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

For this to happen, their own Renaissance had to come, which did between the 7th and 9th centuries, and was followed in the next hundred years by the famous, exquisite zenith of civilisation. That’s when the old treasures of the intellect and spirit resurfaced...

THE “FEAR FACTOR” AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL FOR THE YOUNG CITIZENS

2-VI

It is a habit here in the Lain Institute—and perhaps not just a habit, but an educational method throughout the world—to exaggerate the weaknesses of our historical eras and to go as far as to scare children, creating a kind of anxiety in them with all the horrible images they make them watch. They want to plant and promote in the children’s psyche the faith and devotion to current institutions, universal homeland and the new era from a very early age. I think their goal is to rule out any possible future threat to the universal organisation of all political, social and economic aspects of life, which has been solid for centuries now.

I don’t know how effective this process is and to what extent their goal is achieved in the long run, but the means they use to accomplish it are characterised, in my eyes, by an incredible ferocity, an intolerable cruelty; I must admit that it’s something quite frightening.

“Will they come back?? Will they come back??” cried the frightened children of the lower classes yesterday at the sight of the “barrage of fire attacks” and the destruction of an unknown-to-me state from explosive and incendiary bombs of our own 20th century, as I was later informed.

The horror painted on the faces of the youth while asking Cornelius, me and Stefan questions, was indescribable. They were under the impression that the green lava that flooded the streets, horrific collapses of buildings and the fire torrents that covered in flames the city blocks—images I saw with my own eyes on the Reigen-Swage together with the youngsters—were weapons of aliens that had invaded our planet, weapons that all our defences had failed to neutralise!

When they explained to them the next day that this was not a foreign invasion but actually self-destruction, when they told them that their ancestors literally destroyed their own cities and people themselves, the youths were left speechless. They couldn’t believe it! When they finally realised it, they tightened their fists and swore that, growing up, they would never let this horror and tragedy happen again!

“Don’t be surprised!” said Cornelius. “Considering the conditions of life back then, there was no other way… The reigning mentality was: ‘Kill or be killed’. Atrocity was the rule and the annihilation of others the slogan.”

“What others?” a boy asked.

“The supporters of the opposite party or opinion, depending on the occasion. Friendship was not something natural; instead it changed every so often and depended on the circumstances and interests. A mere order was enough to turn yesterday's allies into enemies and vice versa. And don’t blame the ordinary people. Even back then they were inherently meek and good. They were tame and cheerful, similar to us. They didn’t hate each other. They loved strangers and foreigners, they were hospitable and they liked animals. But sometimes, economic and political power fell into the hands of miserable beings and that’s how the wars broke out. Wars didn’t come naturally. They were artificially created by their bad and unworthy leaders along with the weapon manufacturers, mainly Asian,” he claimed. “They pushed peoples towards hatred and mutual extermination. It is fortunate that our species managed to prevail. The risk was fatal.”

Many a time I wondered if what Lain said to the children was objective and fair. Listening to him you’d think that the yellow and black races, which never found vindication in history and which are almost absent nowadays, were solely to blame for everything.

“Isn’t it true that war had been a biological need?” asked one of the older children. How would all that immense population of the time fit on this tiny earth without war?”

“Yes, it was indeed a biological necessity,” replied Cornelius. “But so was the law of the jungle among the primitives, in the times of savagery. The law of selection and survival of the fittest...”

He continued by saying that the laws of physics have a typical disregard for the moral connotation of any action. That’s why all these atrocities had to permanently disappear from human civilisation. The continuation of such events and such manifestations of brutality were indicative of man’s failure to establish a regulatory procedure with the purpose of finding a “humane way to resolve any conflicts.”

He then said that a few decades before the era of John Terring, war was already being viewed by all people as “a state of anarchy, nihilistic rebellion against institutions, criminal violence, general collapse of values and self-destruction.”