The plot concludes with the Patternists using collective power to kill Doro, as well as his cultural ideology. This culmination puts an exclamation point on Butler’s negative feelings regarding cultural and racial superiority mindsets: that they are utterly futile in the long run. Doro’s reign was temporary, and the collective forces of the Allies, only made possible by a culturally inclusive mindset, defeated the Axis Powers at the end of the day. Butler argues that bigotry is incapable of producing permanent change, and therefore must be a fundamentally incorrect ideology. With this assertion, Butler’s argument becomes analagous to the conclusions of Ryan Dunch, a researcher at the University of Alberta, in that the discourse of holding an
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The Patternist murder of Doro is indicative of Butler’s belief that absolutist cultures, by nature, are bound to fail in the long run, as they are incapable of competing with the collective cooperation of cultures. If one were to examine twenty-first century American immigration policy under same lense Butler held to the twentieth century (Mind of My Mind was published in 1977), one can observe a milder form of this culturally exclusive mindset in supporters of strict immgration laws. Additionally, twenty first century Germany is facing a monstrous influx of refugee immigrants, and a subsequent social clash of unique cultural values, as well as debate regarding how it should be dealt with legally. Octavia Butler analyzes past aboslutist manifestations of cultural prejudice to explore the dangerous intercultural mindsets that human beings are capable of. Just as twentieth century cultural imperialism spawned argumentative literature, one can infer that the probable existence of this mindset in modernity will spawn psychopolitical literature as it related to modern social structures, law, and international relations. Despite Octavia Butler’s Mind of My Mind grounding itself in a science-fiction and fantasy-based universe, the plot’s dynamic of relationships as it relates to cultural mindset, has implications grounded in the tragic reality of modern humankind. It is reflective of the dangerous cultural mentality seen in real-world nations, past and present, such as Nazi Germany, North Korea, or even the British Empire of the sixteenth century. Concepts such as Imperialism, Colonialism, and Fascism are all grounded in an absolutist perspective of one’s culture relative to others, and Butler suggests,
The Patternist murder of Doro is indicative of Butler’s belief that absolutist cultures, by nature, are bound to fail in the long run, as they are incapable of competing with the collective cooperation of cultures. If one were to examine twenty-first century American immigration policy under same lense Butler held to the twentieth century (Mind of My Mind was published in 1977), one can observe a milder form of this culturally exclusive mindset in supporters of strict immgration laws. Additionally, twenty first century Germany is facing a monstrous influx of refugee immigrants, and a subsequent social clash of unique cultural values, as well as debate regarding how it should be dealt with legally. Octavia Butler analyzes past aboslutist manifestations of cultural prejudice to explore the dangerous intercultural mindsets that human beings are capable of. Just as twentieth century cultural imperialism spawned argumentative literature, one can infer that the probable existence of this mindset in modernity will spawn psychopolitical literature as it related to modern social structures, law, and international relations. Despite Octavia Butler’s Mind of My Mind grounding itself in a science-fiction and fantasy-based universe, the plot’s dynamic of relationships as it relates to cultural mindset, has implications grounded in the tragic reality of modern humankind. It is reflective of the dangerous cultural mentality seen in real-world nations, past and present, such as Nazi Germany, North Korea, or even the British Empire of the sixteenth century. Concepts such as Imperialism, Colonialism, and Fascism are all grounded in an absolutist perspective of one’s culture relative to others, and Butler suggests,