The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
By novel_keeps1546
Pretty cool name, not gonna lie lol.
Reader discussion: The Marching Morons
Public reader discussion about The Marching Morons in the WeRead Catalog by C. M. Kornbluth.
What is the best short story that you've ever read and can direct me to: 1. an online copy or 2. an anthology/other readily available book that contains it?
By BisonPaper5
People keep saying this, but Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others is just really good. The ones that hit me most were “Story of Your Life,” “Division by Zero,” and “Understand.” Also, Ken Liu has a bunch of solid short stuff on Lightspeed Magazine—“The Perfect Match,” “The Paper Menagerie,” and “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” are the first ones I think of. https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/authors/ken-liu/ http://kenliu.name/binary/liu_the_man_who_ended_history.pdf I also liked the imagery a lot in Roger Zelazny’s “A Rose for Ecclesiastes.” I think it’s in The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (not 100% sure), and it looks like it’s online here: https://www.msu.edu/user/carterca/rose.htm More recently I’ve been trying to get into the “New Weird,” so I’ve been reading the anthology The New Weird. It’s not sci-fi, but I figured I’d mention it anyway. I’m not done yet, but so far “Jack” (Mieville) and “Immolation” (Jeffrey Thomas) were really good. “The Braining of Mother Lamprey” (Simon D. Ings) was interesting too—like, really alien and kind of horrifying. And outside the anthology, I remember The Transformation of Martin Lake by Jeff Vandermeer is pretty excellent. It’s in City of Saints and Madmen. And now I’m thinking of another messed up short story too: “Bridesickle” by Will McIntosh http://multiverse.lamost.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Bridesicle-Will.Mcintosh.pdf
Slumlord Fred Trump and his son, the future Apprentice host, Don, Queens, 1973
By quantumPath3
I’m just jumping in on Woody Guthrie’s thoughts about his landlord—“Old man Trump”—from that link about the real estate empire and its racist roots. Still kind of figuring out where I land on it, but it definitely got my attention.
"The Marching Morons" by C. M. Kornbluth, a dystopian novella from 1951 where everyone in the future is stupid
By chapter-lilac
This really feels like it might be happening right now 😂
Why Doesn't Evolution Get Rid of Ugly People?
By Mirror_Late
Honestly this article felt really bad. It starts off with this line about evolution predicting natural selection would weed out bad traits, or something like that… then it kinda tries to fix the “paradox” by saying mutations for the bad stuff still keep showing up anyway. But then even the scientists basically admit that in real life the undesirable traits are way more common than that explanation would predict—like the “ugly” mutations just don’t happen often enough. Also, evolution doesn’t really promise we’ll end up super tall, super attractive, growing wings, or whatever. It’s more like you adapt to your environment. If there were lions around every corner that only ate the unattractive, then yeah, being attractive would suddenly be a big advantage, and the argument might actually make sense. And evolution usually lands on “good enough” solutions until some new pressure shows up. I can’t see what pressure would force everyone to become super attractive though. Sure, most people probably want to mate with someone attractive, but attractiveness is pretty subjective, and evolution-wise it’s generally better to pass your genes to anyone than to just die without getting the chance because you didn’t score someone “super attractive.”
Suggest me a dystopian short story
By MoonQuill2006
Hey everyone—I've fallen a bit out of the habit of reading. I still love it, but I can’t really focus long enough or I just don’t have the time to get through the really big novels, so I’m hoping for shorter stuff like short stories or novellas. I’m really into dystopian ideas, especially anything involving tech or social media, or that whole “everyone’s being watched” / government control vibe (like the telescreen thing in 1984). Any recommendations? If it’s on Kindle Unlimited that’d be a huge bonus.
"Old Man Trump" is a song with lyrics written by American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie in 1954. The song describes the racist housing practices and discriminatory rental policies of his landlord, Fred Trump.
By writesharbor
That caption on the pic is hilarious—Fred Trump around 1950 with a toothbrush mustache that apparently wasn’t popular yet.
[Many Formats] The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
By writesharbor
Kind of a cool story I read years ago when I was a teenager—about how people at large basically need to be kept busy with “shiny objects” so they don’t get too dissatisfied. Feels pretty relevant right now, honestly.
The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth (1951)
By clearbridge
I think this one’s on Gutenberg—https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51233
The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth (1951), the original Idiocracy - narration
By dustyreef
I saw this in a magazine in the early ’70s and it really stuck with me.