The impending catastrophe, part two

Another thing the dystopians control of course is public opinion. That’s to say the so-called ‘official narrative’ – both of current events and human history. From our point of view you might be surprised to realise you are already living in a post-truth dystopia. If you were to see the comprehensive records we have of your history you would be astounded and shocked.

This, as it happens, is perhaps the most important feature of the impending catastrophe. Don’t worry, I’ll get to it in a moment.

Take your world war two, for example. Most people seem to believe that the reason for that war was simple. An evil megalomaniac was intent on world domination and had to be stopped. Wrong. Following on from what I said about the dystopians need to prevent socialism, the real threat from Germany at that time was not to the rest of the world at all (the truth is the German government of the time was not intent on massive territorial expansion or inflicting their ideology on everyone else), it was to the dystopians themselves – or to be more precise, their global capitalist system. The German government understood the simple economic fact that if you have your own sovereign currency and a wonderful invention called a printing press then you can just print as much money as you like – no need for loans from international banks! Furthermore, Germany bypassed the global capitalist system by adopting a kind of barter system of trade with many other countries (in particular South America). If this German economic system had persisted then the domino effect would’ve happened, and both capitalism and Marxism would’ve collapsed simply by virtue of internal pressure from their own people, who would’ve looked to the Germans’ undeniable progress and prosperity and demanded the same for themselves.

The idea that the dystopians – the American government, the British establishment, and Stalin, of all people, actually cared about ‘fascism’ is absurd. Stalin had already murdered tens of millions of innocent Russians; the British establishment were the remnants of the racist, colonialist British Empire responsible for exploiting indigenous people everywhere (perhaps that’s where the Americans got it from with their attitude towards the native Americans). They were fascist!

So no, the truth about that part of your history is very different from what your history books tell you. Besides, if you were going to argue ‘but it was fascism’ then you need to think long-term (and don’t think I’m excusing anything here or defending fascism – I’m not, this is simply a longer-term, big picture view). Germany may well have continued to be a fascist country for many decades, but once Marxism had been destroyed in Russia and Capitalism in terminal decline in America, thus with no internal or external threats anymore to justify fascism, and then with increasing technology (e.g. the Internet, social media etc.) by the end of the twentieth century a ‘liberal reform’ movement (mainly powered by young people) would’ve sprung up in that parallel world version of Germany and ultimately been successful (as it was in the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s/early 1990s). By now, 2021, the entire world would be liberal socialist, and well on its way towards a utopia. Don’t believe me? Maybe we’ll get to show you that parallel version if you ever make it to the Centauri system.

We’ve run quite a few scenarios about you, as it happens.

I’ll tell you about them later…

So here’s your impending catastrophe, if nothing changes.

In around one hundred years from now you will launch a ship to your nearest stellar neighbour, the Centauri system. Your first interstellar voyage.

Given that by then you will be totally governed by dystopians, living in a post-truth dystopia, do you think you would be welcome?

How will it make you feel when you are forced to realise that you are not?

Think about it. Look at yourselves, and then tell me if you would welcome you?

It’s like what former US President Carter said in the letter that was included on your Voyager probe – “We hope to one day join a community of galactic civilisations” he said. Well, would you let you join such a community?

No.

Neither would I.

He also said, “We are attempting to solve the problems of our time so that we may survive into yours”. What he neglected to mention (presumably because he thought we didn’t know, or wouldn’t find out) was that it was his country, more than any other, that was responsible for those ‘problems’.

You will have to change drastically by then if you want to be welcome. And bear in mind that you cannot lie to us, because we know everything about your history, about what you have done, about the lies you have told, the suffering you have inflicted. You cannot hide. Anything.

This is your impending catastrophe.

So what do you think will be the consequences of this? What will your reaction be, when the time comes? You will realise that not only are you not alone, but you are not welcome. Anyone familiar with Asimov’s ‘The End of Eternity’ will know what I’m talking about here. I’m minded to believe that was one of our own interventionist stories, by the way, inserted into your cultural consciousness, but that’s another matter. Philosophically it’s certainly lightyears ahead of everything else he wrote, psychohistorically speaking.

