The Miracle

Editor's note: I had a dream about this whole hot mess the world finds itself in. I wanted to share my vision, but I struggled to put it into words until I decided to write it as a short short story. Other than the odd poem (not very often and very odd), I haven't posted anything like a short story at the The Revolution Continues before. This is a first. I've not written much fiction in recent times because, frankly, I don't feel like writing anything funny or with a happy ending. My last novella is set in a dystopian world where an anarchist commune that practices mutual aid is struggling to survive alongside a fascist state. My publisher insisted it at least have a "happy for now" ending. (You can buy a copy of it here. It would make my publisher very happy. Or you can drop me a donation via my Paypal.me page here. That would make me very happy!)

If you decide you'd like to read more short fiction posts, let me know. I'll see what I can do. If you'd rather I didn't post fiction here, leave a comment stating your preference. Thanks for your feedback.

 

A must-watch short video:

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power.

The Miracle

by C.A. Matthews

“That’s my planet,” I confessed, trembling. I pointed to the big blue marble that is Earth through the spaceship observation port. The tallest of the grayish, bulb-headed, big-eyed, mouthless alien beings nodded in understanding. “You can tell it’s inhabited from the amount of pollution in the atmosphere detectable from this… height.”

I’d never believed in alien abduction before, but now that it was happening to me it didn’t seem all that bad. No anal probes. No poking or prodding of any kind really, unless you count the mental probing my hosts—I hated to label them “my captors”—had gently done to determine how best to communicate with me. I spoke out loud, but I realized fairly quickly that they were reading my mind and communicating me mentally, so using my vocal cords wasn’t necessary. Talking just made me feel less nervous in their presence, and they didn’t seem to mind.

The pollutants and toxins in your biosphere are slowly killing your kind and many other species. Do you understand? The tallest of the aliens sent its thoughts directly into my head. Its tone and intonation made me imagine it was coming from an older, wiser individual. It communicated slowly and kindly as if speaking to a lost child. Would you like them removed?

“The pollution, you mean, not the people, right?” I laughed and then gasped as what it meant hit me fully. “You’re saying that you all can actually clean up our polluted planet after all we’ve done to it?”

Yes, we have the means to return your planet’s biosphere to its state before the mass burning of fossil fuels began. We can purge the toxins from the atmosphere, the water cycle, and from the soil. Crops and forests will thrive. No longer will adverse climate effects harm food production or the wildlife. We can replace the engines that run your vehicles, machinery, and industrial plants that cause pollution and radiation with ones that do not. We can eliminate rogue viruses and bacteria that cause serious illness and provide your healers with instruction on how to cure through natural means, not through the use of synthetic chemicals. Allow us to demonstrate.

With a wave of its hand—or what I thought would pass as a hand on Earth—Tall Guy gave its compatriots the signal to start Operation Earth Clean-Up. I’m not sure if what I witnessed from the spaceship window happened instantaneously or was happening over a period of days, years, or centuries, but within what seemed only a few short minutes to me the face of the Earth looked much greener and bluer and...well, healthier.

“Wow…” I whispered. “Thank you! I am very impressed. No more bad air quality days? No more boil warnings for our tap water? I can actually swim in the lake now and not get covered with an outbreak of poisonous blue-green algae?”

We have purged the toxins that are hazardous to life on your planet, my host mentally informed me. Your kind can be cured of sicknesses now with simple medicines and techniques available to all.

“No more need for bad health insurance that never covers what you really need? Cancer cured? It all sounds too good to be true.” I shook my head in disbelief. “In my country, big corporations make lots of money from keeping people sick and addicted to drugs.”

Tall Guy blinked. If it had possessed a mouth, it might have frowned. The concept of capitalism was probably as foreign and strange to my hosts as their spaceship and advanced technology were to me. If they were reading my mind at that moment, they might have regretted lavishing such kind gifts upon our selfish species.

