The Iron Heel

"Many dystopian novels are cautionary tales. I’m sure the authors have that in mind when they write – it’s a warning to their contemporaries. Jack London wrote about a world where American democracy degenerates into an oligarchic state, very similar to a fascist state. I don’t think he ever used the word fascist, but it was a fascist state. That was his warning at the time, in the early decades of the 20th century. This is a tradition that we need to remind ourselves of when we think about contemporary China. It also aroused a lot of interest in the United States after 9/11, when Bush junior’s new policies were branded as a new form of state fascism – that’s a bit of an overstretch, I know."