Book 2
The Tale of Pike Vershevin
Chapter 15
Sorinesti Jones
From "Discourses by the Invisible", by Sorinesti Jones.
Published by University of New Toronto Press, copyright 2120
We are used to reading about North America from two view points. We read about North America from the books that survived the fall, written by people from North America's golden days. And we read about North America from the point of view of academics in Africa, India or the wealthier parts of Europe- but mostly Africa.
I have read nearly everything that I have been able to get my hands on. I have read many African books. The UNR (United North American Republic) publishes a large number of African titles. I think that they should publish more domestic titles. We have ghettoized ourselves. We have allowed ourselves to begin to think of North America, and ourselves by association, as the Third World, and less valuable than the other parts of the world. We should not judge the value of nations simply based on how well they survived the great collapse.
We have a great history behind us as a region. We have civilizations going back to the Iroquois Confederacy and the Mayans and the Anasazi. We housed the UN through the twentieth century and part of the twenty first. We created the first modern democracy with the Declaration of Independence. We mapped the human genome. We have much to be proud of in North America.
Yes, the region was hit hard by the collapse. Yes, we have much to rebuild- but as North Americans, we need to remember our history and use that as a foundation on which to rebuild our pride. Great cultures have slumped. Europe produced Rome and then hit the Dark Ages. Europe had the Renaissance and then declined. Europe build the European Union, and is once again rebuilding after the collapse.
The Oil Barons of the North American prairies are repressive and represent the worst traits of the Christian Religion, much in the way that many Islamic nations did in the twentieth century. But if the history of Islamic nations is any indicator, then the tyranny with which the Oil Barons are currently ruling will simply be a momentary blip.
The UNR remains a bastion of free speech and relative prosperity, even technological progress. They have extensive tidal power and wind power, they have a strong light rail. Yes, North America has the Wild Lands, the waste land of bandit strongholds in the southern USA, but it also has the UNR and the DRO (Democratic Republic of Oregon). Even the RNT (Republic of Northern Territories) deserves a mention, as it is not nearly as repressive as the Oil Baronies, even if it does ally with them on most things.
India holds far more prestige than North America right now, because it was able to remain solvent as a nation, where Canada, the United States and Mexico could not. But India is held together with metaphorical sticks and wire. I applaud the Indian government for being able to maintain solvency. But I think that the UNR is a more prosperous nation than India right now. India receives the accolades simply because it survived in largely the same form as before the collapse.
Of course Russia is the bear in the room that nobody wants to talk about or say 'boo' to. And I think that warrants a mention. Russia is publicly applauded for surviving the collapse intact, but let us be honest- that is not a good thing. Russia has become one of the most repressive regimes in the world, but its control of the Siberian farmland and so much of the remaining oil reserves means nobody wants to be rude to them. They are arguably more tyrannical than the Oil Baronies in North America, and yet it is North America who gets lectured to in the United Nations.
China receives the brunt of Russian aggression. Supposedly unclaimed lands that are clearly Chinese, or at least allied with the reunified North China, are annexed on a regular basis by Russia. And although Russian officials insist that there is no proof, it's is an open secret that Russia constantly incites violence between Chinese nations and then sends in peace keeping forces. The area is still considered to be 'at peace' by the UN. More than half of the Great Wall of China is under Russian 'supervision' as of this writing.
I look at Russia's tyranny, and China's fight to maintain control of their resources. I look at India's bureaucratic nightmares. And I think that perhaps North America is judged overly harshly.
Yes, we have large areas that are undeveloped, and dotted with ghost towns. Yes, we have cities like Seattle that are run by warlords. Yes, we have the Oil Baronies and their affronts to science, freedom of religion and women's rights. Yes, we have the Wild Lands. But that is not our whole story. The rest of the world should not judge North America on its problems alone. The RNT has managed to actually raise the per capita income of people living in that region since the collapse. That's right. The per capita income of people living in the RNT is three times what it was during the golden age. The UNR do not have the per capita income of Africa, or even Europe or Russia. But the inflation in the UNR is almost non-existent and the they are energy self-sufficient; one of the few nations that do not rely on The African electrical network.
We have much to be proud of in North America. Our ancestors left us with a crummy hand to play. They refused to switch away from fossil fuels as oil extraction's peak hit. They clung to coal as other fossil fuels declined. They never invested in an alternative to the car. They were not prepared for the mass migrations caused by climate change. This was the hand our ancestors dealt to modern North Americans.
We can look at surviving periodicals from that time and can see that North America, alone amongst the people of that time tried to deny the problems on the horizon. Given that hand, I think all North Americans alive today can stand tall and stand proud. If life were poker, any player dealt the hand our ancestors dealt to us would be out of the game by now. but we aren't out of the game. We've lost a lot of chips, but we're still in the game, and we even win a hand now and then.
Look at who we are with an eye to history and who we almost were, who we (by all rights) should have been, and we should feel very lucky. The collapse could have destroyed North America as completely as it destroyed Australia. With our massive dependence on highways to transport products and the lack of local food supplies, we should have all starved. With our over-dependence on petrochemical fertilizers and petrochemical pesticides, we should have seen the collapse of agriculture in North America and should have starved a second time. When climate change rendered the majority of Mexican land no longer arable, and Mexicans began a desperate migration northwards, it should have meant a full scale war, instead of the local skirmishes that did occur.
By the forties, the UNR and the DRO were up and running. Europe didn't re-establish a proper rule of law until the fifties. And it was 2045 before North China had any coherence. Cuba didn't re-colonise Central America until the sixties. And it was nearly the seventies when southern China unified under the name of Free China. And even in Africa, it wasn't until 2100 that the United Nations re-opened its doors in Cairo.
There is still much rebuilding to be done on all fronts, but I think that North Americans should remember the progress we have made and the victories we have achieved, even as we remain aware of the challenges that must be addressed.
The rest of the world seeks to label us with a single definition and the safely dismiss us. We are more diverse than that, we are more varied and layered than that. There is not one North America, but many, and all North Americans can take pride in that.
Editors Note: The Editors at U of NT Press would like to take this opportunity to point out that the views expressed by Mr. Jones are his and his alone and do not reflect those of The University of New Toronto Press or the University itself.
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