Is there anything else we can do for your kind before we return you? Tall Guy asked.

I couldn’t wait to return to Earth—the beautiful, unpolluted Garden of Eden where sickness would be no more. I sighed. There was something niggling me in the back of my mind. I had to know if my hosts could grant me this one last, grand wish.

“Can you rid our world of war? Can you remove all the weapons—that is, the tools of violence and destruction? Guns, cannons, nukes, tanks, submarines, bomber jets and the like that humans use to kill other humans?”

Tall Guy blinked again. I was pretty sure this time it was frowning inside even without a mouth. I probably had asked too big of a favor. After all, extracting pollution out of the biosphere could be just an elaborate chemical equation to them, but taking weapons away from warmongers? If the concepts of capitalism and greed were incomprehensibly horrible and cruel to my hosts, can you imagine what they would have thought of humanity’s insatiable need to slaughter their neighbors and steal each others’ land and resources?

A few minutes later, after much discussion as I called my hosts’ method of communicating as a group by touching their foreheads together, I got my answer.

We will try.

It took more than a hand wave from Tall Guy to bring peace about on Planet Earth. Several different groups of gray aliens started to work out different aspects of the challenge. I was allowed to walk about and watch each team tackle their part of the problem. I watched a view screen with fascination as one group disintegrated the biggest and most obvious weapons of war. They focused what must have been a laser upon an aircraft carrier and then poof! It was vaporized. Gone. Likewise to nuclear subs and battleships. The sailors aboard were all magically transported to the closest port.

I couldn’t help but clap my hands with glee as another group took out an entire fleet of bombers and nuclear silos. Zap! They disappeared.

But my hosts didn’t stop there. Another group worked on eliminating all the small arms and automatic weapons on the planet. I’m not sure how their scanners could pick up on the millions of firearms, some of which were hidden in cellars and barns by the thousands in my country, but they did it. Abracadabra! They vanished.

Wars aren’t only fought on the battlefields, but in the cities and towns where the oppressed are helpless to defend themselves. Several groups of my gray hosts worked on tearing down barbwire fences and concrete walls that had imprisoned so many within their own homelands or kept them from entering a place of safety. I don’t know how they did it, but my hosts flung open the prison doors that had incarcerated freedom fighters and innocents alike, setting them free.

In turn, the politicians and the corporate war lords who had profited greatly from eternal wars for oil and similar land grabs were escorted by invisible forces to trade places with the unjustly imprisoned. Ta-da! What a brilliant move!

The destruction of homes, family farms, and small businesses, the results of the wars and genocides, was instantly reversed. Homelessness and hunger were no more. All who had been separated by violence and divisions were once again reunited with their family members and friends.

I wept tears of joy.

It is accomplished, Tall Guy communicated to me. Why do you experience sadness?

“I’m not sad. I’m happy.” I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and gazed upon one of the view screens where a neighborhood, once reduced to rubble by bombing, now stood whole and complete. “I am so happy with the results of your wonderful talents. How can we ever thank you?”

And then I caught a glimpse of something on the screen that caused my smile to fade. “What the hell… What is he doing?”

A man picked up a rock and threw it hard at another man just about to enter his rebuilt home. The second man fell to his knees, blood pouring from a deep gash on his forehead. The first man and his group ran toward the second man’s home, throwing more rocks at it as well as the people of the rebuilt neighborhood.

“I thought you had eliminated all war?” I whispered.

My hosts assembled and pressed their foreheads together in communion. After a long minute, Tall Guy approached, its appendages spread open in an imploring fashion.

We eliminated all the human-made tools of war and violence as you had asked us to, but we cannot take away the feelings of hatred and greed and fear from inside each human being. That is something humanity must do for itself. Do you understand?

I nodded and closed my eyes. “I understand. I appreciate all that you’ve done for us. I realize now that I can’t expect you to perform a miracle.”

A miracle? Explain.

“Something that seems impossible, but it can and does spontaneously occur on rare occasions.”

