So I laid it out for the kid. The problem, as I saw it, that whole massive overpopulation thing, the flaws and weaknesses inherent in the Council's plan, namely, the damn thing's not gonna work, and the cold reality of the situation.
There wasn't any theme music playing for us now, just a low-key grumbling of a distant pipe organ like emotional thunder in the background. I let the kid think on it for a few minutes, taking the occasional sip of my wine, and watching him slug back on a rather good microbrew one of my 'minions' had started producing.
He looked up at me, finally, and I could see it in his eyes, the blood-shot terror and dawning misery.
"A whole lot of people are gonna die, aren't they?"
It wasn't a question. When population outstrips _possible_ food production, and the rampant pollution generated by the industrial and magical efforts to produce even more food, and distribute the lot of it, there's no real good solution. And he knew it. Had known it all along, I figure, just.. had faith.
Faith can be a powerful incentive to lie to yourself. I'd broken his faith with logic and truth, and I tried, I truly tried, but I just didn't have it in me to let him off easy.
"About 40% of the current population of the earth, kid. My best projections say that the Council's plan would lose about 75%-80%, and push us, as a species, a hell of a lot closer to extinction than I'd like."
"What about the Peacers? They say.. "
"If we followed those idiots, kid, there'd be upwards of 95% total loss, followed shortly by the other five percent.. ask me about the Rainbow Warrior sometime, but trust me, those guys are total losers"
"oh."
We sat in peace for a few minutes more, until I had finished my wine and the kid was idly sloshing the dregs of his beer around the bottom of the bottle. I leaned forward and offered a thin smile, the only kind I could manage these days.
"So, kid. You wanna see my solution?"
I tossed out the line, the cold hard lines of the Gate burning in my brain as I waited for his answer.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979
There wasn't any theme music playing for us now, just a low-key grumbling of a distant pipe organ like emotional thunder in the background. I let the kid think on it for a few minutes, taking the occasional sip of my wine, and watching him slug back on a rather good microbrew one of my 'minions' had started producing.
He looked up at me, finally, and I could see it in his eyes, the blood-shot terror and dawning misery.
"A whole lot of people are gonna die, aren't they?"
It wasn't a question. When population outstrips _possible_ food production, and the rampant pollution generated by the industrial and magical efforts to produce even more food, and distribute the lot of it, there's no real good solution. And he knew it. Had known it all along, I figure, just.. had faith.
Faith can be a powerful incentive to lie to yourself. I'd broken his faith with logic and truth, and I tried, I truly tried, but I just didn't have it in me to let him off easy.
"About 40% of the current population of the earth, kid. My best projections say that the Council's plan would lose about 75%-80%, and push us, as a species, a hell of a lot closer to extinction than I'd like."
"What about the Peacers? They say.. "
"If we followed those idiots, kid, there'd be upwards of 95% total loss, followed shortly by the other five percent.. ask me about the Rainbow Warrior sometime, but trust me, those guys are total losers"
"oh."
We sat in peace for a few minutes more, until I had finished my wine and the kid was idly sloshing the dregs of his beer around the bottom of the bottle. I leaned forward and offered a thin smile, the only kind I could manage these days.
"So, kid. You wanna see my solution?"
I tossed out the line, the cold hard lines of the Gate burning in my brain as I waited for his answer.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979