Greenwald: On just "evolution in action"

The latest racist or anti-religious screed by Glenn Reynolds and the right wing bloggers gets a good dressing down by Glenn Greenwald. The only thing I would add is that the phrase "Think of it as evolution in action" comes from the 1982 novel Oath of Fealty by science fiction writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In the novel upper-class citizens are moving into extremely large condo skyscrapers with all city amenities inside and the phrase is mainly used about lower-class people or liberal dissidents who try to break in or otherwise do stupid things that lead to their deaths. The exact circumstances of the first use of the phrase are protestors who sneak in and are killed because building security believes they could be terrorists carrying bombs. Depending on how you feel it can be considered indicative of an offensive conservative superior attitude or simply prophetic in light of much current anti-terrorism mentality.

Tags: evolution in action, Niven, Pournelle, Greenwald, SF