"They sold the land back to the people" she said distressed "Well I'm all for a republic of the people belonging to those people" he said smugly and satisfied "No that's not... Ugh you don't understand you don't get it. They sold just the land and it's people back to the people. Everything else they didn't." "What's the difference? The people made the land what it is" "The military, the infrastructure, the technology, they will take all that with them. They left the land and it's people behind." she screamed at his ignorance not understanding, and continued "When the hordes arrive it's going to be a blood bath. They will slaughter the people like farm beasts and mash them under foot. The people here will have nothing to defend themselves with" The man immediately "Well I have my gun to defend myself" "It's this 'I've got mine, everyone else be damned' that is the problem you ignorant buffoon. What point is there working toward a future that doesn't make things better for everyone? What is the point of putting in effort that doesn't push that future forward?" she was energetically spent She really didn't know what to do. What this man said was true, to some extent. When the chips were laid down and it came to kill or be killed she herself would kill, savagely kill. The horrors of war were something she had been desensitized to in her training. She had seen bodies burning, heads hacked from bodies, limbs, fingers removed one at a time. All this stuff had been documented and saved because they met with some persons sexual tastes, or some other perverse reason. She had been exposed to all the worst of humanities ills. She also had been instilled with a knowledge that she has committed the same atrocities as those seen. She has also been the victim of those atrocities. She knew that her hands were not clean, no ones were. Too much... It's all too much. Even she didn't understand the full ramifications of what was about to happen. The people themselves are ignorant of their sins but commit them still. There are wars over oil... WE NEED TO USE NUCLEAR. Stop with this solar nonsense. People dying constantly to get oil at a cheap price is retarded. People complaining about the potential deaths the Fukushimas Chernobyls and Three-mile islands, when we are living in a perpetual holocaust to get oil. I think all my complaining about the pointlessness of things is sending the wrong message. This utter pointlessness is something we need to deal with because it's the natural conclusion to the human experiment. We solve all the problems - so what's left? We need to figure that out because I don't know the answer. Maybe it's possible to end all scarcity (seems like it could be solved in 10 years if we wanted) It's probably possible to end death, worst case over a few generations of people (maybe much faster?) We certainly will either all die or make it to space. We have the minds capable and the curiosity to make inevitable the creation of hyperintelligent ai. In the end we have to ask are we trapped in a universe that is doomed to slowly cool down and succumb to entropy The last chemical reactions take place, everything in some super massive black hole or cooling neutron star? I'm not sure that makes sense. I doubt our little snapshot of realty is enough to extrapolate that far. I wonder and believe it more likely than not that when humans get to the moon in earnest some kind of Almost magical Transformation will be catalyzed that turns it into a garden paradise. I think that's more likely than not to be honest. Not because there is any scientific evidence for it But because it just makes sense. The moon seems so lonely waiting up there, and is holding breath for when it's time. Evo has the idea that the moon is a giant insect shell and the earth is going to have to fight it. That's kind of a sad interpretation isn't it? I'm not going to completely discount the possibility that it isn't a secret trap or the old kings giant space ship programmed to destroy us Or else an insect egg of stellar proportions. It could be the dim glow of an led reflected on a wall for all I know. My narrow view of reality doesn't give me enough information to speculate. I mostly just go based on what other people seem to have decided but all of that too is speculation. The things that seem to be real are the things that have results. Like clearly whatever magic created the device I am writing these words on is consistent enough with the truth and itself to result in this process. But the base assumptions that were made to arrive there, and the ramifications of those assumptions aren't necessarily fact. "Seems to be right" is the best we can say. And that's probably enough. I don't think there is any god out there.... But I know that I don't know anything. I'm not even aware of how truly little I know. That is basically all I have after all this time. A deep deep understanding that at the top of the mountain I have found myself at the very bottom of a deep dark hole unable to even conceive of a proper top. I don't trust humans. I am aware of the human nature within me and it is a disease. It is lazy, mean, spiteful. It will sell it's closest friends and family for a bit of momentary comfort. How do I break out of this noxious loop? Watching how the huge ships flew in, the size of the Great Pyramids? Larger? Against the blue of the sky it was impossible to tell how big or far it was. In a cluster it was incredible. awe inspiring. terrifying. There was immediate panic throughout the nation. Some assumed alien invasion, others who had heard of the deal knew better. It wasn't invasion, it was repossession. When the terms of the agreement were laid out, the American side had assumed there was no possible way for the others to take the assets they claimed. It would be a logistical nightmare. Decades of dismantling every building brick by brick? And doing so somehow without heavy losses from Joe American down on the ground. Impossible. The lunacy of the terms made the Americans more at easy with taking the deal. Had they any concept that they would indeed take every single asset that they claimed and would do so nearly instantly with no possible chance for recourse, well if they knew they might have just rolled over and given up. The shear magnitude of the operation. The ships some many kilometers