Last Man in London, page 14
The events in Mumbai, where hundreds died, and at the Summer Camp for Workers Youth League in Norway, where a lone and unchallenged gunman claimed seventy-seven lives before he could finally be stopped, had proved to the world that random and violent acts of this nature could not be predicted, controlled or prevented. At the turn of 2017 vicious attacks on trains, markets and shopping centres were a regular feature throughout Africa and the western world and, in the majority of cases, one religion or another was at the very core. It was festering throughout the West as a maggot may burrow into a decaying apple.
Hugo noticed his hy-dev had pinged him a message and he pulled it towards him. ‘Dr Abrahams,’ he noted. ‘He has invited us around to his apartment tomorrow evening.’
Chapter Nine
The following morning George and Hugo met at the coffee dispenser on the main concourse at Waterloo Hydrostation. ‘No Will?’ Hugo asked him as they made their way to Platform 12.
‘He is staying for a few more days with Marnie in Cape Town.’ George replied. ‘They have logged in for a Wednesday to Saturday contribution this week, he’s back tomorrow afternoon. He says he has something to tell me.’
George had spent most of the previous night pacing around his apartment whilst one half of the Complex worked and the other half slept. He had been appalled at the state of the world he had read about in Edgar’s laptop files. It was an entirely different place to the one he was familiar with and, although there were still some reports of war in the Middle East, the population in the entire area was now so small as to pose no threat to anybody outside their own region. Will had even been on holiday there and taken tours of the great uninhabited cities. He had told George all about Dubai and how that once major metropolis had fallen into decline as soon as western scientists had developed hydrogen energy and refined their nuclear power stations. It had meant the demand for oil, the old fossil fuel that was once so important to the Middle East, had fallen to nothing. The West no longer needed to trade with the Arabs and as the religious violence increased there, during 2017, people simply stopped travelling to the area.
Westerners were not interested in their medieval laws which insisted women tourists covered their heads, were not allowed to drive and were prohibited from even holding hands with somebody they were not married to, let alone share a hotel room with. Western cash rapidly ceased to go in the direction of the Middle East and many of the great cities began to decay. Then the virus ripped through the population and, as the generations passed, entire regions of the Middle East were de-populating at a rate faster than that of even the Western Empire. Will had told him about Saudi Arabia, a once powerful and wealthy country inhabited by princes and dynasties who caught the virus and slowly died out. Young men grew old and left no further legacy behind them. Thirty million oil rich princes were reduced to around fifty thousand within two generations. After Incorporation the Main Board had imposed a trading ban on the complete area, declaring it ‘irrelevant’ to the future of the West.
Historically the Arab communities had been rich with culture and invention. It had been industrious and, for many centuries, the centre of the trade around the known world. But it had always been a mystery to European people. Its complicated tribalism had been outgrown by Europeans five hundred years earlier and yet its religious, clannish divisions remained at the heart of Middle Eastern Culture. For the most part this was respected by its trading partners, or at least tolerated. But the enforced creation of a State of Israel, a Christian nation located in the centre of a Muslim dominated continent, began conflicts over land tenure during the second half of the 20th century. Such disputes were usually manageable through diplomatic negotiation, and occasional war, but with the emergence of Islamic Extremism during the final years of that century, and the early decades of the following one, they became harder to resolve peacefully, especially after Iran had developed nuclear weapons. God, it appeared, had not been negotiable for either side.
George had also read a feature article on Edgar’s laptop claiming that during the five thousand years before Incorporation over 14,500 wars had been fought around the world and 3.5 billion people had lost their lives. With each new generation there had been a new weapon of mass destruction. The arms race had been going on since the dawn of Mankind. Once upon a time simple folk threw sticks and stones at each other. Eventually it became possible to wipe out an entire population with one fingernail and the flick of a switch. At the time of Incorporation the Americans had 39 vast military installations around the world. At the height of the British Empire in 1890 they had about 37 big and powerful bases. The Romans had thirty six during their time as a major power. That seemed to be about the number required for any Empire to rule the world.
It is true of all cultures and cults that the wealthiest or the strongest would emerge as the natural leaders and society had been evolving, once again, in this fashion. To the East the religious extremists were winning their battles for power and influence through the use of violence and intimidation and in the West, members of the Eiderberg Group had been dominating societies by using their wealth to structure a system of governance in their own image, for their own interests. Many believed they planned and carried out, or at least staged, terrorist attacks within their own Western communities as a means of creating abject fear and subservience. Whether this was true or not mattered little as frightened people are easily controlled with the simple guarantee of protection. The leaders of every civilisation, throughout history, had repeated the same tactic.
But, with Western Governments running out of funds and turning to the Eiderberg controlled banks for the money they needed for their defence programs, the wealthiest individuals were able to tighten their grip. It was estimated that by the end of the year 2020 of the Old Calendar 95% of the wealth in the West would be controlled by as few as 5% of the people. Anti Eiderberg Group demonstrations began to appear all across the Western Empire but the Eiderberg sponsored state governments were able to pin them down wherever they emerged. Internet news feeds were monitored, censored and finally closed down. Television feeds were carefully biased and news print became propaganda material.
