Chronicles From The Future: The amazing story of Paul Amadeus Dienach

Even more imperative—needless to say—is my thirst to know the European and world history from the 20th century onwards. And now they have archived all this with remarkable accuracy and in great detail, and they know everything much better than we knew the historical facts of the corresponding time difference from our era.

The disasters and the ensuing losses of valuable material that occurred— especially during that terrible calamity of year -87 of their calendar (approximately our year 2300)—were much larger in size, extent and depth than any other that we had witnessed in our time. Nevertheless, much survived. Apparently the terrible torrent of overcrowding, the unexpected population explosion with the horrific consequent conflicts and atrocities and the new weapons of mass destruction did not sweep everything away. And so today's researchers know about the eras before their 16thcentury(our 40

th) much more than we knew about, say, the Roman Empire and the past forms of political and social life. Their representations in particular, contain less fantastic and artistic elements, compared to ours, and many more authentic ones. And that’s because they’re based on more numerous and better selected documents.

THE DECLINE OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURYOverpopulation shows its face28-II

The 20th century saw the end of European hegemony in the whole world, not only in terms of military, political and economic power and influence, but also in terms of the imposition of authority and ethics. If Lain is to be believed, the whole century flew by in this manner, completing this mournful fall of Europe’s civilisation, which had taken the form of a techno-culture of which the main features were the plentiful standardised industrial products, meant mainly for consumption, the unconditional and unlimited admiration of the technical applications of the natural sciences—and all economic values in general—the craving for material comforts in life, the indifference to inner cultivation and consequently, a huge vacuum in people’s soul and emotional intelligence.

In the arts, primitivism and abstraction were fashionable and things that used to be considered inconsistent and incoherent, were now considered a new kind of style. In architecture, the era of cubic shapes had replaced the masterpieces of earlier eras. “The unmistakable sign of decline,” said Lain, “was not so much the fact that such ‘works of art’ were produced, but the fact that the second they came out they were immediately welcomed by the public without any questioning or complaints. Mainly this was the great debasement.

During the 20th century, the moral values of the 19th century gradually gave place to the materialistic attitude towards life, its physical “upgrading” through the popularisation of amenities and the “practical” pursuits. The standards of living went up and the consumption of food and industrial products rose to an extent inconceivable for previous times. The “pursuit of the dollar” thereafter became one of the primary motivations of creative action and everyday life. Sensitivity had become old and obsolete. Man’s consciousness didn’t challenge the circumstances anymore and his capabilities for rebellion—very common in the past—had decreased significantly.

The “Western spirit” expanded in terms of territory, but also lost a large part of its spirituality. It diffused everywhere, throughout the world, gradually overpowering the unique attributes of each nation, like race or language, even in the countries of the Far East. The Anglo-Saxons in general managed to impose themselves on an international level with their currencies and their language, and the North American confederation in particular took on responsibilities of political influence around the world, to such an extent that no one could have imagined at the beginning of the century. But they weren’t prepared for it; they lacked tradition and experience.

Along with the economic, political and technological culture that came from across the ocean, Europe was also flooded by the immature American culture, which managed to prevail in almost all areas of intellectual life without the slightest resistance: in aesthetics, dance, music, visual arts, architecture, principles of the youth, attitude towards life. Everywhere! In education, the teaching of the “classics” was significantly reduced everywhere in order to save time for technical training and “more practical” education.

Acts of violence, terrorism and subversion and manifestations of nihilistic attitudes and mentalities occurred every so often everywhere. Long established principles such as solidarity, aid and compassion for the weak and poor and the respect for human dignity started collapsing one after the other, even within families, in front of the new powerful, selfish sermon: “Every man for himself.”