The Cerberus Files: Addenda, the Systems Alliance and Humanity
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DAEDALUS-SEVEN-NINE-TWO
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To the Three:
My review of human cultural shifts and changes is completed. The document is brief, but you wanted a position paper, not a comprehensive review.
I have attempted to summarize the primary stress points on human society, and what drives them. A point not directly mentioned but crucial to the effects is the disastrous effects of the SA model of governing on the very nature of the human spirit. I will cover that later.
Cerberus Thought for the Day: The alien cares for humans the same way a farmer cares for his chickens. The farmer ensures they are overfed, pampered, fattened, and then breaks their necks.
Shifts in Human Culture
Since the early 21st century, human culture has undergone four key shifts that have highly changed the landscape of what it means to be human. Most of these changes were, sadly, unpleasant in both definition and in execution, leading to the concept of a bright future being tarnished by the hard requirements of survival.
The destruction of nations, the unification of the New Church, the cultural erosion brought about by alien influence, and most of all, the collapse of ethical values has lead to our current state. All four can be traced back to the hand of the early SSA, and to an unwillingness until very recently to recognize the alien for the threat they are.
Humanity has shifted from rugged individualism to tired acceptance, from a belief in manifest destiny to a sense of inferiority that is expressed more in frustrated sullen fear than in righteous outrage. The infection of our cultural touchstones by alien beliefs and aliens in our midst has only accelerated this collapse of moral fiber, and the only place it is resisted is the independent colonies, which are seen by most humans as stiff-necked Luddites or rebels against the SA.
The iron-booted fascism of the government, cloaking itself in patriotic pablum and trite appeals to the common good, is merely an accelerant to the fire consuming the very meaning of humanity.
The death of nationalism and the nation-state
In the chaos that defined the Days of Iron, many nations ceased to exist in any meaningful fashion. Some nations, such as many in the Middle East, were literally obliterated by the wars that tore the region apart. Others, such as Ireland, were devastated by natural cataclysms brought on by damage to the biosphere. Still others, like Tunisia, were torn apart by tribal or sectional conflicts and any central government function destroyed in rioting.
The hard hand of the Systems Alliance in restructuring Earth was needed, and the leaders of the SA saw clearly that humanity could not continue to cling to a framework of nation-states if they were to have any real chance at coming together as a species. While nations were allowed to continue to exist, and even formulate their own laws, these were all subordinated to the overarching power of the Systems Alliance.
Nations still provide many local and statewide functions, pass laws, collect taxes and administer justice, but they are not allowed any real military power. In the early days of the SA they had more political influence than they did now, but as time passed the SA restricted this as several colonies had ugly flareups of nationalist tensions occurring.
An entire generation of humans has been born now that have no idea of the idea of 'sovereign nations'. To them, nations are much like the states were in the USA before it's fall – regional divisions with local flavor, nothing more. People still take some pride in their nations, but they take more pride in being citizens of Earth.
This has, sadly, resulted in some loss of cultural diversity. Many places no longer teach many dialects, and only English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Swahili, French and German are regularly taught in schools and university classes any longer. Many dialects and even entire languages are dying out, such as the Russian, Italian, and Spanish languages, driven by the requirement for all citizens to speak and write English and the refusal of the SA to put documents in anything but Standard English.
Another side effect of the demise of the nation is a loss of history, particularly the rich traditions and heritage of smaller nations. Anthropologists and archeologists, along with social historians, are doing their best to preserve such, but most young people today are more fascinated with alien cultures and colonial affairs than ancient human history.
Only Japan and Britain have thus far resisted this tide. While the Japanese emperor was reluctant to join the Council of Lords, his ascension to its ranks (and talk of needing to reorder the ranks) has created a groundswell of patriotism in the Japanese people once again. England stubbornly continues to put most of its funds towards the eventual restoration of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, so they can reclaim their heritage as the United Kingdom – they have maintained the history and as many physical artifacts of the rest of their former domain as possible.
A final nail in the coffin of nations is the revolting citizenship tier system used by the SA, which is to me the worst combination of caste systems and peerage, along with a slapdash taste of corrupt fascism and racketeering. It has made the concept of national citizenship of little moment, a notation on a record and not a source of pride or history.
