Spiriterial

Back when I was a university student, I wrote a short story titled, "Spiriterial". It was a science fiction story about a future time when humanity has learned to use the gravitational force to direct the interstellar flight of the planet. The population had long before accepted humanity's unifying role as fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth. The time of predator capitalism had passed, nations had united into a global democracy with a constitution focused on human rights. In earlier times, predator capitalists and freedom oppressors had developed complex communication systems for their armies to use for control of the masses. But there were unintended consequences. "Free" enterprise evolved the communications systems and an information technology (IT) explosion occurred. Humanity's masses were educated and empowered by this IT explosion. They arose with a unity that eventually led to the global democracy. Nice story. Science fiction.
Lately I think. . .maybe not. At least, maybe not the part about global democracy. Ruminating about the future, it seems that the "Arab Spring" is an obvious clash between the natural desire for freedom and the fear-driven desire for power - a clash now possible only because of the IT explosion. So, how might the rest of the story play out? Well, the current trajectory seems to be that the wealthy of the world are circling the wagons and looking for protection from the downtrodden masses. This is not just true in the Arab world, but also in Europe and America. Whether from television or print outlets, media editorial opinion promotes a policy of "austerity" because "we can't afford it." But what if the Arab Spring grows beyond the middle east and spreads to Europe? The riots in England appear to be just that. In America, the economic discontent has been temporarily channeled into the Tea Party - a "grassroots" organization created by wealthy and influential republicans. (Americans seem to be a naturally arrogant people who are generally slow learners.) Nevertheless, as economic conditions worsen and increasing numbers of youth are out of work and out of luck, Americans may also begin to riot and loot. This would lead to more and more public debate on economic policy, which would spill over into a public debate about fiscal policy. This fiscal policy debate will cause more and more voters to learn the difference between their own household budget and the budget of the federal government. It will become apparent to all that the "full faith and credit" of the United States is now the new "gold standard." Gold-standard based thinking about "fiat" currency will no longer breed fear of hyperinflation. The fiscal policy debate will very likely conclude that the Modern Monetary Theory advocates have the winning argument, which is that their theory is not a "theory" at all but rather a description of actual monetary operations. This will eventually lead to the popular understanding that "money" is really only an accounting tool - and physical resources, not money, determine whether or not we can "afford it." The shift in focus from the accounting tool to the actual physical resources will reveal the abundance available once we stop looking only at the accounting tool. Deficit spending by governments with sovereign currencies will be accepted as normal, prompting the emergence of widespread government policies of raising taxes only when needed to cool down and economy and heating up a recessionary economy by lowering taxes and increasing spending. This will lead to a full-employment world with enough global economic security and enough global trade agreements to make resource wars untenable. The focus will shift from overcoming scarcity to assuring human rights. Happy ending. Yeah, I know, lots of assumptions. Hey, after all, it's just the continuance of a science fiction story.