All civilisations
have their end. One would arise, prosper for a while, then decay from
within until it collapses into a new dark age. After a while, a new
one would take it's place. Rinse and repeat.
Our end was upon us.
For a century at the least, we had mortgaged our future to pay for
the passing pleasures of today, but eventually we had to end up
living in our own repossessed future. Our infrastructure, stretched
as it was across continents, was vulnerable to attack by small cells
of guerrillas. T As law and order broke down, the poor – which
included those who used to consider themselves middle class - became
either bandits or their victims. The wealthy, a large number of whom
grew fat off the loot that was extracted under the guise of taxation
from the rest of society, retreated to well appointed lily-pads
guarded by mercenaries. The ethnic differences between these groups –
guerilla, bandit, the rich, the poor - were used by demagogues to
inflame tensions, and soon we were in the throes of a low level multi
sided race war.
When the oil supply
was cut, no-one cared much whether it was due to peak oil or
terrorists. The end result was the same – a spike in food prices
and an end to cheap transportation. The economy, already failing due
attacks on the infrastructure, very few people could get a job, but
the state could not afford to give them money to survive. Roving
camps of homeless people walked from town to town, hoping that the
people of the next town wouldn't drive them out again. Diseases which
we had under our control suddenly became fatal again, as health and
sanitation vanished. People gave up on any hope of the future,
turning to drugs to numb the pain, and suicide when that didn't work.
We were almost in the dark ages, if not already there.
Until we chose
differently. Until we looked at ourselves, and looked at our
ancestors, and decided that we would not follow the path that many
had trod before us. Until we asked, “Why must the corpse rot
completely before a new civilisation could be birthed? Why must the
darkness fall for so long until the sunrise comes again?”
The pre-existing
institutions were no good. We had to go deeper back in time,
searching the thousands of years of recorded history to discern what
worked and what didn't, what lessons the Gods of the Copybook
Headings had to teach us over and over again. There we discovered
virtue. Restraint, the virtue of prudence; and humility, the seed
from which wisdom may grow. There we discovered once more the value
of tradition, of asking why a gate is closed before deciding to open
it. There, we discovered once more the tools we needed to rebuild our
society, a new respect for nature, and a greater understanding of our
place in the universe – and the potential that we possess.
Armed with this new
confidence, we set out to make our planet great again. Abandoned lots
were cleared of concrete and debris and seeded to form new forests.
Bandits found out that their defenceless targets were now defended.
The badly functioning infrastructure was bypassed with local systems,
as houses and towns took themselves off the failing grid. The
internet was reconfigured, with wireless mesh networks joined
together with powerful microwave links into a new network with even
greater resilience. Railway lines were repaired, and extended,
linking regions together. Towns remodelled themselves, embracing the
vernacular architecture of their regions and densifying with grace,
their townhouses and courtyard apartments rising several stories
above revitalised streets, patrolled by the men and women of the Town
Watch. No longer were streets a place to be feared, but once again a
pleasant backdrop to the bustle of everyday life – a bustle which
could be quickly escaped by means of a short walk into the
smallholdings, allotments, and woods which surrounded these small
towns and cities.
Technological
development accelerated, as people faced the challengers of providing
clean water, food, clothing, housing, healthcare, and the myriad of
other things which are required for a decent and long life, in a
severely resource constrained world. Inventors, doing what they do
simply for the joy of it, and in the hopes of making a better world,
released their designs for free – not that patenting them would
have stopped anyone copying them. As their work made life easier,
reducing the hours that were needed to simply survive, others could
use their time to learn new skills and create new art. New
universities were founded, focusing on cultivating the sort of men
and women who would be wise enough to lead humanity forward – and
humble enough to be willing to step aside. Scientific research,
struggling with funding and corruption under the old establishment,
leapt forward as new research institutes were founded. Space
exploration, a dream which was thought to have fizzled out for a
second time, was revitalised, and colonies were founded on nearby
worlds.
Rather than an age
of banditry, it is an age of pioneers. Rather than the basest
instincts of humanity ruling the day, our essential nobility shines
through in the darkness of the universe. Though there are still
places where despots rule, most of humanity live in benevolent
city-states – and though they have differences in how exactly
society should be run, it is rare for cities to war against each
other. Far from being a dark age, there is no better time to be alive
than now.
