"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic." - oscar wilde
in which they find unspeakable things and float in space
CLOSED
TRIGGER WARNING: extremely graphic, bloody, emotionally haunting, and dark...
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On June 20th, 2047, the United Nations of the World released an official statement, detailing the five hundred participants who will board the spacecraft Elpis and repopulate a distant planet commonly known as Olympus. To clarify, that is five hundred out of our 4.2 billion population to be saved. The rest will be subject to solar flares, black market healthcare, starvation, poverty, drug abuse, and terrorist organizations, to name a few. As you can imagine, outrage was instantaneous.
We are led by the UN's publication to presume that the government has picked its "best candidates" through a process of gene analysis and IQ simulations with the best intentions at heart. We can label this as positive eugenics; the cultivation of healthy human traits to provide evolutionary wonders in the future.
Yet is this not what the Germans aimed to do with the Aryan race? Was ethnic purity not responsible for the extinction of the nation of Ukraine? Positive eugenics may be an interesting experiment, but it loses its fascination when the government sacrifices 4.5 billion lives for their science project.
Historically, eugenics has never proven to be "positive": The forced sterilization of indigenous women in the old-world United States of America that led directly to the infamous Haunted Mothers coalition, which slaughtered twenty-thousand babies connected to the doctors that were responsible for the dying out of the native nations, is one such example. The One Child rule in China led to one of the largest countries in the world dying out almost instantly, and a massive vacuum in the global economy. The 2034 Superman Project in Russia resulted in mentally unstable children with the strength to tear down an army base, five of whom are still unaccounted for to this day. And, to be cited again, Nazi Germany's abominable acts. All these instances, and an innumerable amount more, are clear aberrations in human existence.
I put forth the idea that Elpis and its candidates are nothing less than eugenics at work. On this new Earth, Olympus, there will be no genetic diseases or disabilities. Down syndrome, autism, bipolar, cystic fibrosis, the list goes on. All these and more will be eliminated from the human experience. Yet are these things that need to be eradicated? Would you make the bold claim that the world is better off without people with autism? I think the twenty-something countries temporarily saved from climate change by Greta Thunberg would disagree, as would families and loved ones of people with said "disabilities".
What right does the government have to play God with the future of human evolution? And who knows the implications of eliminating genetic occurrences such as these? Perhaps something far more sinister will replace them on Olympus. Who are we to tamper with factual, hard-truth science?
And as stated, if this were being done with the best intent, I think I could rest easier at night. But what angers me to my (apparently genetically unideal) bones is that still, classism rots the foundations of our future.
The question I am furious over is, how did the United Nations pick these five hundred blessed traitors? There cannot be only five hundred people out of 4.5 billion that have desirable genetic traits. Why them, and why not us? What makes them better than us, more worthy of saving than us?
The answer is, of course, money and power.
Classism and hierarchical prejudice has risen sharply in recent years, with the top .5% drowning in the latest ease-of-life technology, and the bottom 99.5% evocative of the peasantry in Russia under the Romanov dynasty. Equal rights have become a laughable layer of child's play holographics projected on top of a dead body. It might fool some, but others see the outline of a murder beneath. Poverty is rampant, and the rich are turning a gleefully blind eye.
Greed fuels this ever-growing economic canyon. The top .5% has money to spare, enough to provide for the homeless children with bodies wrecked by the Spanish plague, enough to start factories and provide jobs to restart the economy. Yet they continue to spread it amongst themselves, passing their billions between each other like children taunting with a stolen toy.
And Elpis, this last ditch hope, this final chance at humankind survival, has been corrupted by greed. What could have represented humanity united, the chance for redemption, will be irrevocably founded in the blood of the poor and minority.
Among the accepted candidates are a few familiar names you may recognize: Senator Harvey Jones and his daughter, Nixie; LETHA, the popular South African rockstar; Queen Iphigenia Mahajna of Taeris; Blaise Hawthorn, son of billionaire and weapons engineer Hwang Sehun; Aashavi Ahuja, beloved social media influencer and wellness vlogger; Alex Fairchild, the son of war hero, United Nations commander, and friend to the Queen of England, Jacob Fairchild; and Nan Sumin, the girl group AIYO's point idol.
What do these (plus many more) names have in common? Not good DNA, not crippling intellect, not even desirable genetic histories.
Money. And power. Enough of either to bribe, buy, or blackmail their way onto Earth's last salvation. And as much as it sickens me, I can't say I'm surprised. Humans will always find a way to cheat the system, to step on someone else's head, and that impulse surely doesn't lessen when your life is on the line.
Capitalism and eugenics are (barely) better than mass annihilation, which is what some terrorist groups would propose. The Last Day of Man, a cultish gathering that promotes human extinction as the salvation of the world, is far less preferable than a few pop stars and politicians hitching a ride on a spaceship.
Yet I can't say that any of this matters. We have reached a point in time where there is no hope. The spaceship has been built, the resources dwindled, and what could've been material well-used to fix the Earth was instead channeled into a coward's escape route. It is clear that the government cares nothing for us. It is clear that there is nothing to be done. And it is clear that we are destined for death.
The least the members of Elpis can do is remember us. If we don't deserve to live on Olympus, I would like my death, and the death of billions of others, to be immortalized on it.
There isn't any hope left, but if there were, I would hope for the new generation. Those fertilized embryos, the unborn babies, the little children who won't remember this earth in ten years. I hope that they do a much better job than this one has.
Unfortunately, hope, and humanity, is dead.
author's note!
hey guys, long time no see <3
i'm taking Sci-Fi Lit. II this semester for English, and our first assignment was an op-ed from the future. of course i had to do lamentations, because this is my baby. i wanted to post it so y'all could read it and know that i haven't given up yet i swear
anyways, love y'all, miss y'all, have a lovely day!