Tall Guy nodded. Its gaze appeared softer, more sympathetic. No, we cannot perform a miracle. We cannot change the minds of living beings set on hurting others.

“How long will it take until humankind rebuilds all the weapons it had?” I sniffed. “Years? Months? Days?”

Not long. Tall Guy’s tone registered upon my mind as resignation.

I turned toward the window. The skies above the Earth were growing darker and dirtier by the second. Humans were already rebuilding the polluting factories to create instruments of death, to destroy each other and Earth’s fragile ecosystem without mercy.

Can we help? Tall Guy communicated to me.

I slowly smiled at my gracious hosts. “We’d all better start praying for that miracle, or else I’ve wasted your time.”

This meme of Israeli girls writing their names on bombs to drop on Gaza is a couple months old. Recent estimates say 15,000+ children have been murdered in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

We can put an end to this genocide. We have the power. https://youtu.be/ysZVQpTJVH8?si=1tIiR3JBSPbTKdBg

The Majority of Americans Now Disapprove of Israel’s Genocide, Polling Finds  https://truthout.org/articles/the-majority-of-americans-now-disapprove-of-israels-genocide-polling-finds/

'This Is Unforgivable': Israeli Airstrike Kills 7 World Central Kitchen Workers https://www.commondreams.org/news/world-central-kitchen-israel

Latest Huge Transfer of 2,000-Pound Bombs from U.S. to Israel Not Newsworthy to the New York Times  https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/03/latest-huge-transfer-of-2000-pound-bombs-from-u-s-to-israel-not-newsworthy-to-the-new-york-times/

The 'Human Shields' Lie Has Been Conclusively, Irrefutably Debunked  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-human-shields-lie-has-been-conclusively

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/05/doctor-at-israeli-detention-camp-for-gazans-blows-whistle-on-war-crimes/

Biden Has Had the Power to Stop Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza Since Day 1 https://truthout.org/articles/biden-has-had-the-power-to-stop-israels-war-crimes-in-gaza-since-day-1/

US military veteran refuses to pay fine after being found guilty over Hamas sign  https://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/national/24226377.us-military-veteran-refuses-pay-fine-found-guilty-hamas-sign/

Israel Keeps Getting More Murderous https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-keeps-getting-more-murderous

Six Months Of Hell On Earth https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/six-months-of-hell-on-earth

The Chris Hedges Report: Hamas: How Israel Created Its Own Nemesis https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/02/the-chris-hedges-report-hamas-how-israel-created-its-own-nemesis/

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes

Courageous Active Duty Air Force Airman On White House Hunger Strike For Gaza https://mark192.substack.com/p/a-true-patriotic-member-of-the-military

Will President Biden Pardon America's First Corporate Political Prisoner? https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/will-president-biden-pardon-americas

International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/international-court-issues-first-ever-decision-enforcing-the-right-to-a-healthy-environment/

The Key Bridge disaster was caused by the oppression of workers https://therealnews.com/the-key-bridge-disaster-was-caused-by-the-oppression-of-workers

Looking Back At The Flint Water Crisis  https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/looking-back-at-the-flint-water-crisis

Epic Fail: The Forever Failure of America’s Failed Forever Wars https://tomdispatch.com/epic-fail/

Chris Hedges: The Death of Amr  https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/03/chris-hedges-the-death-of-amr/

Stop Reporting On Biden's Angry Feelings Toward Israel. It's Not News. It's Not Interesting. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-reporting-on-bidens-angry-feelings

Israel Lets Some Aid Into Gaza So The US Will Keep Giving It Weapons To Kill People In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-lets-some-aid-into-gaza-so

As Support For Gaza Goes Mainstream, Don't Let The Empire Co-Opt The Movement https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/as-support-for-gaza-goes-mainstream

How World Central Kitchen serves Israel’s genocidal agenda https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-world-central-kitchen-serves-israels-genocidal-agenda

“Netanyahu’s Colonial Project”. Appropriation of All Palestinian Lands. Israel’s Plan to Expand into A “Greater State” https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-quest-palestinian-free-palestine-continues/5853557

Big Oil Clouded the Science on Extreme Weather. Now It Faces a Reckoning https://scheerpost.com/2024/04/06/big-oil-clouded-the-science-on-extreme-weather-now-it-faces-a-reckoning/ 

The Real Reason The US Wants To Ban TikTok https://youtu.be/xEDGZlG_41k

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Is This A Dystopian Novel?