If you, the people, are aware of what has happened at Centauri then you will presumably want to start up some kind of resistance movement. Except by then the dystopians will have totalitarian control over you, won’t they? You’ll be living in a fascist nightmare, remember. Resistance will be futile. And believe me, they will use any means necessary to hold onto their power. Because that’s what they do. They don’t see you as a part of their ‘in-group’, remember. You have less, if any, moral value than they do.

Maybe they just won’t inform the public, then. Or just lie to you. Maybe they’ll be perfectly aware of what would happen and so won’t launch any ship in the first place. Perhaps they’ll try and convince you that interstellar travel isn’t possible. So you’ll have no hope for any long-term future for your species.

Or maybe they’ll try and convince you that we’re the hostiles, unite you all under a banner of resistance and so on, convince you that they’re the good guys and we’re just mean and spiteful. Except they won’t have any evidence for that, will they? Because we’re not attacking you, we haven’t launched any invasion, have we? We could, but we haven’t. We may have sabotaged some of your technological progress (for our own protection), but nothing more than that.

So I guess, then, your entire society will collapse. And you will not be able to unlearn what has happened. Because in the end, you will come to realise that it was always you who allowed the dystopians to acquire totalitarian control in the first place. You tolerated them, and you believed their lies. When they said they weren’t really evil, but good, you believed them.

So it was your fault. Or at least, the fault of your ancestors by that time.

Maybe you can imagine the rest for yourselves?

Your impending catastrophe.

This, by the way, is a real reason why they have to prevent you from realising that you are not alone in this galactic sector. They seem to have prevented SETI from making any profound announcements. Likewise, I think you may have to watch out for developments with your new James Webb Telescope, due to be launched later this year. I do hope it all goes well though, nothing goes wrong, and profound discoveries are made when they point it at the Centauri system. That’s if they’re ever allowed to, of course. I do hope it doesn’t get sabotaged in any way.

Similarly, I do hope that you are able to launch your flyby nanoprobes to Centauri in, when’s it going to be – 30 or 40 years. Hopefully by then you’ll be able to equip it with quantum teleportation technology for communications. I hope that doesn’t get sabotaged too. If it doesn’t, we’ll make sure you know we’re there. We’ll simply tractor in one of your nanoprobes and let it capture some undeniable images of advanced spacefaring civilisation. Perhaps our orbital colony station.

But if those things go well, then you won’t have to wait until you send a ship to Centauri for your catastrophe.

After all, you will want to send us a message. Something predictably trite and immature, no doubt. Something that lies about you. Something like ‘we’re peaceful, hello!’. Erm, sorry, but we know everything about you, remember. We’ve been watching you for a very long time, so you won’t be able to lie to us.

If it was up to me, I would simply not respond to you at all. Force you to self-examine, by asking the questions ‘why aren’t they responding?’ ‘What is it about us they don’t like?’.

Maybe someone at the time will pipe up and mention me and everything I was saying 40 years earlier.

The answers to those questions should be obvious, of course.

There’s your solution to your so-called Fermi paradox.

And here’s the thing. The dystopians are perfectly aware of all this. They must be terrified, because they know you will demand the sending of a message, the construction of ever larger telescopes, the flyby mission, eventually interstellar travel. At some point, their attempts to stop these things or sabotage them or manipulate the data will become known. Perhaps then you’ll listen?

I am minded to make damn sure their attempts at sabotage don’t work. I think that would be a satisfying intervention. Because we know exactly how you would respond to these scenarios, and how they would respond to these scenarios.

A final conflict. Between the dystopians – the one percent – and the rest of you.

It’s not going to be pretty, I can assure you of that.

But don’t think we’re going to stop it or come down and save you. Because these are the lessons you must learn. You do not tolerate dystopians. Ever.

This is your impending catastrophe.

It’s going to happen sooner than you think.

I wish you well.

Honestly.

And if you need any help or guidance, just let me know.

That’s why I’m here.