Since the end of Earth's World War II, nations across the globe have built cavernous 'fall-out' shelters, ostensibly to protect their populations from the ravages of a nuclear war. Just who would select those that should be saved, and who would be first on the list? I think we know the answer!
My decision to seek out a world where such a selection process had been devised and subsequently acted upon was inspired by a scene from one of my favorite movies: Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End. Captain Jack Sparrow is waxing lyrical over the Brethren Court's decision to batten down the hatches and wait out the siege which the evil East India Trading Company has raised against the pirates now assembled on Shipwreck Island. He uses the cuttlefish (which turns on its own when confined) as a metaphor, saying, 'Half of us will be dead within the month'.
It took a while, rummaging through my capacious file store, but I eventually found what I was looking for. Gamma Altabaxa is such a world! It was once home to three distinct groups of people, each inhabiting its own land mass, separated from the other two by a large ocean. The planet still lies in ruins, two centuries after the war which ravaged it! But it is not devoid of life. Life is resilient, adaptable and opportunistic. There is also a growing population there, now. But, more of that, later.
I am not the first person to speculate about this subject. I am, however, the only person to have in their possession an eye-witness account of the outcome of the sort of 'unbiased and objective' selection process our national leaders have likely designed to ensure the survival of their 'Best and Brightest'.
Before I begin, it is necessary, I think, to establish whether or not the actions taken by the national leaders on Gamma Altabaxa, leading to its ultimate destruction, are consistent with the kind of behavior we have observed in our own leaderships. I believe they were, and I base that claim on two pieces of evidence.
First, the high levels of residual radiation on Gamma Altabaxa confirm that it was some kind of nuclear weapon which caused the devastation we see today, not a natural event, such as a volcanic eruption or an extra-terrestrial impact. Such weapons are not designed, constructed, tested and perfected over night. There had to have been an on-going conflict between two or all of the nations, like Earth's 'Cold War', to provide the impetuous to develop such weapons and to enable the national leaders to convince their citizens that a large military budget was necessary for their survival. Military budgets divert huge sums away from more beneficial and productive public investments. Citizens have to embrace this policy, by force, if need be, or by consensus, if possible. The government(s) of Gamma Altabaxa had adopted such a policy because the weapons existed.
Second, some serious and irresolvable dispute must arise to justify the use of these weapons. According to documentary evidence I have seen, little in the way of negotiations took place between any of the governments on Gamma Altabaxa prior to their use of these weapons. Evidence suggests the decision to launch was almost instantaneous. It is inconceivable that intelligence operatives had not apprised their respective governments of the threat posed by their opponent's weaponry. Even allowing for a massive failure on the part of these agencies, overt demonstrations of the effectiveness of these weapons would have been organized, if only to prove to the governments funding them that they worked. Why, then, when mutually assured destruction was inevitable, would these governments decide to unleash their arsenals?
I now wish to offer a third piece of evidence which I believe, though anecdotal, explains this lunacy: at least one of the national governments thought such a war was 'winnable' and ultimately 'survivable', possibly because it believed it had superior weapons, and had also constructed facilities for some, if not all, of its people to seek shelter in. It is the later suggestion I intend to discuss, basing my arguments on my own day to day observations of human activity on Earth, supported, where appropriate, by facts on the ground from Gamma Altabaxa.
Even if a government has gained support for the huge expenditures involved in the development of such weapons, its citizens are not going to endorse their use, unless, of course, they know for a fact that their nation, alone, possesses them. In many cases, the citizens may be ignorant of the existence of such weapons until they're used. Where mutual destruction would be the outcome, and the possibility of it happening is known to the citizenry, they will not accept their own demise with anything approaching equanimity unless they, themselves, believe that they have a chance of coming out of the conflict relatively unscathed - even if that remote possibility comes from winning some kind of 'Survival Lottery', ensuring they have a place in the fall-out shelter - along with their family.
Certain individuals revel in conflict, and need no convincing as to the rightness of the decision to let loose the dogs of war. This group is made up of much of the political leadership, itself, senior military officers, whose faith in the effectiveness of the forces and weapons under their command is certain, even if it is often misplaced, and bankers, who make fortunes from promoting and/or financing wars. Then there are those citizens whose trust in their leadership can never be undermined, religious groups who affirm that true salvation can only come through some cataclysmic event, and the innately 'opportunistic', who see the chance for riches to be made in chaos. The majority of the population, though not inclined to accept their imminent demise with such enthusiasm or aplomb will, according to their nature and degree of gullibility, seek reassurance in religious faith, or their leadership. Neither will save them physically, but the former will comfort them as they breathe their last. Many will spend the remainder of their lives in denial, or numbed resignation; or will simply take their own lives and those of their loved ones. I know one person who claims that if he knew the bombs were going to fall, he would steal a Ferrari and drive it until the gas ran out, the wheels fell off, he misjudged a corner and totaled himself, or the sky filled with missiles and rained death upon him (and, not necessarily in that order).