The Unification of the Church
Victor Manswell was a strict Catholic, and his chief executive of the Guard of Iron, Michael Rourke, was an Irishman with a long history of violence and work with the IRA. It is no surprise that, in the aftermath of the Days of Iron, the SA chose to work very hard with the Catholic Church in bringing religion back to the masses, especially to rehabilitate the faith after Ardiente had twisted it into monstrous propaganda.
The extreme right-wing evangelical dominionist movement that was strong in the US was almost obliterated in the Days of Iron, and those who survived refused to submit to a 'godless German catholic' like Manswell. The reaction from the Guard of Iron was predicable, they massacred anyone and everyone who resisted, and took special delight in crushing 'sovereign' movements. Finally the SA formally absorbed the Catholic Church (with a great deal of protest and some violence), and the Pope became an official part of the government.
The Unified Neo-Catholic Church of Christ that emerged was, by any measure, fascist. It supports all aspects of the Systems Alliance, blesses the Commissariat, encourages colonization and harmony among humanity, and is a further watered down version of the liturgy outlined by Vatican IV. It has enormous reach and the fact that the government pushes this down people's throats has not lessened its popularity. The sincerity of the church is, however, suspect.
The main Christian movement outside that of the UNCCC is the Reformed Baptist-Methodist Union of Christ, organized mostly in America and spread into South America. The Amish amazingly still endure, both on Earth and several colonies. Alternative forms of Christianity are little more than cults, heavily scrutinized by the Commissariat. African-American, Romanian, Greek Orthodox and Coptic versions still endure, but only in small numbers. While not exactly persecuted, its an open secret that ascension to the highest ranks of society is only possible for those who are part of the UNCCC.
Shinto and Buddhism remain, however both operate independently from the SA and thus pay taxes. Judaism is only tolerated in Israel and Bekenstein, and is frowned upon everywhere else. Sunni Islam is tolerated but frowned upon, and only the power of the House of al Saud ensures Islam is not simply destroyed by the Commissariat. Other religious followings (Jainism, Sufi, Confucianism, etc) are strictly limited to small congregations, much like the rest of Christianity.
Disgustingly, alien religions, especially the asari practice of siari, has become increasingly popular. Almost nineteen percent of humans at least loosely follow siari. Thus far, in an act of biased blindness that leaves me apoplectic, the Commissariat does not even monitor what these witches are instructing our people in.
Collapse of traditional ethics and values
Survivors who lived through the Days of Iron often had to sacrifice decency and humanity in favor of living through another day. Murder, rape, theft, and other horrors were committed on scales we can scarcely comprehend. The erosion of strong moral values had begun before the Fall, but afterward the process only accelerated.
The strong stance of the Commissariat has halted this slide (or at least its open expression), but the ugly fact remains that while people respect the SA and the law, many older citizens remember those dark times clearly, and raised their children accordingly. Philanthropism, charity and volunteer assistance are very rare outside the nobility. Many poorer citizens have turned to crime when jobs fail and the taxes continue to climb. The trust people have in the SA is tempered with fear of a fall, of the government coming under the control of a single, Ardiente-like figure – this has resulted in a government so tangled and overwrought with conflicting spheres of influence that almost nothing can be achieved.
This, sadly, has led to an inability to truly stop the decay of society, and has lead to greater crime and corruption. The skyrocketing crime rate in turn feeds the Penal Legions, which make vast sums of money as well as providing mass of cannon fodder for the SA's needs. Police forces are having to become increasingly paramilitary in nature to combat sophisticated tech-gangs, with the NYARC SWAT unit utilizing gear that matches what some N7's carry into combat!
However, combating crime requires more than propaganda and police presence. It requires will, of the people, to raise their children properly and not rely on the government to do it for them. Unfortunately the family has all but disintegrated.
Marriage rates are at an all time low as well, with barely 19% of children born into wedlock. Many couples place eggs and sperm in cryogenic storage and only stop to have children upon the completion of their careers in their 60's. The longer lifespans of the middle and upper class today ensures that this is not a burden, but the poorer segments of the population cannot afford such. Adoption rates are also down sharply, and even homosexual partners adopt at levels a full forty percent below rates they did in the 2030's. There is also a trend of parents to ignore childhood rebellion and even criminality in favor of the vapid sociological books by Dr. Patau, who suggest the best way to stop delinquency is let children experience the streets.
I'm formally requesting that Pel put a hole in the cretin's head.
