State of the world

[andrewducker]

In this fifty year period, a massive depression, coupled with the collapse of a key resource, undermines traditional economic models. Even as the global economy recovers, a global war erupts, a horrifying accident triggered by political systems overwhelmed by increasingly rapid communications, a tragedy multiplied by the almost casual use of chemical weapons. The end of this war coincides with the emergence of a pandemic the likes of which the world has never seen, killing millions upon millions -- and, combined with the war, almost eliminating an entire generation in some parts of the globe.

After the pandemic ebbs, a brief, heady economic boom leads many to believe the worst has ended. Unfortunately, what follows is a global depression even more massive than the previous one, causing hyperinflation in some of the most advanced nations, and leading directly to the seizure of power by totalitarian, genocidal regimes.

 

What follows is perhaps predictable: an even greater world-wide war, nearly wiping out a major culture and culminating in a shocking nuclear attack.

 

At this point, you’ve probably already realized that this scenario covers the end of the nineteenth century through the end of World War II.

From.

Comments

[cybik.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking - surely the much greater impact of the swine 'flu in Mexico might also be because people there aren't as well fed etc. as the other nations that have cases? Mexico might not be quite as poor as a lot of countries, but it isn't nearly as wealthy as Western Europe or the USA.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

We can't really talk about that possibility, though, because it smacks of "their hospitals are dirty 'cause they're brown people" mentality among the more carefully PC. It's a possibility, I haven't heard great things about the Mexican healthcare system, but actually I'm not entirely sure that that should make as much difference as it appears to. IANAE (it's my new abbrev for today), but my guess would be that if this bug behaves like by all accounts a pretty mild flu everywhere else in the world, one would expect it to behave like a pretty mild flu in Mexico. Maybe it should be spreading faster or whatever if the hospitals are sup-par, and as such old folk and young children would be more at risk, but (and again, not an expert) I don't think it should be killing healthy young people in Mexico when everyone elsewhere has, well, manflu.

[cybik.livejournal.com]

True. I am waiting to see what happens though, since I don't think we're going to be able to predict what happens.

And I'm certainly not panicking - I think calling it manflu is probably right.. (That made me laugh madly for about a minute, by the way!)

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Wow, that first sentence I wrote was really ugly.