“…The invisible webs of Comus [Communications U.S.], drawn taut and singing with tension as Prowlers policed the roads of the nation, sifting the population man by man through psycho-polling research. They kept the electronic computers humming day and night, straight around the clock.”
Catherine
Lucille (C.L.) Moore (1911-1987) wrote those words sixty years ago in her dystopian
novel, Doomsday Morning (1957).
The
novel is filled with ideas familiar to us today — a militarized police
force, domestic surveillance and data collection, routine retina and fingerprint
scans, and the shaping of public opinion through controlled media.
A
remarkably accurate vision of our world in 2016.
The World of Doomsday Morning is Stagnant
Moore’s
novel is placed in the early part of the 21st century. Although we
don’t have an exact year, careful hints suggest a date on or near 2003. It’s a
sane and stable world, set up by an American dictator, named Andrew Raleigh. Raleigh
took power after the “Five Days War.” The war’s name suggests an Atomic War, as
it was thought, at that time, that a nuclear exchange would be devastating and
quick, leaving a surviving population in shambles but salvageable, at least in
part.
“To hold the country safe, Raleigh had had to hold it rigid…The young men and women with new ideas had to be controlled. No matter how high they might test…if they could threaten, even latently, the social order Raleigh and Comus were founded on, then they must never receive training or acquire skills….”
Our
hero is Howard Rohan, a washed-up actor who’s become a Cropper, an indentured
migrant worker dropped to the lowest level of American society. Rohan
used to be someone important and the Secretary of Communications remembers him.
The government plucks Rohan out of an alcoholic stupor to do a job for them.
To
the people of that world, Comus represents stability and safety. There’s food and
alcohol available to everyone, as well as housing, although with the Croppers
these needs are minimally met.
A
police presence is ubiquitous, and so are visual reminders of President
Raleigh, who is considered a benign, larger-than-life figure. But Raleigh is
old now, and sick. His death is imminent. Will his surveillance state survive him? High-level Comus officials refuse to be thrown under the bus when Raleigh dies,
they’ll secure Comus’ future at any cost.
Predictably,
there’s an underground movement with plans to bring freedom back to the United States.
The rebels have a device called the Anti-Com,
which is secretly being built somewhere in California. We don’t learn what the
Anti-Com is until the very end of the book, when it blows the country wide open.
Rohan
is used by both sides, the government and the rebels. Eventually, he figures
out which side he’s really on and that he cares more for freedom than his lost status.
Did Moore have a crystal ball, or what?
In
the 1950’s, as today, there are checks and balances in the Western world to
prevent the rise of a despotic surveillance state.
Here
are two big ones:
·
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, adopted by
the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
o
Article
12 — “No one shall be
subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the
right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
o
Article
18 — “Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his
religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and
in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.”
o
Article
19 — “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.”
·
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
o
The
Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, "[t]he right of the
people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to
be seized."
“The ultimate goal of this provision is to protect people’s right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary governmental intrusions.”
“The ultimate goal of this provision is to protect people’s right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary governmental intrusions.”
Governments
aren’t supposed to intrude upon their citizens’ freedoms, and in the 1950’s
people believed this to be true.
Quality
science fiction writers, like Moore, speculate on the future. Many times,
they’re off-base. But not this time.
Are we living Doomsday Morning?
In
this short video, “Who Really Rules The United States," Edward Snowden, discusses his reasons for
becoming a government whistleblower. He claims to have seen government programs
of mass surveillance and data gathering, conducted by people who were
constitutionally-protected.
But
Snowden’s not the only one claiming that the government’s monitoring and
controlling the people of the United States.
There’s
a lot of discussion in the alternative media about clandestine data collection,
mainstream media being corporate or governmentally-controlled, terror events
which may or may not be false flags, rigged financial markets, and even
impending marital law. There’s a great deal of concern about terrorism and
civil rights disturbances on American streets, as well as an ever-growing
militarized police force. In 2016, we’re seeing an unprecedented presidential campaign
which would be funny, if the potential results weren’t so dire.
If
the freedoms and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were thrown
out, a media-controlled and manipulated police state might evolve, similar to the
one shown in Doomsday Morning.
Stop this bus! I want to get off
At
the end of the novel, the Anti-Com
is set off by the rebels. The weapon’s clearly meant to be an EMP (electromagnetic
pulse) or “radioflash” bomb.The Anti-Com immediately
disables all communications networks and sets up a resonating feedback loop which
keeps them from functioning, ever after.
Everything that uses electricity stops dead, including cars and planes, which fall
from the sky.
The
rebels have people spread out across the country and are set up to help the
shocked and waking citizenry.
Rohan contemplates the future in the last pages of the novel. “A new world lay ahead. All I could be sure of was that it would be a harsh world, full of sweat and bloodshed and uncertainty. But a real world, breathing and alive.”
The
artificial controls of Comus are broken and Americans are yanked awake, startlingly
free from their Comus-induced, sugar-coated slumbers.
Moore
presents a dystopian world that is not appealing, but which we seem to be
approaching quickly. All that’s lacking is a limited nuclear exchange and a
charismatic president.
I’m
not suggesting this in humor but rather, in concern, as there’s also chatter on the internet
of World War III between the US and China, or Russia.
Personally,
I don’t believe it’ll come to that. But Moore’s book describes a pretty convincing
scenario for what might happen if it did.
I'll close with another quote, this one from John Adams, 2nd
President of the United States.
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”
Think
carefully about your rights, no one has the authority to take them from you.
Comments
are welcome.
