Equality

Equality

By

3.5
(2 Reviews)
Equality by Edward Bellamy

Published:

1897

Pages:

0

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1,469

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Equality

By

3.5
(2 Reviews)
A sequel to Looking Backward.

Book Excerpt

bare fact that the revolutionary movement began, as I said, very soon after you fell asleep. Father must tell you the rest. I might as well admit while I am about it, for you would soon find it out, that I know almost nothing either as to the Revolution or nineteenth-century matters generally. You have no idea how hard I have been trying to post myself on the subject so as to be able to talk intelligently with you, but I fear it is of no use. I could not understand it in school and can not seem to understand it any better now. More than ever this morning I am sure that I never shall. Since you have been telling me how the old world appeared to you in that dream, your talk has brought those days so terribly near that I can almost see them, and yet I can not say that they seem a bit more intelligible than before."

"Things were bad enough and black enough certainly," I said; "but I don't see what there was particularly unintelligible about them. What is the difficulty?"

"The main difficulty comes from the

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Tinny Ray's review contains some errors in my opinion. Bellamy did NOT "show disdain for individuality" nor did he "wish to make everyone the same"
In this treatise he actually states that the Revolution would ALLOW FOR more diversity (clothing could be of ANY style, not just what was "fashionable" or available in shops, for instance.) I don't think the reviewer actually read the treatise.
Realize this was the 3rd most popular novel in the 19th century in America. As such it has its merits.
It points out the incredible wrongs in the society of the day, and offers a manner in which to fix them! It would still be valid today, where the rich control the world, and the poor have nothing.
It does NOT support communism as some think. A true socialism does not have totalitarian aspects. A true democracy IS true socialism, and people today have forgotten why America was supposedly founded. THE PEOPLE, not the rich, not "the government" and not corporations, need to run the country.
That said, if this is not your type of reading you'll be quickly bored, so I'm not giving it a 5 star rating either.
Edward's book Equality (1897) shows his disdain for individuality and differences and his desire to make everyone the same. The book did not equal its prequel in success. It continues Julian West's life in the future.

Edward Bellamy is also famous for his utopian novel set in the year 2000, Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887, published in 1888. It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement. It was the third largest bestseller of its time. It appears by title in many of the major Marxist writings of the day. "Nationalist Clubs" sprang up in the USA and worldwide for touting the book's ideas. It was translated into every major language including German, Russian and Chinese. It even influenced socialists in the countries of the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 65 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSGWP).

Edward influenced his cousin Francis Bellamy, famous for the Pledge of Allegiance, created for promoting their dogma in government schools. The Bellamys admired the military and they wanted the entire economy to ape the military. They called their dogma "military socialism" and "Christian Socialism" and they wanted government to take over all schools and create the "industrial army" from children to spread the Bellamy vision. Francis' early pledge was the origin of the straight-arm salute of the NSGWP, as discovered by the historian Dr. Rex Curry, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." Shocking photos are on the web. People were persecuted for refusing to pledge or to perform the straight-arm salute to the national flag.