[Book Review] Return from the Stars

A reasonable recognition that neoliberalism will eventually decay and fail by Stanislaw Lem

Stanislaw Lem wrote the book “Return from the Stars” in 1967 and it was translated into English in 1980. Return from the Stars is one of the most honest philosophical examinations of neoliberalism ever put to page by a classical science fiction author. In the current era, this book is one of the most topical pieces of science fiction and social commentary that is available. I recommend acquiring and reading the book before it evaporates the way Camp of the Saints did.

“Return from the Stars” is a relatively straight forward story about an astronauts experience of culture-shock upon his return to earth. The protagonist, Hal Bregg, was an explorer who ventured into the nearer reaches of the galaxy at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. Upon return from his mission, Hal is faced with a two significant existential crises. The first is a radically altered culture in which neoliberalism has effectively won and become the dominant global ideology. The second, is the question of whether or not his sacrifices as an explorer were worth it given that the culture of his home-world now eschews all forms of risk or discomfort. In this place where machines perform all uncomfortable tasks and neoliberalism has become the single dominating ideology, humanity has completely lost touch with the Faustian spirit that created these advancements in the first place. Modern humans have become too cowardly, too risk averse, and too weak to functionally be more than pets to the machines that were built to take care of them.

Hal is confronted with this effective deconstruction of his own neoliberal ideas and no alternative is ever offered. The book was written in the 1960s and represents the last gasp of the pre-neoliberal world views critiquing the flaws of neoliberalism. For half a century this piece of science fiction has been little more than a curiosity, but as the age of neoliberalism finally begins drawing to a close, it has become suddenly topical. I have read a great deal of science fiction, and almost universally some form of neoliberalism creates the sociological grounding of any story. Few settings ever dare to stray from the currently accepted dominant cultural paradigm.

Return from the Stars is one of few pieces of thoughtful science fiction that exist to specifically examine neoliberal thought and the fundamental flaws inherent in it. Are a people who eschew all risk really people any more? If they serve no purpose greater than their own enjoyment, then what’s the point of their lives in the first place? These questions are asked openly by this piece of literature, and the cracks of the post-modern mindset are laid bare for the reader in horrific detail.

I would challenge all of us, those who stand on the cusp of this shift in values as neoliberalism finally dies, to read Return from the Stars. Not only does it examine what may happen should we fail to contest neoliberalism, it examines why it must be contested. We live in an era where numerous alternative ideologies and metaphysical ideas are now being circulated. It is our duty not only to promote superior alternatives, but to understand why the current culture is so fundamentally broken. Return from the Stars does that in a way no other piece of fiction ever has.