Socialist Sci-Fi books

[Jem'hadar]

I'm not a socialist, but some of you might find interesting this link to 50 sci-fi books for socialist reading:

http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/50socialist/full

Not that I necessarily agree, but I've heard some say that they believe Star Trek presents a socialist utopian future.

[First of Two]

Anyone else unsurprised that Orwell's been left off that list?

[black campbellq]

I've read quite a few of these. Sci-fi often has a utopian bent to it (minus the cyberpunk stuff of the '80s, which stil had an anti-capitalist message.) I'd love to see someone come out on the other side of political fence on issues in sci-fi (other than a lot of Heinlein, there is the one libertarian guy -- can't recall his name.)

[Dan Stack]

Hmmm... Surprised no Lathe of Heaven (also by Le Guin).

[TFVanguard]

We're back to that trend again? Comes and goes as the 'social elitists' tend to lose touch yet again with the 'working class' they swear to protect.

TNG Trek did this as well at times, with the biggest enemies (initially) to the Federation were Religion of any form (WHAT Prime Directive?!), or the evil Capitalists Ferengi. This was, of course, Gene's doing, and he had slipped pretty far into the 'social elite' mindset himself by that point.

I had read a good article a long time ago about the 'intellectual elite' and communism/socialism. It made the point that , as defined, communist society is an intellectual ideal, but a practical impossibility due to human nature. So, the 'intellectual elite' then look to communism as an idea to be attained after basic human nature is properly redressed - a theme you see in Star Trek: Next Generation.