The Wannabe 14: WWFFCD?

Starting with this installment I plan to go into some detail on the various political bodies and races I outlined back in #12.

To be honest, I feel like Francis Ford Coppola when he made Apocalypse Now. Anyone who’s seen the documentary on that film, Hearts of Darkness knows what I mean. That movie was big, really, really big. He kept saying so, it was so big. It got so big it got away from him.

I feel a lot like that. I have a goal to have a publishable form by 2006, thirty years since the first edition was published. By then I plan to publish the darn thing, whether its a free download net publication or I actually manage to get a real publishing deal worked out by then, Starfaring will be done by 2006.

Hopefully, I’ll get it done way before that, but we’ll have to see how that all pans out.

With this episode, I’ve set a precedent for tone, fell and organization I hope to break really, really soon. This article reads with all the organization of a pile of dirty socks. I cannot apologize enough for that.

But it’s too big. And now let’s get to it.

When I outlined the major races and political bodies in Starfaring I had described the Terran Federation as Nazis.

That’s not a wholly accurate description. It’s not totally inaccurate, either, but the word “Nazi” is loaded. You simply say it and people immediately think you’re a racist. I’m no expert on the subject, but I sincerely doubt that Nazism is entirely about race. Many have begrudgingly admitted that the Third Reich has been one of the more efficient economic and political structures the world has ever seen. Based on this, it simple can’t be all about race.

I don’t know, maybe it is. For some reason this all makes me think of Michael Jackson.

Picture it! 1995! Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed King of Pop releases his first boxed set encompassing his incredible career. To promote it, a mini-movie like commercial is filmed. It depicts marching armies, cheering masses and a huge statue of the man himself. Some people notice a similarity between the commercial and an old WWII movie “Riefenstahl” or “Triumph of the Will” from the Third Reich. Jackson denied every seeing this film.

Personally, I think he screwed up there. He should have said, “yes I did see Triumph of the Will and I thought it was a beautiful piece of film, but it was about the Nazis and that nearly ruined it for me. So I decided to remake it, but having it be about me. I do not stand for the same things the Nazis did. This way, everyone could enjoy it.”

Actually, that probably would have backfired big time. Some people can find a racial agenda in the menu at the Carnegie Deli. Denying it made it look like he was hiding something. Admitting it would probably have gotten him picketed or worse.

Well, Mr. Jackson and his career are neither here nor there for our purposes. We’re talking about the Terrans in Starfaring. And whatever they are, they are definitely NOT Nazis.

As far as human races go, they are pretty much fully integrated. How nice that Dr. King’s dream will finally come true in the year One Million. Pity it took hatred and fear of alien races to do it.

The Terran Federation is a totalitarian civilization, with absolute control being exerted by the government for the benefit of its citizens. This means compulsory education and precise testing to place people in the profession to which they are best suited. Special identification passes are required to go anywhere. If you want to move, transfer to a better job or just go off to visit the in-laws, you must ask for permission. And you may get denied for no apparent reason. A mate is also chosen for you to assure genetically superior offspring. And everywhere are the Police, checking papers, keeping order, watching your every move.

It sounds like a hard life, and it is a hard life. But the citizenry of the Federation are not without their happiness. The are well cared for by their government. They lead productive, useful lives. They are kept safe by their military, “which is second to none,” as they often proclaim with pride. In short, most Terrans are perfectly happy with the way things are, and well they should be.

What caused the Terrans to become what they are? Simple: competition. The discovery of the fact that we are not alone in the universe awakened a sense of racial pride in Earth people of all races. Suddenly, ethnic differences didn’t seem to matter as much anymore. They still matter, just not as much as the bond between all human beings. Similar to the situation if you put a Catholic, a Protestant and a Shintoist in the same room. The Catholic and the Protestant usually don’t get along, but with the Shintoist there, they can focus on their similarities. “Hey, that Jesus guy is great, isn’t he?” “Sure is, Bill.”

Terran space naturally centers on the planet Earth that naturally serves as the capitol. The planet isn’t quite what you would expect after a few hundred millennia. That is, it isn’t all dark and gritty, completely industrialized and strip-mined out. There are indeed cities, beautiful cities, but there are large portions of the planet devoted to agriculture a good sized portions are kept in a natural state of unspoiled wilderness. It gives a sense of organization, a place for everything and everything in its place.

Yellowstone still exists, and Old Faithful is as reliable as ever. However the steam pocket that fed Old Faithful has been spent for thousands of years. They had to rig the geyser to a steam machine to keep it going. Naturally they haven’t told anyone about this.

This reflects a common attitude in the Federation. Do not let the common people know the truth if it won’t help them. It is that Big Brother mentality. Big Brother does care, however, and does what he thinks is for the best. It just isn’t always so.

