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Short Story - Looking Back

By Tony Whitehead

Diary entry - Monday 18th July 2050

Today is my 77th birthday, and although life has never been better, I still shudder at the memory of what we now call The Dark Days - the End of Days. A time when, over half my life ago, I thought I would not live to see this day.
Back in the first decade of this century, we lived in perpetual fear of an all-consuming beast known as Capitalism. Hell bent on power and greed, this beast blazed a trail across the globe leaving Death, Destruction, Famine, Injustice and Despair wherever it reared its ugly head.
It closed schools, choked the life out of hospitals, ran industry into the ground, sold off state institutions and amenities to the highest bidder, stole people’s hard earned pension funds, abandoned the young and - if it didn't throw them in jail for being unable to pay taxes - discarded the old.
It plundered the world's resources. It invaded countries under false premises leaving chaos and civil war in its wake. As the beast spat out its bile polluting the land, sea and air, the planet's ecosystems went haywire with floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and volcanoes destroying whole regions, killing thousands and leaving many more homeless and helpless.
The beast's ever-faithful servant and most powerful weapon was the media, which duly delivered misinformation and propaganda. Whipped up into a frenzy, many ordinary people became consumed by insecurity, hatred and self-loathing. As their anger grew they looked for someone or something to blame. Racial intolerance and religious zealotry spread like wildfire. Families fell apart, brother killed brother, mindless acts of vandalism and violence became a way of release. People turned to alcohol and drugs to escape. All the while the beast lived in the lap of luxury.
However, millions of people began to see through the propaganda and started to fight back. First independently, then growing in number and uniting against a common enemy, mass protests took place across the globe. Sometimes these protestors were discredited and demonised. Some were attacked by the beast's foot soldiers, with others injured or even killed. This only served to awaken more and more people to the cause. All over the world there was a constant voice demanding an end to the beast's reign of terror.
As the voices grew louder, the beast began to bare its teeth. Eventually the voice grew to such a deafening chorus that the beast's senses were attacked.
The beast let out an almighty roar and attacked without mercy.
It erected surveillance cameras everywhere, imposed curfews, set up no-go zones, introduced identity cards and ordered its foot soldiers to shoot-to-kill.
Everyone was targeted. Civil liberties and human rights were abused in the most horrific ways. Innocent people were arrested under the beast’s terrorism act and sent to detention centres to be tortured and brutalised; some were never seen again.

The battle raged on.

Millions and millions rallied the world over demanding change, an end to war and occupation, an end to poverty and hunger, an end to corruption and greed. Still the beast attacked.

Until finally PEOPLE STOPPED CONSUMING!!!

The beast was rendered powerless. Consumed by its own excesses it turned on itself and sometime around the winter solstice in the year 2012, it choked on its own vomit and died.
People everywhere took to the streets this time to celebrate.
Putting aside their differences and cooperating in survival; they reclaimed the land and farmed it to feed themselves. They re-established energy production using non-polluting and renewable energy sources.
Seeing hope, a barter system was introduced and every able-bodied person mucked in. Soon the people prospered. From then on there has been no more hunger, no more want, no more war, no more hate, no more greed and no more intolerance.
It was the dawning of a new age for mankind, one in which we have evolved to live in harmony.