1497,888,1374,1498,886,630,1372,1375,1384,1383,1376,1150,1381,420,1373,862,1379,1378,775],"class_list":["post-4037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternate-history","category-book-reviews","category-review","category-selected-book-reviews","tag-a-clockwork-orange","tag-alternate-realities","tag-anthony-burgess","tag-anti-suicide-laws","tag-dolores-umbridge","tag-euthanasia","tag-government-paternalism","tag-harry-potter","tag-liberalism","tag-lionel-shriver","tag-nhs","tag-nurse-ratched","tag-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest","tag-parallel-universes","tag-progressivism","tag-prometheus-best-novel-nominee","tag-self-ownership","tag-should-we-stay-or-should-we-go","tag-suicide","tag-the-mandibles-a-family","tag-therapeutic-state","tag-thomas-szasz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-137","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4037"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7480,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions\/7480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}