Read Chapter 17 “The Division of the Worlds”
The Corporate Government stayed in hiding from the public view for years before officially coming out of the shadows when nothing and no one could have threatened their almighty, unchecked power grab any longer.
At first, the secret Corporate Government aspired to maximize their profits fast with as little disruption from the environmental agencies or the general public as possible. However, soon they realized that only absolute power could give them what their hearts desired the most: the ultimate unrestricted ability to make a profit. To pull that off the conspirators had to generate a long-lasting undeniable change to the society, which would solely benefit the corporate world. To achieve the unrestraint power and influence their weapon of choice was to spread lies, fear and misinformation.
You probably wonder how that was even possible in times of the unstoppable stream of information and news coming from every chunk of the Internet or social media. Well, the Internet and the highly influential social media, were skillfully used by the disrupters of social order, bringing propaganda and disinformation in front of the masses. That powerful propaganda and disinformation were able to confuse people and bring out the worst in humanity. Of course, social media companies were handsomely rewarded for looking the other way while democracy was stripped away.
Before the propaganda war began spreading its tentacles over unsuspected human consciousness, the world’s economy collapsed. During the 2008 crash, many hard-working; law obeying citizens across the globe lost everything. Even the ones, who didn’t lose their skins, were still much worse off than before the financial crisis.
A lot of politicians used the economic collapse as an opportunity to manipulate those who had fallen on hard times. Unfortunately, the big corporate banks that were at the front line of the crisis suffered no consequences for their careless actions, unlike millions of people who lost their homes, savings and livelihoods.
In the years following the 2008 crash, the corporate mainstream media, together with the political class, which was financially entangled with the corporate world, began convincing the general public that the responsibility for their misfortunes wasn’t caused by the crooks in power or the monstrous lawless corporations. The cleverly run propaganda machine, which effortlessly entered the mainstream culture, blamed the financial collapse on the poor, who didn’t earn enough to pay more taxes and the migrants who only wanted to take advantage of the system.
With time, the world’s public opinion started believing those evil chatter and began swinging their voting power towards the extreme populists who always had one aim: to destroy progress at all costs, while championing the rights of a selected few.
Unfortunately, the voices of reason and truth were easily overpowered by experts without any expertise. The propaganda troops were tireless at screaming, shouting and abusing anyone who didn’t agree with their worldview. That tactic worked beautifully, often scaring people with different opinions into obedience.
The inaction from the authorities over the disinformation propaganda drove many democratic countries into the hands of the populist climate deniers, who wanted to back roll all liberal achievements of the last century. Their huge advantage over the democratically elected authorities was the support of the corporate world and the mainstream media, which only reported what was convenient for their owners to communicate.
By 2014 the political class cared very little about public opinion or facts. Pride and stupidity led them to denounce and prosecute environmental scientists and activists, who were portrayed as number one enemies to the global order.
The negative media coverage was given to those scientists and activists by both: mainstream and social outlets and managed to convince the majority of the population that climate change was an invention of a group of science fiction writers and nothing people did was going to impact the environment enough to decline significantly.
Those who believed the facts, denying lies, kept on consuming while the corporations kept on increasing production and profits. Even though the natural resources were running low and pollution-related illnesses and deaths were rising.
Once the most influential and developed countries began dissembling their social fabric, the corporate government didn’t have to hide behind the political class any longer. Fearing no one, they came out of the shadows, taking on the role of the Global Government promising to create long-lasting prosperity for all.
What the Corporate Government didn’t foresee was the strong opposition of smaller nations to their corporate regime. Those countries refused to serve under the Corporate Government’s rules and broke off before the power was fully consolidated.
The small, progressive states were more than happy to welcome the Eco-warriors, environmental activists and scientists on their shores. Those strong forces of change, which took a stand against the cruel, power-grabbing corporate world were the architects of a new, free world called Ecotopia.