The problem, the Corporation had identified, was that followers of Islam had not only moved themselves to the West, but they had attempted to move the East to the West with them. It began with minor changes. Food laws were introduced, then the primary language in some schools was changed from English, religion in schools was promoted once more. Christian festivals such as Easter or the Nativity Scene were banned for fear of causing offence. Western values, which had been fought for and established over centuries, were being eroded in just a few generations by elected politicians. They were being given away, without a fight, by men clearly incapable of producing a single original thought between them. It was the beginning of the end of western democracy. It would lead to the end of government by amateur businessmen.
But what was the alternative? An oppressed society living in militarized, totalitarian states, such as Stalin and Hitler had once advocated and failed with. Was it to be a life in fear of the whip or the gun, or a free society of happy citizens who loved their own culture enough to be prepared to fight for it, and preserve it, from total destruction at the hands of Islam and its committed ideology? The dilemma for the members of the Eiderberg Group was that they were being blamed for the financial collapse of the banking system in the West. Some even went as far as to suggest they deliberately engineered it in a bid to bankrupt governments and then ask for the keys to be handed over. And this was a problem because the more criticism they received through the unregulated internet, the more people mistrusted them. An alternative form of economic management had to be found that members of the public would be comfortable with if they were going to be asked to give up their vote. There had to be something given in return for what would be seen by many as a sacred rite. Others, however, already realised that it wasn’t worth a thing. Not when the majority only voted in the way their Eiderberg Group news feeds encouraged them to.
’What do you think Dr Abrahams wants to see us about?’ George asked Hugo.
‘I have no idea, I just told him I was working with a colleague on a project about outdated technology and asked if I could have a look at Lord Kingston’s laptop. He then replied by inviting us over tonight.’
George felt uneasy about the whole thing. Lord Kingston had been part of the last democratic government and, although he was long dead, he must have known something about how the New World Order had been shaped. Perhaps even Dr Abrahams knew something himself. It would be a long day in waiting to find out.
‘I still don’t know why he would readily show you his father’s laptop.’ George wondered.
‘Relax my friend; he has shown me before. That’s how I knew how to use Edgar’s.’ That did make a little more sense to George.
In the work zone Tibha looked tired and jaded. She had been struggling to update ‘Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems’ a collection by both Wordsworth and Coleridge that had been considered to have marked the birth of the Romantic Movement of Albion. She had first studied the volumes during her Advanced Supervised Preparation Program. But the words she had heard from Edgar’s laptop the previous evening had also kept her awake all night. Nothing had prepared her for that particular window of history.
‘I can’t believe people treated each other in such a disgusting way,’ she told George when he arrived. ‘Are you sure it is all true?’
‘I am afraid it is,’ he replied. ‘In those days, before we had applications that could be updated automatically, information was stored on each person’s own device and not remotely. It cannot have been changed, not even by Granddad. That was the news of the week and there is no way of avoiding it. Those events actually happened.’
‘OK,’ said Tibha, ‘but that doesn’t mean that the countries they refer to were not made up by previous generations of fiction writers, as we were taught, does it?’
‘No it doesn’t,’ said George. ‘But I am not so sure what I believe in any more. I can’t even be sure how reliable Edgar’s memory is but I do know that he lived through the transition period between democracy and incorporation and so some of his recollections must be accurate. He must know something. I will have another look through his hard drive this evening.’
‘Can I come too?’
‘Yes, I will message you when we are leaving Dr Abraham’s. You can meet us in Harry’s.’ George then turned to his screen to finish off his updating and correcting of A Winter’s Tale. Although he had a little less enthusiasm for it now than when he had first started. After a few hours George was about to take a break when the supervisor interrupted his flow of thought.
‘Ahh Willoughby, young man. And how was your trip to Cape Town at the weekend?’ asked Mr Baptist.
George was a little surprised but was reassured when Baptist continued. ‘Don’t worry George; it is a supervisor’s responsibility to monitor the new graduates for a few months when they begin their contribution. I have an application to let me know where everybody has been at the weekend. You didn’t stay long though?’
‘Just a day trip,’ George told him. ’Checking on the house and everything is fine. All is well. Actually I spent most of the weekend with my grandfather on the Complex.’
‘Yes, the legendary Dr Willoughby, I know about him too. He was a hero of my father’s for being part of the team that created the antidote for the virus. If it wasn’t for him George I wouldn’t be here; nor would any of us for that matter.’
‘He was only a junior member of the team,’ George assured him as he stood up to make his way to the dining rooms.
‘Never the less George, never the less. We are all part of the team,’ he said cryptically.
‘Baptist knows something about the virus,’ George told Hugo as they met in the Iberian Dining Room.