Another thing unexpected is the planet isn’t all that crowded as you’d expect at the million-year mark. Cities are crowded, but no more so than today. The obvious answer is all the excess population is out in space. There are literally thousands, possible millions of worlds settled by humans or in tandem with other races. Not all of these worlds are part of the Federation. Some are part of the Empire or smaller alliances. Some consider themselves completely independent, regardless of how true that may actually be.

The chief executive of the Federation is called the President. I’m an American. That’s the title I like. Sue me.

I see a black man as the current President, like Avery Brooks from Deep Space Nine. Better yet, Tony Todd. Candyman for President. Isn’t that sweet? Todd has sharper features and a charismatic air about him that makes me choose him as the model for the leader of the Federation. Samuel L. Jackson has a bit more charisma, but he’s a tad too,...hip? Is that the word? There’s something more reserved in Todd comparatively speaking.

I may change this for two reasons: 1)

Actually, I may keep the black president. I see him as a hard, yet fair leader. And perhaps the fact that he’s black will allow for some nifty McGuffins.

One idea I was toying with that I will definitely not use is somehow working the Confederate flag somewhere into the Federation imagery. My reasoning was along these lines, after the human race made interstellar contact they pulled together in humanistic pride. Humans are the best, they’d say. Somehow, after centuries the racial, white supremacist connotation to the flag got mutated into a race supremacist connotation. It not longer means white pride and down with blacks. It means human pride and down with alien races.

This is entirely possible, maybe even probable, that the meaning of symbols such as the Confederate flag will be completely different but I won’t be doing it. Because it’s not 1,000,000 AD, it’s 2001 AD. We don’t live a world where the Confederate flag has no meaning. We live in a world where the Confederate flag means hatred to too many people.

It’s just a symbol but an extremely loaded symbol. Not that I want to shy away from controversy. It’s just that the whole idea is just kind of an afterthought, a bit of whimsy. Well the reaction would be anything but whimsical. Keeping that in mind, it’s probably a pretty good idea to not use loaded symbols like the Confederate flag or the Nazi Swastika unless I have a really, really good reason.

Even then I’d better reconsider. That’s just how it is.

Anyway, as far as mankind itself after eight hundred millennia, I don’t see too much change at all. This may snap suspenders of disbelief but there’s a reason for it. It may be probable that mankind will evolve in many ways by the One Million AD, but what those changes are I haven’t the faintest idea. I don’t put too much stock in evolution, anyway. Genetic engineering on the other hand,... But what will that give us? Stonger, faster, smarter, perhaps, but outwardly what will be different? I’m willing to hypothesize very little. This is actually for the best. I hope to make so much different in Starfaring, I need something familiar. Plain old ordinary human beings will be helpful. It’ll give the average person something to relate to.

Well, with at least one difference. This was suggested on the Article Comments Forum and I like it enough to use it. I think I was already toying with the idea or not before hand, but Thanks M.J. for pushing it forward. The difference is humans have a much longer life span than they do today. These days most people can look forward to maybe 70-90 years of life, and diseases hamper the last couple decades and the general frailty old age brings. In the far future, humans can look forward to nearly a thousand years of healthy, active life.

I’m not a religious man, but I do carry around a brand of Christian dogma with me. From this, I recall that Adam lived over nine hundred years, as did many of his earliest descendants. Somewhere, it is said the God, unhappy with man’s life span cut it down, actually cutting it down three times if I recall correctly , to the eighty or so years we’ve all come to expect, barring accidents. I believe that the ability to live nearly nine hundred years exists somewhere in our genes, only overwritten by the eighty-year patch, so to speak. In this way, longevity isn’t that ridiculous a feature to my way of thinking.

In fact, by 1,000,000AD it’s probably gotten old, living so long. I can imagine long, depressing poetry about how the years weigh you down and other such prattle. “Life is short,” we often say. What would happen to us if that was no longer true? A decade can seem like a long time sometimes. Imagine you had over seven hundred to look forward to?

I’ll have to think about that.

According to my word counter I have over two thousand words written already, and I could probably go another two thousand easily, just on the Terran Federation. But I still have to talk about the Galactic Empire and the various alien races. I had planned to have around thirty alien races, but at present I only have ideas for about seven.

However, if I manage to write two thousand words a week in this column, with an addition of roughly two thousand words that does not get into the column, I ought to have a decent-sized game by 2006.

This is a big project and I’m doing it all by myself. I have purchased some paints and canvas boards because I plan to do the art myself, in spite of the fact I haven’t painted since high school.

It’s a one-man show, and I’m doing it all. If I manage to pull it off, it will be excessively cool. However, the only way that will happen is if some rich relative dies and they leave me enough money to get this off the ground.

I should probably go get myself some rich relatives.

Chances are, as the project progresses I’ll have to get some help. Especially if it is turns out to be a commercial project. At which point, I’ll probably have to hire an artist and my own work will only serve as a guide.

It’s big. Really, really big.

What Francis Ford Coppola Do? I’ve noticed that a lot of things in The Bible happen three times before they get it right. Apparently this includes God.