A little history of doom and gloom
Let’s try to unveil a disturbing story about what can happen if we neglect the development of science.
The Great, or Golden End of the World as some called it, was predicted for June 15, 2389.
Until that date, the great sages came with a cube. All previously announced doomsday failed miserably, so wise men thought about it, wrote many books about the phenomenon and finally concluded that no one can predict the date of the end of the world by chance.
That’s why they rolled the dice a billion times, and the first billion was shown on June 15, 2389.
Despite all the previous failures and the unfulfilled end of the world, this time an incredibly large number of people believed in the coming cataclysm, which showed that even after five thousand years of learning and developing science, people remained as gullible as before.
However, a few people were excited about the coming apocalypse, as if it was someone else’s fate, not the fate of all mankind. Only a few smaller religious sects, in fear of impending death, committed collective suicide 50 years before the end.
This madness of mankind began to spread four centuries earlier. It originated from a small, run-down European country, whose name has since become completely forgotten, so that even in history it was mentioned only incidentally and in footnotes, more like a geographical term.
Although semi-literate, the inhabitants of that country had a very high opinion of their knowledge and intelligence in particular. Maybe that’s why it shouldn’t be surprising that one year at the beginning of the 21st century in that country they decided that they didn’t need science and abolished the ministry.
It was a month after the Minister of Science submitted to Parliament a proposal for the country’s development plan based on increased investment in science. In his explanation, the minister pointed out that all advanced and developed countries base their prosperity on science, and this is a logical path for the country of which he is the minister of science.
After a short discussion, the Parliament adopted the plan in its entirety, and the following month, the government, as part of measures to rationalize work, abolished the aforementioned ministry.
Reactions to this kind of government decision were almost immediate and numerous comments from citizens appeared in the newspaper.
Here’s the question: HOW MANY SCIENTISTS HAVE THE ABILITY OF ONE BLACKSMITH?
A blacksmith will forge and temper a blade and it will be in use for several decades, and I have not yet found a single factory-made one. It seems to me that quantity and economic profit are more important than quality.”
But that was just the beginning of the process.
As the global crisis hit, which led to the closing of many factories and mass layoffs, the government was faced with a lack of new investments to boost the economy.
Economists suggested investing in agriculture, tourism and new technologies. In order to recover the economy, the government raised a substantial international loan and invested that money in the construction of churches throughout the country.
There were those who resented it, but several politicians explained in their numerous appearances in the media that religious temples are needed by the people in these difficult times and they won the next elections smoothly.
Several businessmen shyly stated that this money would be better invested in the construction of factories and institutes because it brings new jobs, but the church authorities drew their attention to the fact that there are spiritual values above material ones, and the tradition that says that the church has always beeen, even in the most difficult times, with its people.
These measures of the government did not go unnoticed in the international framework and the northern neighbor abolished its Ministry of Culture within four months!
Over time, the governments of other countries saw the benefit of systematic dumbing down, so they too began to abolish the ministries of science, culture, education, etc.
In a few years, the system gained global proportions. Those environments that resisted were conquered. Thus began the Second Middle Ages.
Some analysts predicted that the new Middle Ages would be a passing phenomenon and would end in a few dozen years, at most. They believed that technological and scientific achievements and the habit of modern man to live at a high technological level will not allow further deterioration.
Those analysts were later in history called sociological optimists.
Pessimists once again predicted the fall of all humanity to the very bottom. Later events proved them wrong: the Second Middle Ages were much worse than they estimated!
However, from the point of view of the consciousness of the man of the Middle Ages, the new, or second, Middle Ages progressed brilliantly.
The governments made an unwritten alliance with the churches and thus, on the basis of mutual interest, ruled without friction. Oh, they didn’t agree among themselves, on the contrary.
They constantly pulled everyone to their side, sometimes they even went to war, but as soon as someone outside their system of administration raised their voice, the united efforts of both the government and the church would eliminate him. And they did all this in the name of the people and God.
In any case, the people were happy. New cases of the embezzlement of huge amounts of money only contributed to the trust in church institutions, because church dignitaries, serious faces, frowning eyebrows, with raised index fingers slowly uttered wise words about the wisdom of the people who know best how much they owe to the church.
The first serious problems appeared when there was a breakdown in telecommunications. Since there were fewer and fewer engineers, it was more and more difficult to spot and eliminate the malfunction in a timely manner.
The annoyed mass of the righteous responded to that with massacres more than once.
In order to retaliate, they also killed the few remaining telecommunications experts. Thus, communications were slowly reduced to messengers and drummers. The problem was obvious, and it was interpreted as the revenge of the higher forces due to the conspiracy of the scientists of the world.
Many convincing evidence were found about this conspiracy: books with various schemes and formulas that scientists exchanged among themselves, sometimes quite brazenly, in front of others. There was no more for such mercy. Then the water ran out.
The doom was gaining momentum and in six months the world went back a thousand years. Within a year, the Bronze Age began. Two years later, on June 15, 2389, some specimens of the healed beings were seen screaming and clinging to the trees.
The circle closed, and some new creatures got their chance.
