A Radically Condensed History of Post-Industrial Life

When they were introduced, he made a witticism, hoping to be liked. She laughed very hard, hoping to be liked. Then each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same twist to their faces. The man who’d introduced them didn’t much like either of them, though he acted as if he did, anxious as he was to preserve good relations at all times. One never knew, after all, now did one now did one now did one. 

David Foster Wallace, in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999)[1].

The high levels of mercury that were released into the atmosphere, water streams and soil are the main reason scientists trust to explain the total reconfiguration (TR) of the food chain on the planet – with mammal vultures being on top since the mid 21st century - and the complex makeover human social life underwent subsequently.

A bit of history: in the early 2000’s the incandescent light bulbs (IL) were banned from the market in favour of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). People were led to believe that CFLs’ increased energy savings provided energy in a year’s usage to 3 million American homes over the capacity that ILs could  (back then it was all about the USA and all about big numbers and all about money). The fact that the fabrication of CFLs was highly poisonous did not factor into the cost-benefit-with-quick-return-to-corporate-investment calculation. In the 30’s, there were at least two CFLs per capita in the world, which amounted to at least 16 billion mercury bulbs turned on simultaneously around the globe at all times. The faith on technology remained high. Amongst hydro, wind and solar energy, it was indeed the nuclear and thermal power plants that proved to be the most efficient sources of electricity.

This faith was proven right, especially on medical and pharmaceutical technology. Human beings were left absolutely unharmed in the face of the Total Contamination (TC) that cost the extinction of numerous plant and animal species. In the early phases of this battle against Nature, the main concern of environmentalists - whose pleas flooded the internet, TV news and printed press worldwide - was the high concentration levels of radioactive mercury in the carrion. The threat that it posed to scavengers was a threat to the permanence of humans on the planet: what was to deal with the putrid, the garbage, the foul?

The full environmental change (FEC) consisted of the fact that oviparous scavengers’ chromosomes benefited from radioactive mercury, which transformed their reproductive system into something close to a mammal reproduction. The difference from the natural mammal birth tradition is that vultures regurgitate the developed embryo after nine months of gestation into the kidneys of either male or female mammalbirds. Their size increased in height – reaching up to 2 metres – and their outline became slenderer. Another result of the evolution of that scavenger species was that mammal vultures developed a diet that no longer consisted of just carrion. Human healthy livers became their preference[2].

To this date, social scientists and philosophers dispute with scientists over the main reason for this environmental change. They do not accept that vultures came to be on top of the food chain only because of the consumerist habits of humans in the early 21st century. They claim that vultures’ evolutionary promotion found its roots in the cognitive advantage they already had over humans. It was only a matter of time that vultures were to outdo humans in biological and intelligence capacities in the course of the TC despite the radioactive mercury led chromosome enhancement. Oviparous vultures had a complex mobility structure of flying through warm streams of air; presented a super precise sight and scent abilities; even if starving, they displayed patience to wait up to a day for the perfect stage of decomposition of their carrion  – all of which was designed for their own survival. Most humans, in turn, were trapped in a labyrinth architecture of discontinued escalators and cheap perfumes in shopping malls; showed willingness for forced consumption; spent too long hours in traffic jammed highways or fast trains listening to 24hs news reels or self publicizing posts through their iphones; blindly trusted the representative neoliberal democratic model –  all of which was designed for corporate survival. These thinkers claim that the mechanical repetition of the same disguised as “freedom” rendered an air-conditioned winded environment, which affected the cerebral synapses on the human brain causing an effect of biological narcissistic idiotification.  And this characteristic was precisely the life-saving feature of our species.

The natural inclination to submit to the powerful[3] and the addiction to novelties were fundamental elements to our survival. Nobody expected a savage behaviour from the mammalbirds’ part of hunting human preys through the streets of urban centres  - nor of rural areas. They were elegant species as a bird and are even more so as mammalbirds. They did not want desperate preys then, and do not want them now. They want warriors, sophisticated survivors – vaguely close to the idea of what was to be a citizen in the 20th century – which is better for their digestion and nutrition. They want the fittest: the most able to hide their healthy livers by, say, pretending they are working too hard, or by pretending they have a demanding social agenda or by acting as if they were really into drugs.

The relationship between the two species has been civil. An intricate web of social, political and economic relations brewed new notions of social status and political power: those who have a truly damaged liver but are able to maintain excesses under intellectual control are accepted into the mammalbirds’ social circles. Those who have a truly damaged liver due to uncontrolled anger, substance abuse in order to keep up with the hypercompetitive finance world environment or to just contribute to the GPA curve enhancement in the world’s best universities are dead preys. Gone. Extinct.  Tortured, even. And, of course, ignorance yields healthy livers. That’s where mammalbirds strived on the course of the 21st century. There were plenty of healthy livers then.

A radical human behavioural restructuring had to be put in place once damaged livers became the key factor into securing a long and meaningful human life project. Public health authorities heavily encouraged the habit of smoking, drinking and free love to 1) counteract the über health campaign of the years prior to the TC, which closely led humans to complete extinction (HCE), and 2) to recover a proper sense of sociability as it was back to pre-social media “community” times, which exposed humans to a colossal flow of information and sheer isolation, resulting in damaged brains and super healthy livers, a perfect scenario for the HCE which was to be avoided at all costs. Condoms – as incandescent light bulbs – were banned from the market, so as to aid dissemination of syphilis, gonorrhoea and diseases of the sort that account for a proper diseased liver  (in order to shun HCE). Illegal drug cartels were nationalized (Ibid).

Escaping sound pollution became a fact for both species. Listening to the silence became a vital characteristic for survival in this complex society. A combination of compulsory hedonism, healthy diet and powerful pharmaceuticals, which prevented humans from dying of STDs and drug abuse while maintaining their good looks and bad livers, accounted for a perfect ecological and social balance.

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According to sociolinguists, mammalbirds refuse to compute human languages in their intelligence, trusting that it was a flawed communicational system. Vultures do however understand each and every language spoken by humans. However, the otorhinolaryngologists’ thesis is that the evolutionary genetic process rendered inoperative vultures’ vocal cords and compromised the physiology of their mouth. Apparently, they lack the necessary moist and flexibility of their tongue and have no teeth, so that sound cannot be modelled into comprehensive words. The high-pitched timbre they emit is not captured by human ears but its message is somewhat absorbed and decoded into humans’ bodies. Something close to telepathy, i.e. a focused and accurate form of conversation, which involves two or more subjects and which can be carried out beyond geographical boundaries. Humans mastered this form of communication and, as such, the whole information technology industry crashed by the mid 21st century.

Interspecies intimate relations do occur but are the target of violent prejudice by both humans and vultures. Marriage became illegal for all species, but private property has not yet been abolished.

Silence

Go away!

Leave me alone

Forgive me

I’m Sorry If I’m Sad and Confused

[1] If I had read Mary Karr’s Liars Club, the book by DFW’s wife (who had to deal with letting him off the loop in the garage) I would have used it as quoteslashtitle, a place where thoughts come to inhabit only to therein be dissolved, as Adorno would say. My fault. It is to be corrected with Ci, mãe do mato forgiving me for such a crass mistake.

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[2] Shrimps became amphibious, which brought peace to the minds of environmentalists. They help mammlbirds with the consumption of the putrid both on earth and sea. Hyenas were extinct, unfortunately.

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[3] Some defended it was not natural as much as it was cultural, but no consensus was reached on the matter.