Before I proceed any further, it would be remiss of me not to mention 'politically disaffected survivalists', who don't trust their government, don't have cable, don't read newspapers and may even be unaware of an impending war. Obviously, there are crazies in them thar hills, but most survivalists are not crazy. They are self-reliant and possess many of the skills and much of the knowledge needed to rebuild a society after a devastating event. Sadly, they're no longer admired, even though it's people like these who carve out new territory and establish new settlements. They will never be given a place in a fall-out shelter; nor, I suspect, would they accept a place if it was offered. Of those who would be forced to remain on the surface, once the bombs began to fall, it is these people who would have the best chance of surviving.
I now come to the question of who would be admitted to one of these 'fallout' shelters before everyone else, including the lottery winners. This group has long standing plans - financed at public expense, of course - to live in such facilities for as long as it might take for the planet's surface to become habitable, once more, at which time they, or their progeny, would emerge to reclaim and repopulate a world on which they hope there would be no sign of their former enemy. This group is comprised of the political elite and their families, the banking elite and their families, political cronies/donors and their families, and high ranking bureaucrats and military officers and their families - the very people who caused the disaster, in fact. This is, of course, echoed in the present global financial crisis, where those who caused it are given huge sums of taxpayer money and additional, undemocratic powers to fix it!
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
While it goes without saying that the elite will always choose to save their venal, narcissistic, mendacious and incompetent asses, as well as their families - and their lovers, too - while the rest of the world goes to hell in a fireball, I contend that they're the last people, in fact, who should be saved!
Virtually every politician suffers from one psychiatric disorder or another. Some suffer from more than one, of course, but narcissism is the worst of them, and the most common. Imagine, if you will, hundreds of these dreadful creatures, each convinced of his/her own value, each believing he/she is destined to reach the top of the heap, and each suffering from a deep paranoia which insists that everyone is out to get him/her, locked up together for years, perhaps decades, with no adoring and somnambulant public present to watch him/her strut and preen. Only their assistants, advisors, ass-lickers, lobbyists, the upper echelons of goodness knows how many intelligence agencies and their deputies and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and their advisors and adjutants - not forgetting their boot polishers - and all of their families and special friends would be there with them. Having seen behind the scenes, so to speak, they would be singularly unimpressed by these frauds! There would also be representatives of the medical profession, scientists and engineers, of course - together with their families - as well as a selection of young males with high sperm counts and hundreds of hot little bitches to keep the species viable. Perhaps each politician's mistress would pull double duty?
Aging politicians are not fond of young, male studs in a normally functioning world. Absent government limousines, expense accounts at ritzy restaurants, clothing stores and jewelers, a former speaker of the house, pushing 'sixty' and weighing three hundred pounds, would have little to offer when compared to a cock that can lift a fifty pound weight when erect, and be ready for action an hour after the last tryst. These studs would find themselves inducted into one personal army or another in very short order. A law would be passed prohibiting recently enlisted soldiers from engaging in fornication of any kind. The politician responsible for its being enacted would likely be assassinated by one of the former spies, at the behest of another politician who is trying to tie up the 'military' vote.
Alliances would be forged during the early days of confinement, and broken as and when it suited. After several coups, counter-coups and substantial election fraud, half of the elite would be dead, unless they had had the foresight to set up a Supreme Court as an arbiter! The military leaders would build armies, swear allegiance to one group or another, and defend its supplies, living and sleeping quarters. Former spies would obtain and sell information for food, a bunk in a dry section of the mine... Who knows? Even with a female-to-male ratio of one hundred to one, there would be some conflict over who got to hump who.
Humanoids are programmed for certain short term wants - like food, water and shelter - and, after those are taken care of (one assumes there would be plenty of these or the plan would not be much of a plan), they then seek some kind of improvement in their circumstances. If that weren't the case, the shopping malls would be empty. Then there's the small matter of who gets to keep the infrastructure running? Could a politician change a light bulb or a ventilation fan motor? Would he/she want to if there were others around who could be bribed to do it? Some scientists I know cannot tie a bow tie, or clear a blocked drain. Likely it would fall to the military to deal with day to day problems, assuming they affected the group to which they had sworn allegiance.
I would suggest that if the only purpose of such shelters is to preserve the knowledge and skills which would likely be lost after a nuclear war, there is a far better way of achieving this. A large selection of books - actual, not CDs - covering survival skills, health care, farming, animal husbandry, construction, tool making, and so on, together with a large seed bank (heritage, not G.M.) and farming implements would kick-start a society far more effectively than the ability to bring legislation to the floor of the House. It would be far simpler and more sensible to ensure that literacy was safe-guarded, so these books could be read, than it would be to secure the legislature and judicial systems. Books don't consume air, food and water, for one thing; nor do they require a computer and electricity to be accessible, as do CDs.
Post apocalypse, there would be no pharmaceutical companies to produce medications once supplies ran out. With no more antibiotics, insulin, anti-inflammatory treatments and pain killers, any doctor who survived inside a fall-out shelter would emerge into a world where he/she had been reduced to the role of 'witch doctor'. Nature's remedies, assuming plant life had survived, would have to be re-learned and used as treatments. Holistic and homeopathic remedies are discriminated against in the modern world. In a post-industrial world, they would become vital. I can guarantee no homeopathic doctors would be invited into a fall-out shelter though, to be fair, biologists probably would be.
