I’ve been circulating Amanda Ching’s short story ILU-486 like a madwoman. If you haven’t read it, you should do so (asiangrrlMN wrote about it here). After reading it, if you have any doubts that the sort of dystopic existence described in the short story is eerily possible (if not imminent), check this out:
Nicolae Ceausescu loved nothing better than a monument to himself. But his ministerial palaces and avenues paled next to another of his schemes for building socialism: a plan to increase Romania’s population from 23 million to 30 million by the year 2000. He began his campaign in 1966 with a decree that virtually made pregnancy a state policy. “The fetus is the property of the entire society,” Ceausescu proclaimed. “Anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity.” Continue reading