In many arcologies birth control is now mandatory, with the UNCCC now spouting the line that if God wanted a pregnancy it would happen, birth control drugs or no. Campaigns in lowering the birth rate and in promoting nuclear families have had to resort to tax benefits and even citizenship tier upgrades to reward good behavior. Still, overpopulation is a problem, and infant mortality has risen to levels not seen since the Industrial Era. Worse still, there is a thriving child slavery market that the best efforts of the Commissariat to smash has not stopped.
With the disassociated nature of society today, where 54% of workers work from home over the extranet and most manual labor is performed by mechs, the lower classes are increasingly being squeezed into the service and low-level data entry industries. VI supervisors, mech administrators, fast-food restaurants, discount shopping networks, and the like are their only real economic outlets. Many enlist, hoping for a better life, only to spend twenty years and come home with two cyberlimbs and a pay-scale that hasn't been adjusted for inflation in nine years.
There are some good sides. Racism is dead, finally, obliterated with the racial mixing that happened as a result of moving people around from arcology to arcology. Sexism is vastly reduced due strong female leaders such as Princess Julia Windsor and Kastane Drescher. Bigotry against alternative sexuality is also mostly a thing of the past, with people frankly more worried about their own lives than who is sleeping with who.
Infection of alien cultural values and viewpoints
I touched on this earlier, but alien corruption of our people has reached endemic levels. The asari are, of course, the most offensive in this regard. Their campaign of "Open Arms" and the lewd and scandalous "Kissing Cousins" ads aside, asari are simply better than humans at infiltrating and overwhelming cultures. Our culture is unfortunately wired for sexuality, and the asari ooze it. Their casual attitudes towards it make them 'easy' for young men and women, and their appetites and skill for such mean that far too many young men find them more attractive than human females.
But the rest of the asari package is just as crippling. The asari religion does away with both original sin and a sense of responsibility, replacing it with a weak sort of Golden Rule style thinking and relativist morals that allow for anything. Asari art and music, while alien, are complex and multifaceted, making most human artists (who cannot practice for four hundred years, after all) look almost simplistic. The uniform attractiveness of asari and the fact that sex does not always include penetration means that increasingly they are willing to (and are trying to) appeal to both heterosexual and homosexual men and women.
Asari themselves appear to be somewhat out of control – the Thirty is showing mixed signs about the number of asari who have become SA citizens. The utterly baffling thing is that asari who become citizens honestly seem to transfer their entire cultural package of loyalty to the race from the asari to the SA and humanity. (Deep psychological analysis from two captives confirmed this.) We have reached out to Matriarch Trellani for an explanation, but she suggested we are applying human values to asari.
According to her, asari simply cannot be 'duplicitous in terms of loyalty'. Much as she has cut all ties with the asari and has killed her own kind without hesitation or pity in the past, asari who make the jump from the Republic to the Alliance now literally see themselves as humans who happen to be asari. There is already a small number of asari on Earth, born to asari and human parents, who don't even know how to speak the asari language and who master their biotics at the rate a human would.
Despite their seeming honest loyalty, the absorption of some nineteen million asari into our ranks is intolerable in terms of allowing an alien race to become part of OUR lives and government. It is a small wonder that no stuck-up rebel from the ranks of the Thirty has strutted into the Hall of Lords demanding seating among the peerage.
Turian influence of our culture is small but growing. The slow realization by the SA military that the turians were acting out their own cultural biases and how much they have paid for such has lessened tensions between turians and humans. The actions of the "Dauntless" team in stopping rebels in the Hierarchy from assassinating the Primarch left the turians in the curious position of owing humanity respect.
Turians in the SA are cautious, unfailingly polite, and generally helpful. They are also mostly outcasts from their own kind. Most turians remain rude and standoffish to humans, the bitter humbling they got both in being unable to defeat us and at the asari's hands still rubbing them the wrong way. While there is little infection of what passes as turian art or music, the turian interest in some of our sports is a bit troubling, as it humanizes them too much for my taste.
The real danger is that the turian military and the human military are beginning to work together, allowing them unprecedented access to what few military technologies are solely ours, including carrier construction and war-mechs. The roots of this collaboration can be traced back to Captain David Anderson and several others involved in Project Janus, HANDSHAKE, and REACHBACK, the programs designed to close the rift between the Hierarchy and the Alliance. (Anderson is rapidly becoming a curse word in the halls of Cerberus – his interference in several important projects is earning him the ire of more than one operative.)
