Leon Reed is a historian who lives in Gettysburg, and he’s come up with an interesting interpretation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.
Being the Asimov fan that I am, I’m always at least curious to hear new insights into his work.
To review briefly, Asimov’s stories take place roughly 25,000 years in the future when the entire Galaxy is ruled by an Empire that bears certain similarities to the Roman Empire and is in the process of collapsing. The mathematician Hari Seldon foresees this collapse as he has developed a complex mathematical process called psychohistory which allows one to predict the reactions of great masses of people to various economic and social stimuli. He realizes that unless action is taken, the Galaxy will devolve into thousands of years of wars and barbarism as the Empire’s influence wanes.
To forestall that barbarism, he establishes two Foundations at opposite ends of the Galaxy. The first series of stories follows the growth of the First Foundation as it faces periodic and predicted crises, with the understanding that each crisis is an inflection point and must be played out until the solution to the crisis becomes obvious and inevitable. This became known as the Seldon Plan.
Mr. Reed draws an analogy between the Seldon Plan and our own Constitution:
Well, we have our own Seldon’s Plan – Madison’s Constitution, which attempted to anticipate and counter potential threats, particularly the appearance of a tyrant. And we certainly have a durable tradition of putting things off until the last possible minute. Whether Churchill actually said it or not, the quote often attributed to him that, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities” reflects his view and that of many other mid-to-late 20th century leaders.
And we’ve certainly faced our Seldon Crises – and followed Seldon’s advice to put off anything until the last minute. Jefferson himself argued the evils of slavery – but said the problem’s solution would require people smarter than him. That finally took a Civil War – and another 100 years of Jim Crow.
Many of our crises were ended by the adoption of Constitutional amendments. The crisis of elections posed by the 1800 election was solved by the 12th amendment. The crisis of slavery was solved – on paper at least – by the 13th, 14th, and 15th.
But it was not all smooth sailing for Seldon’s Plan. After a few hundred years, something occurred that Seldon could not have anticipated. A mutant known as the Mule, who has the power to control human emotions and behavior, appears and shatters the Plan. While the Mule is eventually vanquished, putting the Plan back together is not a simple matter.
Mr. Reed sees similarities between the Mule and Donald Trump, who has shattered the Constitution just as the Mule shattered the Seldon Plan.
While Trump will eventually be gone, “we face a period of enormous uncertainty and instability after the departure of Donald Trump from the world stage. It is by no means certain – in fact all but impossible – that we will simply shift back to things as they were before.”
Of course, Asimov was not trying to predict the appearance of something like Donald Trump; he was simply trying to write a series of entertaining stories and earn some extra cash.