Retroshock: A Return to Roots

A future history of the meaning behind TOUGH TIMES

Excerpt from ‘Triumph via Tragedy: A Pandemic Retrospective’, published June 6th, 2083, Harbin-Tuatini Open IsoPress.

74,000 years ago, early humans sheltered in terror, their world torn apart by the aftereffects of the Toba mega-colossal eruption. But those clumsy prototypes of modern humanity weathered the storm and emerged re-forged. They had learned new methods of organising their society, of communicating essential knowledge quickly, and started traditions to underpin a resilient culture.

Our global civilisation has never come so terrifyingly close to systemic collapse as in the early 2020s. The plague and its aftershocks of successive crises brought death, despair, and disability to many, along with economic and social chaos that still echo today. But like a forest fire, with the chaff of a smug and sneering society scorched away, the willowy seeds of a wholesome new culture had fertile soil in which to grow.

Crises tend to follow each other like a string of pearls. The lockdowns in China led to massive crop and livestock failures, as food could not be planted, tended or harvested due to frustrated movement of migrant labour, and could not reach market. At a time when pigs had already been mass-culled for contracting Swine Fever, and chickens and ducks infected with deadly Bird Flu, animal feed was difficult to source. 

During the outbreak, a massive swarm of crop-ravaging locusts swept back and forth in successive waves in a belt all the way from Sudan to Western China, each wave even larger. The lack of jet contrails in the atmosphere as a result of greatly diminished air travel led to a climatic whiplash of drought in dry places and floods in wet ones, followed by inevitable wildfires, dust bowls, and mudslides. This coincided with a deep solar minimum, which affected crops along with morale.

These were unavoidable problems, but the way humanity responded turned them into true crises. A culture of complacency had encouraged people to borrow from the future with a devil-may-care attitude. Social progress had reduced real tensions, yet paradoxically multiplied grievances for trivial affairs. Ideological politicisation invaded every aspect of life, with innocent people scapegoated by angry mobs.

Mercifully, the crises changed our course. 

So-called experts and pundits were revealed as naked emperors -- not worth listening to at best, criminally negligent at worst. The institutions relied upon to protect the vulnerable failed when we needed them most. Politics, showmanship, and chicanery fell swiftly out of fashion as people facing harsh realities became receptive to basic, timeless home truths instead. 

For the first time in history, all of humanity was united against a single foe, in the common interest of our health and bellies, and of keeping the essential machinery of society on its rails. Huddled together yet apart, we uncovered the fundamentals that every one of us shares: good health, treasured relationships, and meaningful activity. 

Labour movements and mutual aid organisations formed organically from the bottom up, bringing a level of crowd-ranked wisdom and level-headedness rarely seen in public affairs. These were cultures of scrappy hackers finding ways to remedy awful situations. Running lean, the emphasis of society shifted from efficiency towards flexibility and fairness.

The pandemic shone a spotlight on heroes, and on villains. As people around the world took stock of what had enabled the pandemic, they recognised the root cause. Society was bedevilled by bad actors profiting from shifted costs. Continual cycles of boom and bust were driven by those who found new ways to oblige others to pay their costs, leading to inevitable collapse once people realised the game had been rigged. 

Civilisation is a tower, each generation adding a new layer of bricks. Sometimes bad bricks get laid, which over time put the tower at risk, especially as the weight above them grows. Every so often, a generation recognises that a bad brick is so dangerous that it can no longer be denied. It therefore has a duty to carefully demolish a level or two, to replace a bad brick with something better, in order to build more sustainably again.

Globalisation had enabled great efficiency, but also terrible fragility -- a cost deferred to the future for a benefit today. The Pied Piper’s services had been enjoyed, but not paid for. Cross-partisan movements formed a coalition demanding fair play: urgent reforms in how society accounts for and redresses shifted costs. Never again would society allow fragility, or any other shifted cost, to be created but not offset immediately.

Our global systems have stumbled on two further occasions since 2020, but they have endured thanks to a pre-paid network of incentives working to mitigate them.

Civilisation is built upon the labours of those who toil for something that they themselves may never realise. Those planting a sturdy tree whose shade they will never know. People began holding each other accountable in saving for a rainy day, and absolutely refusing to borrow from the future.

With plenty of free time at home, people took that planting meme to heart. Victory gardens with fast-growing plants and edible flowers became widespread, chicken coops an invaluable source of protein and fertiliser. Ugly vegetables were no less delightful in one’s belly, and many who harvested them were former office workers. Experiments in baking sourdough bread out of desperation made people rediscover flavours that processed food had denied them. 

In this new worldview that respected real food, organic mulch became a valuable commodity rather than mere waste. Difficulties in getting rid of inorganic waste brought people face to face with the inefficiencies of our consumption. Ingenuity shared online invited one to reuse or up-cycle instead.

The inability to wander in search of stimulation obliged us to look for it in others. To pick up the art of conversation once again or get lost in an old favourite book. People chose with care and agency with whom, and how, they wished to live their lives. Friends moved in together, as parents discovered the joys of raising children outside of the hustle and bustle of daily life. Adult children appreciated the practical wisdom of their parents, as the older generation smiled in quiet awe at the ingenuity and adaptability of their offspring. 

Eventually, as the dust settled, a new normal emerged -- a world not quite as complex and fancy as the old one. But very few wanted to return to how things were, even if they could. Something had changed in each of us; we had discovered our roots, the things that give life meaning. The refocus was towards honest work, mutual reliance in trusted networks, and a return to the fundamentals of common sense and human decency. Simple country wisdom: mind your own business, but be there for a neighbour when they need you.

As the decades drew on, humanity crept forward once again towards automation and global integration, but this time in a sustainable, slow, and savouring manner. Chastened as we were after the horrors of WW1 and WW2, we resolved that the third time would be the charm. Eradication Day that closed the WW3 chapter of humanity versus virus marked the dawn of a new world. 

Never again would we permit bare-faced deceptions, sneering contempt, and feckless irresponsibility on such a scale as in the first two decades of the 21st century. The reforms and wisdom born from our difficult struggles have stuck around. They enable us to live sustainably without robbing each other. 

Finding our roots made all the difference. Having put our house in order, it is time to reach again for the stars.