 

Is This A Dystopian Novel?

(Or Is It Reality?)

by C.A. Matthews

 

I’m writing this on the way home from an annual science fiction convention we’ve attended for many years. My husband and I primarily speak on writing craft and publishing topics, but sometimes we’re asked to be on panel discussions dealing with the intersection between fiction and reality. How does SF (speculative fiction) show us the current situation humanity finds itself in or even our possible future?

Wise words from a famous science fiction author

I happened to land on a panel called “The Handmaid’s Tale: Fear and Social Dystopia.” (Excellent topic idea!) We were to discuss how this best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, and the more recent streaming television series based upon it, reflects the horror of discrimination American women currently face and how it could be a prediction of even scarier things to come.

Of course, since I was on the panel, the discussion soon wandered into what I see as the novel’s true premise. The story of the abused and enslaved handmaids isn’t a dystopian tale of the near-future or an alternate future but an accurate reflection of both our current and past American society. Atwood, as a Canadian, is in an excellent position to see us as a sympathetic outsider and point out painful things that Americans have blocked from our cultural memories. There is much for us to learn from her discerning eye.  

Is the USA in reality the mythical “Gilead”? Why do we not see the red-caped young women marching in lines and “the wall,” the place where dissidents and non-believers are hung for their crimes against the state and their bodies left hanging as a warning to others? My contention is that these two things do in fact exist, albeit in slightly different forms.

When the US imprisons whistleblowers and journalists (such as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange) because they revealed horrific torture operations done in our name by the US military, the CIA and others at the Abu Ghraib Prison and at our very own extrajudicial detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, are we not in reality hanging these brave souls from “the wall”? Are we not using their slow deaths in prison and exile to scare other potential whistleblowers not to do likewise? Isn’t dangling their reputations in front of the mainstream media (aka “the wall”) and making false charges against them a deterrent to others emboldened to expose the immorality and corruption of the US government?

When cops murder people of color in cold blood for minor traffic violations or for simply sleeping in their own beds, is this not a kind of state execution or “the wall” that tells others to stay quiet and obey their white masters and don’t fight for their rights? When the police use teargas and rubber bullets on protesters and striking workers, isn’t this putting them on “the wall” to kill their hopes and dreams for a better future for all?

The US now spends more money on militarizing our local police departments than most countries—including Russia—spend on their actual military. No other country has 800+ military bases scattered all over the globe. The closest is China with about eight bases. The US has the largest military budget in the world, one that is more than the other top ten nations combined, and yet it has no money available for health care, education, or housing for all its citizens.

Now, which country reminds you of the fascistic/militaristic realm of Gilead—the country who recently announced that poverty had been eradicated within their borders (China) or the one that has criminalized homelessness in many municipalities (USA)? “The wall” presents injustices along with rotting corpses of those the state doesn’t want.

What about the red capes and the rapes of the handmaids/ concubines? Atwood purposefully had her handmaids wrapped in “bloody cloths” or red capes, a symbol of birth and sacrifice. These young women are the heifers and hens forced to give birth like livestock in order to provide enough laborers to support the ruling classes. Gilead’s economic system relies on slavery—but it isn’t necessarily thought of as chattel slavery by its rulers. Wage slavery works just fine in present day America and our rulers (bosses) think nothing of it, either.