Other races currently have only small impacts on human culture, but the combined efforts of them all is becoming very overwhelming. To kids and impressionable teens, aliens are 'cool' and exciting. To those old enough to remember the First Contact War, some of the only impressions they had of aliens were salarian medical doctors, volus emergency donations, and elcor demolition and reconstruction teams aiding in rebuilding Earth and Arcturus. This hardly gives them negative cachet in the eyes of many.
Humanity, with its love of underdogs, is also very sympathetic to the quarian people. It helped them immensely when the quarians rescued the always popular Aish Ashland from a solar storm a few years ago, returning her unharmed to her family and asking for no rewards. Unlike other bombastic alien types, the quarian natural modesty and quietly gentle appearance is exotic enough to attract but not weird enough to repel.
They all sound like blasted gypsies to me, which is darkly ironic and deliciously accurate.
Cultural Status of Humanity
Not all things have changed. Not all things have gotten better, either.
Art has sadly fallen by the wayside, with most human efforts in painting overshadowed by the asari. Sculpture is one area humanity still leads in, with bronzes and marbles in wide demand both on Earth and abroad. Haptic art (if you can call it that) is still developing among art schools in the SA, with art critics bitterly divided over whether it is true art or videography and computer choreography.
Music of a religious nature has made something of an unexpected combat with the ressurection of 'soul-country', older religious songs from the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, blended with both sung rhythms and country tunes. Nauseatingly popular in the US and on most of the colonies, it has attracted, of all things, krogan fans. Most music continues in the triple trends of continuations on classical, popular music that devolves into ever more reptitive and trashily sexualized images, and experimental electronic music suitable for dances and h-parties. Asari influences in music are mostly limited to humans experimenting with the Atherion, but batarian classical music has had a large impact, with it's astounding range and complexity. Conversely, about the only things batarians respect about humanity is some of our classical compositions, they are enamored of both Bach and Mozart.
Trideo and haptic visual programming is dominated by the big media networks that survived the early Days of Iron, most of them folded into the Westerlund Corporation, an amalgamation of American and European companies. Westerlund is conservative, cautious of aliens, and focused on the maintenance and glorification of traditional human culture. Unfortunately, for them, 'traditional' is focused on western European and American culture, not the world.
Movie production continues unabated, as (of all the damnable places to survive) Hollywood escaped most destruction during the Days of Iron. Cultural classics such as Batman have strangely popular appeal among turian rebels and some Justicars, while science fiction movies such as Star Wars and the like have vastly amused alien audiences. One area humans led in was children's programming.
It's a sad day when humanity has to make Saturday Morning cartoons for salarian, turian, and asari children, but you can't expect people who took two thousand years to figure out a gun to think of everything, I suppose.
Media entertainment in other venues – opera, dance, Broadway and the like – remains mostly limited to human audiences, as aliens rarely lack the cultural filters to truly appreciate such works. Some ballet troups have toured in asari space, as they, at least, can appreciate elegance and grace.
In terms of sports, most simply do not translate well to other venues. American football was successfully taken abroad, but the entrance of a single krogan player resulted in enough injuries that most off-Earth teams now consist of heavy cyborgs, steroid junkies, and, well, krogan. Boxing and mixed martial arts tournaments are popular, and I noted with some pride that Allisen Yong Chu defeated some asari martial artist to become Galactic Grand Champion last week.
Amusingly, the most popular sport to leave earth and catch alien attention is auto racing, specifically GASCAR. Now a multibillion dollar sport with millions of salarian, turian, drell fans (and volus betting addicts), the once lowest denominator of deep South USA society is a craze.
Real football, or soccer, remains limited to Earth, but you can't expect alien cretins to appreciate such a masterful game.
Much of the cultural life of humanity's existence remains. Baseball continues, and the Red Sox continue to suck. Dances, picnics, and open air events on Earth have required some modification to deal with the arcologies, but still exist. People still celebrate Christmas and shop in malls.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remains guarded twenty four hours a day by Marines, albeit Systems Alliance Marines rather than US Marines. The world still sings Auld Lang Syne on New Years.
We have been viciously wounded, but we are not dead yet. Our culture has been poisoned and damaged, but we can yet rebuild it.
Humanity Endures.
