A Parable/Warning

Imagine this spooky scenario: In 20-25 years the U.S. has gotten much more right-wing, militaristic and totalitarian. Personal freedoms are a thing of the past. Life resembles that in the book 1984. The government has a detailed file on everything everyone does — purchases, entertainment, associations, etc. The media is state run, for "security purposes," which is the ostensible reason given for all of the above abrogations of personal freedom.

China, by then a rampantly zealous democracy, has become the top economic and military superpower in the world, dwarfing the U.S. and everyone else. They not only command an army which is 200 million strong, they have mastered several technologies that are currently only the stuff of science fiction. For one thing, our nuclear arsenal has been rendered useless. They have "re-colonized" Central and South America into entirely dependent economic entities, providing those countries with a high standard of living in exchange for its crops and factories. Over 30 million Chinese have moved to the Southern Hemisphere.

The U.S., ever-resentful of this incursion, does what it can to destabilize the Chinese presence south of our border. Tensions between the two countries is high and finally flares out of control in a dispute over, yes, let’s say Cuba. Citing its "legitimate national security considerations," China launches a massive attack on the United States, after first de-electrifying us from coast to coast.

Pledging at the U.N. to reestablish democracy in the North American States (oh yeah, we’ve merged Canada into our union) China gets the blessing of the Security Council — which we’ve been voted off of for various transgressions.

What ensues here at that point is a protracted guerilla war, combining the remnants of our once-proud military with our many heavily-armed citizens. In the midst of this insurgency, the Chinese manage to stage elections and return to the newsmedia the freedoms it once had. Personal liberties are re-established. The Chinese promise a speedy withdrawal as soon as the nation is sufficiently stabilized so as not to be a threat to its neighbors. All of our WMD are either destroyed or sent out of the country.

The majority of Americans are onboard with these developments, as their pre-invasion lives (their daily 5 hours of work, many from their own residence; their 2500 television stations; instant access to over a million DVDs and old TV shows; virtuality booths in every home; and of course the flying cars) are barely affected. But the insurgency fights on, using suicide bombers, car bombs and sneak attacks to harass the Chinese occupiers and their "yellow-bellied stooges." A day hardly goes by without news of dozens of deaths, mostly civilians, but the vast majority of citizens are too consumed with their entertainment regimen to pay much heed.

But there were a few areas of contention that rankled the cognizant. One involved the fact that the Chinese were using all their own companies and employees for the post-war rebuilding, while our own construction businesses were languishing in a slow cycle. This and the fact that the Asian Alliance (the economic cartel that will include Japan, New Korea, etc.) were using the in-country opportunity to forge hundreds of contracts, on favorable terms, with our major corporations and industries.

After the fourth year of the occupation (billed as "The Glorious Liberation" by the Chinese and most of the kowtowing world) support among our citizens begins to wane, as it’s clear that as long as they are here, their presence feeds the bloody insurgency. Chinese leadership proclaims that it will not leave until the violence is abated, pledging not to act like a scared dog in the face of the malignant evildoers.

How does it all end? Well, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.