Which so-called “first world nation” has the highest maternal mortality rate? You know it—it’s the USA. The maternal mortality rate for mothers of color is even higher than it is for whites, but it’s also high for poor whites with no access to private health insurance. What other society tells its women of child bearing years that their health and safety during child birth isn’t all that important? Could it be the only so-called first world nation that doesn’t provide universal health care for its people?

And then there’s the overturn of the Roe V. Wade ruling. (Read my take on how abortion rights are used against women in A Matter of Control.) What other country allows basic human rights, such as the right to bodily autonomy, to be stolen away from its citizens at the whim of conservative judges? Yes, Trump did appoint conservative federal judges, but he didn’t appoint all of them or even the majority of them. Most federal judges currently serving have been serving for more than ten years. Arch-conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was appointed during the Clinton Administration. Who was the senator that made sure Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court by discrediting Anita Hill’s testimony and raking her over the coals? Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware is the man who made sexist, disparaging remarks to Professor Hill. You may have heard of him.

Atwood’s Gilead has one advantage the US doesn’t. It doesn’t waste time playing the silly game of what “color” or establishment political party is currently in the majority. True rulers always will get what they want at the expense of the ordinary working people’s lives. The establishment parties are mere distractions, foils as it were, and will always do as they’re told. Therefore, all third parties or alternative viewpoints must be crushed at whatever cost. The upper-classes can’t have the ordinary people thinking for themselves, can they? 

I posit that Americans have been living in Gilead since 1776. The corrupt economic system established by our “Founding Fathers” will always favor wealthy, white, land-owning (and slave owning) males. Women will always be controlled by the state through their wombs or reproductive capacity. Activists who speak up against injustices and attempt to organize the poor and working classes will always be labelled as agitators, communists, or enemies of the state. 

Los Angeles has criminalized the homeless.

Isn’t this the society Atwood envisioned in The Handmaid’s Tale? There’s no reason for Americans to lie to themselves any longer. The US is a dystopian novel. 

What can we do about it? Audience members asked the panelists if there was a way to overcome the Gilead characteristics baked into the DNA of the USA. I’m optimistic there is something we can do because folks did ask that question and assumed that they are capable of enacting changes for the better.

I think our best shot is to create genuine community and practice systems of mutual aid, such as the ones I described in my novel Where The Bodies Lie. We can grow our own food and share it with neighbors. We can create worker co-ops and organize worker-run unions to take on exploitative employers. We can work around the discriminatory distribution systems for food, health care, and shelter by fulfilling needs directly without including the predatory middle-man that capitalism seems to think is necessary for life (and that we all know isn’t).

There are many positive things we can and already do to dispel the gloom of dystopia, but we must do them together. No more of this “rugged individualism” that keeps us struggling and infighting amongst our fellow workers while the rich receive tax breaks and government subsidies for failing businesses. We need to build compassionate communities capable of feeding and taking care of each other, such as those described in the New Testament in the book of Acts. No more leaving anyone behind!

Until all women are free, all people of color are free, the homeless and the migrant and the hungry are all free, none of us will ever be free. None of us will escape Gilead. It’s an all or nothing proposition. But do we have the will to turn The Handmaid’s Tale dystopia into a Star Trek utopia? If any group can make the world into a better place, I believe it's sci-fi fans.

Let’s boldly go into that future.

Another great quote from Kurt Vonnegut.

Related Links:

Free Stores Offer an Alternative to the Exploitative Capitalist Economy https://truthout.org/articles/free-stores-offer-an-alternative-to-the-exploitative-capitalist-economy/

Catalyzing Worker Co-ops and the Solidarity Economy https://popularresistance.org/catalyzing-worker-co-ops-the-solidarity-economy/ 

US Quality of Life Now Ranks Down with Bulgaria (video) https://rumble.com/v1lor6v-us-now-ranks-with-bulgaria-as-developing-country.html

90% of the World Doesn't Back the US Now (video)  https://youtu.be/jsrOfEVcbzA