J.G. Ballard is not subtle. All his women are DTF, and when he has a point, he is going to hammer it into the text. Maybe that’s due to the Cassandra-like clarity with which he foresaw our predilection to mindlessly follow someone wearing a red hat:
Part of the crowd had broken away from the main body, and was moving down a street of small Asian food wholesalers. The men were burly but disciplined, led by marshals in red baseball caps, shouting into their mobile phones. (Kingdom Come, Pg. 89)
A little easier to foresee, but no less prescient, is his insight that a TV star would emerge to lead us and would do so by redefining reality:
His appeal functions on a different level. … Politics for the age of cable TV. Fleeting impressions, an illusion of meaning floating over a sea of undefined emotions. We’re talking about a virtual politics unconnected to any reality, one which redefines reality as itself. The public willingly colludes in its own deception. (Pg 118)
It had to be frustrating for him, to see all this coming, to put out clear warnings that anyone with rudimentary reading skills could grasp, only to be ignored and to realize that people willfully accept the lies:
They knew they were being lied to, but if the lies were consistent enough they defined themselves as a credible alternative to the truth. Emotion ruled almost everything, and lies were driven by emotions that were familiar and supportive, while the truth came with hard edges that cut and bruised. (Pg. 228)
In more innocent times, we would have accused Ballard of unbelievable excess when his mobs overrun and occupy a mall. No way would we accept chaos and violence as a means to establish a new political order in society. In what world would these roving gangs of racists be tolerated, released from trial with nominal punishment, and then demand, without a hint of irony, an increase in their social security benefits since they had left their jobs to become full-time terrorists (pg. 215)?
In reality, Ballard fell short by not installing one of his terrorists as Prime Minister (i.e., President). But he did pen the perfect slogan for January 6: “Kill a few people and everyone thinks they’ve had a good time.” (Pg. 165)