‘So do I and so, apparently, do you? It’s not a secret George,’ Hugo said. ‘Don’t start becoming paranoid. Some people know about it and others don’t. That’s true of most things.’
George settled into his chair and tapped out an order for a Tapas Board on his hy-dev.
‘What do you know about the Welfare State Hugo?’ George asked.
‘Nothing,’ what is it?’
‘So you know about the infertility virus that nearly wiped out Mankind, but nothing about the Welfare State?’
‘Like I said, some people know some things, others know other things. Few people know everything. What is it?’
’Well, from what granddad says it was something along the lines of a lot of people who were being given money and accommodation by the old government but were unhappy with the people who were giving it to them.’
‘Why?’ Hugo was puzzled.
‘Because the people who were giving it to them could no longer afford to and wanted it to stop. Because they could not afford to pay for themselves and for all the others anymore. But the people who were benefiting from this, The Welfare Generation, started demanding even more than they were receiving already. So the government told them that there was no more to give because the people who were giving it to them were being mean, selfish and prejudiced.’ George paused for thought before continuing.
’This led to the people on benefits becoming convinced they needed to start hating the people who were paying for all their benefits and demanding the government do something about them by charging those people more tax and then passing it on to them. The government had to decide which of the two groups were more likely to vote for them at the next election and spent the entire time, and lots of money, on doing studies as to how they could get more money from the rich, pay out the least to the poor, keep the most for themselves and still have both sides, or as many as possible, vote for them at the next election.
But, the government worked out that soon there would be more people receiving benefits than there were actually paying for it. The people, for their part, worked out they could actually vote themselves more money by electing the politicians who promised them more money in exchange for their vote. But the people with the money only voted for the politicians who promised to lower their taxes and then give less to the people who claimed benefits.’
‘What does all that mean?’ asked Hugo.
‘I am not really sure, it confuses me,’ George admitted, ‘but I do know that my grandfather said that the people with the money will always win the argument, whatever that argument is. In which case it would be in the interest of the people with the money to stop that system of government before the people who received benefits, the Welfare Generation, grew in number to the point where they could out-vote all the others. I think I understand this now.’ George was still trying to work it out for himself.
‘Exactly the same thing happened years ago in the Division of Africa. When they still had an elected government there were fifty million people living in the area. Forty million of them did not work and received benefits instead. The other ten million had to pay for it all. And the forty million voted, every time, for the government who promised it would continue. They simply outvoted all those who were in work and paying for everything.’
‘And what happened there?’ asked Hugo.
‘They went bankrupt, obviously. That is why the southern half of the African Continent is now part of the Western Corporation. The people paying for everybody else soon ran out of money and those who needed it stopped receiving it. Many of them starved to death, or died of natural causes, apparently.’
‘How many people live there now?’ asked Hugo.
‘Around 1.8million,’ George replied, ‘and all of them contribute. Those that didn’t died out.’
‘Fifty million people down to fewer than two million in forty years?’ Hugo was staring at George as their Tapas Boards arrived at the table.
‘Isn’t it obvious how democracy failed? As soon as democratic government began to take away from those willing to work and give to those who were not, it was destined to fail. Ok, it may have taken fifty years but it was a certainty from the very beginning. As soon as the threat of the number of people unwilling to work exceeded the number of those who were, then those with the money would insist on a change of government, a new system, a New Order. Do you think they had something to do with the virus George?’ Hugo asked. ‘Do you think that was a convenient way of removing the problem of those who were not contributing and only taking instead?’
George fiddled with his meat balls. He knew that religious people were dangerous. From what Edgar had told him they were very dangerous. But how could the Eiderberg Group, the richest and influential people, persuade all of those on benefits to allow them to take over from their governments? It didn’t make sense to George. Nothing seemed to make much sense.
’Let’s just wait and see what Dr Abraham has for us before we start drawing conclusions.’ George finally replied.
From what Edgar had told him he did understand that towards the end of democracy there was no such thing as real politics in the West. There was no Left and there was no Right. There was no real rivalry or reasoned debate between the two major political parties in each Division. There was just one single economic party run by the big businesses and nobody really cared about society anymore. From what he had seen, on the laptop, the main problem was the tone of the news feeds. Twenty-four hour rolling news was designed for one particular thing. War. Because without war there really wasn’t twenty-four hours worth of news everyday. It would mean the ordinary, everyday events would have to be elevated from the mundane and into the sensational.
They had to find new ways to announce ‘breaking news,’ and more news to break to keep viewing figures, and therefore revenues, up. Fear was the best way of keeping people connected to their news feeds. But often this meant that the real meaning of breaking news would be lost in hype or sensationalism, in an attempt to win more viewers and sell more advertising. The end result was that the viewer would be treated to the ‘you are all going to die horribly but buy this brand of toothpaste before you do,’ type of entertainment. George thought of the alternative and decided that even the governments he had heard, or read, about would not go as far as creating war or staging terrorist attacks just for the benefit of twenty-four hour rolling news and entertainment.
