Last week or so, I finished reading After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Datlow is an award-winning editor. I heard about her last year when I participated in the Books of Horror Christmas exchange. (Books of Horror is one of the reader-oriented Facebook groups I follow.) So when I was looking for new-to-me Horror recently, I decided to give one of her anthologies a go.

I'll have more on my impressions of the anthology in my monthly books-I've-read post. This post is about one of the stories, "The Other Elder" by Beth Rivas, bestselling author of Across the Universe, also set in the same universe as "The Other Elder."

It's been a while since I read Across the Universe, so I can't speak to it. Everything in today's post is specifically taken from the short story.

"The Other Elder" makes a strong start. It's set on a generation starship called Godspeed and is narrated by a young boy called Elder. Elder was born to be the leader of the generation following him. Two other Elders are also on board. One, who is a generation or two above the narrator, is in line to be the next Eldest, the current leader.

There are three rules on the Godspeed, and the first is "no differences allowed." Eldest takes this quite seriously, as Elder learns through videos of a disturbing incident, termed a "plague," that took place shipboard at an unknown time in the past. That plague was, in reality, a war for control of the Godspeed, and the result was that the Feeders, the main bulk of the ship's population, were genetically and otherwise engineered to be virtually emotionless slaves to the system. Only the Shippers (the scientists) and the Elders are allowed to have any sort of autonomous behavior, and they represent a small fraction of the population.

Which brings me to the second rule: "The ship must have one strong, central leader to survive."

This rule was developed precisely because of the war fought aboard the Godspeed, which is when the totalitarian Elder system was initiated by the winner of that war.

And that brings me to the titular question regarding authoritarianism and social unrest. In Rivas's Godspeed universe, the only answer, the best answer, its occupants could find for perpetuating social harmony was an authoritarian society in which human passion was bred out of the general population. The main failure of the story was in Elder's ultimate acceptance of this "truth," rather than fighting the system and creating a better society for all.

But is Rivas's premise a truth?

History paints a different picture. In any authoritarian society, social unrest increases, primarily due to the lack of control and autonomy felt by the individuals comprising society. People tend to regard "society" as one discrete, heterogeneous unit, when in fact "society" is an abstract concept used to designate a particular group of individuals whose traits, interests, and beliefs could be very different when viewed on a granular (i.e. individual) level.

The unrest can manifest in a number of ways and not solely through overt means, such as riots or civil disobedience. For example, the black market thrived in the Soviet Union. It had to. The communist system failed to deliver the goods needed for basic survival, like adequate food and paper products; both were often luxuries. Venezuela is following down the same path. North Korea suffered a famine so severe in the '90s that it was forced, twenty years later, to lower the height requirements for military conscripts. How citizens there cope is unknown due to the complete and ruthless control of the populace by the ruling party and its henchmen.

Oh, and by the way. Even individuals living in "free" societies like the US practice civil disobedience in the face of unjust or overly restrictive laws. Note the number of people who break posted speed limits; smoke marijuana regardless of local, state, and federal laws prohibiting it; possess unregistered firearms and/or refuse to participate in government-sponsored and -mandated buy-back programs; or participate in consensual sex of kinds that are still illegal in certain areas.

The truth I wish folks on the left and the right of the political spectrum would realize is that people are going to find a way to do what they want, and as long as what they want to do harms no one but themselves, others have no business interfering. The imposition of "morality" through legislation ultimately leads to an authoritarian government and the loss of any legal freedom for the individual.

Which is, in itself, immoral. The best way to produce a harmonious society is not through "one strong, central leader." It is through market and authority decentralization and the limiting of laws to those addressing harming others or others' property. By encouraging individuals to live freely and responsibly, respecting the rights of other individuals to do the same, we can create a truly moral and free society in which every individual can thrive without having his or her will removed in the name of eliminating social unrest.

Rule three in Rivas's Godspeed universe? "No individual thought." It will be interesting to see how she digs herself out of the authoritarian hole she created for that story world with those three rules.