How effective would a particle physicist be in a world without electricity? Would an engineer with the skills to design an airplane be as useful as a carpenter? Would an arms dealer be of any use? If enough weapons survived, he'd probably make a fair living. I doubt an investment banker could put food on the table more effectively than a cattle rancher from Montana? The list is endless, but these questions will never be discussed for the simple reason that to do so would expose the self-serving nature of those who develop such survival plans.
With this in mind, I would now like to consider the possible outcomes of such a survival strategy.
When enough time is deemed to have passed for the world to repair itself, the survivors unlock the doors to their shelter and emerge. The residual radiation is still fatal. Everyone who left the shelter is now among the walking dead. The upper echelons of the elite are still inside, because they wished to make sure there was no danger before following the other 'mugs' out of the shelter. The survivors close the door and seal themselves inside. No one can agree on how long they should wait before trying again. A scuffle breaks out. The military restores order with substantial but easily deniable collateral damage. Alliances are once more forged and broken. The surviving military leaders build smaller armies, swear allegiance to one group or another, and defend its supplies, living and sleeping quarters. Former spies indulge their nature, once more. The female-to-male ratio is now twenty to one. Most of the females are pregnant. Those males who weren't gay to start with now discover the joys of 'the love that dare not speak its name', or fight over the ugly wives and daughters of the surviving elite! Another decade passes, at which point the survivors might be fortunate enough to move on to 'Scenario Two'.
The survivors emerge to find everything is back to normal, but that their enemy's elite have emerged first. An attempt is made at a negotiated settlement, aimed at establishing a fair division of power between the senior members of the two groups. Before the initial meeting is even scheduled, civil war breaks out as the elites seek to establish who will represent their respective group at the forthcoming round table discussions to be held six months hence. A frantic search then ensues to locate a round table and a dozen chairs. Perhaps more chairs would be needed? What if twelve identical chairs cannot be found? If one chair is different from the others, will that uniqueness confer a special status on the person who sits on it? If so, how will that be resolved?
With the representatives selected, and many of the former contenders now dead, a further dispute erupts between the newly chosen group representatives and their opposite numbers over the venue for the upcoming, round table discussions, which are now 'discussions about discussions' and tentatively arranged for a date yet to be agreed. No one knows how to fix a plough, grow food, build a shelter or irrigate a field. The majority starve to death, never having convened the round table discussion. The round table is burned to keep some of the survivors warm during a particularly cold night. Most of the lower rank officials, who were not eligible to sit close to the fire by reason of seniority or pay grade, freeze to death. After a second cold night, during which the chairs are burned, the only survivors are the military, who know how to keep warm on a cold night. Only three female soldiers are still alive. One of them is menopausal. The other two prefer 'girls' to 'boys' and sneak off, hand in hand, never to be seen again. After saving the 'Best of the Best' - and to hell with the rest - it's all over for the species.
Against all odds, some of the common people manage to survive the war, despite having spent the entire time on the planet's surface. They are in the process of constructing a society based on mutual cooperation and barter. Organic agriculture has been established. Villages are springing up. Everyone has a home. No one has a car. No one has to commute. Everyone works at something he enjoys.
When the politicians emerge from their shelter, they immediately try to set up political parties and call for elections. The common people slaughter them, but keep their women. When the bankers try to set up a Central Bank/Fractional Reserve Lending system of finance, based on a currency made from pieces of toilet paper with monetary values written on them in pencil, the common people slaughter them, but keep their women. The people ask the military to form hunting parties, to take care of carnivorous predators, with the promise of food and women when they return. The military steal as many women as they need and leave to set up an armed encampment, run according to the statutes of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In time, they will become brigands, stealing what they need from the villagers. The villagers will hire mercenaries to defend themselves. Within a few centuries, there may be new politicians, new armies and new battles to be waged. But, nothing is certain. For now, there is peace and a simple life!
In the absence of an indigenous population, immigrants from a distant star have moved in. They were unaffected by the residual radiation level or found it no longer existed. They are prospering. When the survivors emerge from their shelters, the newcomers welcome them but, once they realize the survivors are worthless politicians and have no skills to offer, they send them into exile, but keep their women.
No Altabaxan still living on the surface survived the war. Even those hiding in deep mine shafts had been killed, as hundreds of missile impacts created faults in the rock strata above them, causing the fall-out shelters to become flooded. A race, called the Orthodontia, arrived at Gamma Altabaxa, having abandoned their own world, which was threatened by the future collapse of their star. Finding the planet was devoid of intelligent life, they settled in and are in the process of building a thriving civilization. Had any Altabaxan survived in the fallout shelters, the planet's new owners would have killed and eaten them as soon as they emerged. They would not have kept the women! The Orthodontia are a reptilian species!
So, Dear Reader, when you hear some politician telling you how good it's going to get if you give him your vote, or a banker offers you a deal that's too good to be true, or a high ranking military officer tells your child that killing saves lives, put your hands over your ears, close your eyes, and imagine them all as cuttlefish. Rest assured, when forced to live cheek by jowl with one another, with no public stage on which to perform, they will behave as such!