above the earth sat impossibly in the air. some military command was made and retaliatory strike issued, first missiles launched at the ships. They didn't reach it. Not that they exploded on some force field, limply, no they literally didn't reach the ship. As they approached beams of light issued from the giant thing, and the missiles simply vanished. They were, after all, Their Property. Then several beams issued forth directed down to the ground. The caused no explosion, no damage, much to the surprise of all who witnessed it. Instead they hit satellite dishes scattered across the landscape, where the beam then bounced and split into innumerable smaller beams. These scanned the landscape from horizon to horizon, penetrating through buildings, at times the beams would focus on various objects, they would in moments be scanned more intensely and dematerialize. It was a shock. Pure sci-fi nonsense. People were in a absolute panic as eventually once nearly all large machinery, tools, appliances, foods, etc. had vanished, the beams began to focus on the people who were inside the buildings. In seconds they realized they were on the streets outside. Clusters of people suddenly appearing together looks of confusion and panic producing a cacophony. Then the beams focused on the buildings themselves, and they blinked out of existence one by one. It was then that the chaos changed to silence. The impact of of was occurring was simply too much for the brains of the people to process and many of them simply fell to the pavement. But still it hadn't finished. The beams then focused on the roads themselves. The people who had been standing on them fell as suddenly they were more than a foot in the air above dirt. All around them was desolation. To call it a war zone would be inaccurate, that implied ruins. It implied fires. It implied smoke. there was simply nothing but perfectly rectangular impressions in the ground where buildings once stood, and the negative impression of what once were roads. After the roads, the beams then took the subways, the sewers, the underground cables and wires. The cave-ins weren't immediate as the soil had compacted, and the concrete had disappeared all at once without disturbing the soil. But they were inevitable. A few of the people on the streets realized the danger as they saw the beams focus under ground, those few who were still cognizant enough after such a huge shock. When they began to flee the city centers, others noticed them, and slowly the the few runners became a stampede. But the city was large, and while making it from near the edges was possible for those, even out of shape, for those in the middle of the city, or in parts which previously required crossing bridges, the task was impossible. And the stampede produced vibrations. And the vibrations caused the soil to stir. And soon, veinous cracks began to open up beneath the ground, swallowing people up. Not all died, but many did. Once complete every city within 100 miles of the ship was the same picture of absolute devastation. The ship drifted in the sky inland and soon began again. In total there were 10 ships. They completed the task of repossessing the whole in less than 3 days. I'm tired My brain is empty of thoughts My body needs no nourishment It's like the whole world revolves around drama and there is this battle to make things constantly as dramatic as possible. I choose not to play in their little games. I have played them and in ways still play them but I don't like that I do. I don't want people watching me with questions like "What will she/he/it/they/vim do?" Some secretly hoping I am beaten to death, others wanting me to give into my animal instincts in various evil ways. Maybe it would be fun to rape and pillaged. To be a scourge on the land. If I could feel that was something good and correct. If that be doing it I was doing a good thing. I am not far off from being that person, but I have these limits on my behavior. Fear of retribution. Kill and be killed. Inflict pain and be ready to have pain inflicted upon you. I don't really like pain, but it does seem I have a tolerance for it. To some degree or another. It's strange to me that the doctor didn't numb Diane's toe before ripping the nail off. I personally would be more ok with doing it myself, and have done something like that before several times. But letting someone else is strange. Asleep on the couch listening to the television drone on and on. Out health insurance is so great. Marketing towards an adult older woman with incontinence with memories of her young as her dream and no dream of her own left. It's depressing what they have made. This is the fruit of capital. This is what seeking profit above all else has wrought. Depression, suicidal thinking. Desperate shows of affection in the form of purchases. I don't want know how to do anything except pity it. I don't think I'm exactly better off. I do the same things but just in a different aesthetic. The youtube channels I watch which parrot the same sad few safe and approved talking points. There's no changing anything with that information. Even if it were possible to disseminate the information across the populace. Fast forward 40 years There are various scatterings of "Wild" humans and several Indian nations. The Indian nations still have power, having wrested control of all waterways and all constructions along them from the United States government before the united states government body was cut up and auctioned on the global market. Most of the land was "Gifted to the people" then later it was turned into a hunting range. Rich from Asia and Europe started hunting American humans and had easy time of it, for a while. But now we were in generation 2 of this startling new pressure. This completely different, tho absolutely familiar, threat of death at detection. Tho Americans were clowned on for being fat leading up to the moment of the sale, this was a problem in the environment. Advertising, pricing, etc. Sure many of that first generation died due to limitations that being obese brought. Those who survived passed on epigenetic factors saying "Yes active good" because they needed to survive by running and hiding. Any time people tried to build settlements they were bombed from the sky in short time. They hid in trees, caves, etc. .