There Is Something Wrong with the World

Humanity rampages out of control, convinced of its own magnificence and lost in its own hubris. Age after age they believe that whatever paradigm they live within is the pinnacle of human achievement, only to see their age and the truths that grounded and defined that age laughed at by those who live in the age that follows. There is no succor, seemingly no hope that this madness will ever end. And it is madness – how else to describe a system that so many hate and yet live in all their lives, refusing to do anything to change the systems that have been erected around them.

Environment – The world is dying. Dozens of species go extinct every week, driven to the point where they can no longer survive by factors they cannot control. Forests are culled, the oceans are barren, the air is poisoned, the ice caps are melting. Climate change and other such warnings are derided as liberal propaganda while the evidence mounts and nothing is done. Short term thinking – five or ten years at most – yields large profits in that time period but makes the world ever worse for the decades to come after, leading to ever decreasing yields of profits and resources. Panic of the wrong variety ensues and ever more plans are put in place that ravage the world further and soon nothing will be left.

Corruption – Everyone knows, deep down, that good and evil exist – not just as concepts but as events. Evil is a proactive element that forces change regardless of the consequences while Good keeps evil in check and maintains those changes that work for the benefit of all. A cycle as old as time, as old as concept, but in the modern era it’s been corrupted to the point where the very idea of good and evil seem laughable. The good do nothing and evil rampages at the behest of those who benefit from those few moments that they let evil do anything. Both sides, good and evil alike, have become corrupt at the behest of some unknown third party and it doesn’t look like things will ever get any better than this.

Crime – Where faith in the system wanes crime thrives. On a subconscious level people realize that there’s no way out, that there’s no chance for them to escape the systems that dominate their lives. They rebel as best they can and become a dark reflection of the system that they rebelled from, feeding that system and unwittingly becoming a part of it. What looks like a way out is just another trap, what looks like change is just another form of the control that everyone seems to be trapped by. Those that might have become more become mired in lawlessness, those that could achieve greatness waste their lives in fear… and all the while worldwide suffering increases and nothing gets any better.

Ignorance – A mass of information and information tools exist but the knowledge that is there is ignored in favor of sound bites and bigotry. People blame those different from themselves, quote disinformation and slander as truth, and refuse to learn or think of anything other than what’s there. Minorities of all kinds suffer from stereotypes and, given no other choice, end up slinking further and further towards becoming those stereotypes in truth. Knowing is ignored in favor of fanaticism, truth-tellers reviled while empty gods sit on the pedestal of celebrity and reign in adoration for no better reason other than they can. Nothing changes and it seems that nothing ever will.

Politics – Those that seek to rule are liars and cheats. Almost every politician has been involved in a scandal or caught lying at one point or another, yet they seem to possess a talent for staying in power and influencing the lives of thousands – and only rarely do they seem to take into account the consequences of their actions when those actions lead to personal gain. The rulers of the world seek power for its own sake, seek to rule out of a childish longing for importance, control, and reward, and no one stops them from doing what they want. Even those that leave the system feed into the plans of politics – their absence creating one less thing to worry about while marginalizing the few that may be capable of making a difference.

Nihilism – Humans are social animals who look to one another for reason and understanding about themselves and the world around them. Blessed with an amazing array of senses and an understanding of pattern, humanity has pulled itself from the muck and realized much of the divinity that is inherent within itself – or so the legend goes. Something, somewhere, went very wrong. Now, tho,se senses see everything that has gone wrong and faith is lost, faith in self, in others, in everything. A grim nihilism takes hold, excusing a lack of action and justifying the cruelty and atrocity that plagues the world, stifling the heroism that would be necessary to take the world back from the brink of disaster.

Now, imagine there’s an actual group of people maliciously responsible for all of this – a parasite culture that has insinuated itself worldwide, that enforces these problems for their own benefit, that has ruled the world for six thousand years and continues to do so today with no end in sight. They are powerful, established, capable, and utterly ruthless. Imagine becoming aware of this parasite culture and seeing the damage they have wrought and the damage they continue to perpetuate for what sounds far too much like a holy war. It begs one very important question, this awareness, a question that your characters must ask themselves and one another: What are you going to do about it?