Conquer the Planet, A Modern-day Global Enslavement Handbook, by Sir Lawrence McAlister (Ingsoc Publishing, $24.95, 432pp, 2025)
Not having had any experience with dystopian* books, I was apprehensive about reading Conquer the Planet, so I saved it for last and actually looked up the term, dystopian. However, the title is perfect and the front cover illustration is descriptive. So, I plunged in.
Well-written and well-organized, Conquer the Planet is a thick book that you might not read in chapter order, depending on your interest. If you are as apprehensive as I was, think of Conquer as a parody, which it is. It is also a history book (with unknown/unnamed countries), explaining the steps in how a country has become authoritarian. It also serves as a warning to those who see this slowly happening in their country and wanting to halt it. Conquer has been called an allegory.
World Domination
The purpose here is to take over the world with a process that starts slowly and then gathers speed as it gathers acceptance. This is why it is so hard to overcome the speed - because the populace has been in the habit of accepting small changes at first.
Author McAlister has given us a handbook that reads like a novel.
It reminds me of the (unscientific) story of a frog dropped into a pot of water that is heated will not perceive danger and will eventually boil to death but if the same frog is put into a pot of water that is already boiling, he will jump out.
What would you have done if you were Jewish in Germany in 1938 before (after) Kristillnacht? What would you do under the circumstances of "First they came for the communists but I was not a communist, . . . . "? When would you leave?
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*authoritarian; the opposite of utopia; an imaginary, nightmarish society characterized by oppression, dehumanization and extreme misery, often under totalitarian control or environmental ruin
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