Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2247]

“You know, as bad as things are, we haven’t even hit bottom yet. Starvation, disease, drug damage, and mob rule have only begun. Federal, state, and local governments still exist—in name at least—and sometimes they manage to do something more than collect taxes and send in the military. And the money is still good. That amazes me. However much more you need of it to buy anything these days, it is still accepted. That may be a hopeful sign—or perhaps it’s only more evidence of what I said: We haven’t hit bottom yet.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2247

Note

Formulation: the ‘hopeful sign’ is inverted into proof of decline — survival of currency as evidence of unfinished collapse. The dashes do the argumentative work, each qualification (‘in name at least,’ ‘or perhaps’) eating the reassurance it just offered, so that the paragraph talks itself into despair by the same logic a reader might use for hope.