Welcome back to pact days. I thought I'd talk about the humans of the series. More specifically, the origin of how they operate.
Why did I use Terren instead of the
popular and common Terran for humans?
Scientifically, over time there are
cultural and language shifts. Since the Valespian Pact is set far in humanity's
future, you expect that some words and meanings will change. I came across a
great example recently with the abbreviation O.K. which started in the 1800s
when the young, posh crowd abbreviated 'Oll Korrect' to O.K. But not only that,
all kinds of things could happen, such as 100 years from now, a billionaire
buys the right to rename Earth a.k.a Terra.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" you say.
"That couldn't happen!"
Are you so sure? People buy sports teams
and pay for the right to name stadiums and arenas. Streets and cities are named
after people. New governments take over countries and rename the territory. Why
can't someone rename the Earth… if the circumstances are right? Imagine it, an
heiress pays an insane amount of money to rename Earth to… Gaia… Titan… maison
de prostitution… or, Pink Baby.
I went a step further and linked it to
how humanity became governed by corporations. Humans chose to be called Terren
after a pandemic that lead to the human population almost dying out or becoming
sterilized. It is a dividing line in their history that began a new era.
Humanity was saved by Dr. Henry S.
Terren who created the vaccine that put an end to the planetwide plague.
Those who survived started calling themselves Terrens after their savior. Dr. Terren
was very nearly deified for saving what remained of the human population. His family
urged this phenomenon with propaganda that bolstered the fanaticism.
Then Dr. Terren's daughter took over the
pharmaceutical company. Riding the coattails of his popularity she became the president
of Canada. (Sorry Canadian friends, you're just too nice.) She implemented
radical policy where government was run more like a company with profits being
the bottom line. At the end of her term, the pharmaceutical company became government
run and a few years later, the company was running the government through the
heirs of the Terren legacy and the country prospered beyond expectation.
Other countries followed suit and within
60 years, various companies were running countries. Gradually, the companies
merged or there were hostile takeovers until only the largest four ruled the
human population.
"Wait! Wait! That could never
happen. The population would never agree!" you say.
Fact. The majority of the population
wouldn't care how the government was run as long as their quality of life
didn't suffer. People worry about the day to day of their bubble of influence.
They sympathize with what happens 5000 miles away, but it doesn't affect them,
so they don't worry it will happen to them. A very small percentage of humans would
protest but prosperity breeds complacency, until that prosperity is taken away.
The rigid control of all propaganda, enough half-truths with the lies, and get
rid of the people who speak out… or simply ruin their credibility with a false
claim, and poof, within a few weeks people forget.
The companies promised prosperity, and
in the beginning, delivered, being generous to whose who supported them. The pay
groups (pay range based on job title/skill) were used to push people up or down
the ladder, and their benefits (housing, medical care, food, and some sundries)
were all based on the pay groups the individual was in. Within another 100
years, the corporations were the bureaucrats and they controlled everything.
But, over time, the divide between the have and have nots widened and the issues
started because individual prosperity was threatened. :)
Okay, that was more than I was going to
say about why the humans are called Terrens. I hope you enjoyed this peek at
the origin story.
Thank you for stopping by and reading!!
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