Over the next month or two, I'm going to be serializing and posting my novel, The City Beneath. I wrote this novel last year during the month of November for National Novel Writing Month. It's a steam-noir heist novel. It's full of action, excitement and really awesome characters. I'd love for you to read it and let me know what you think!
Archives: The
Traditionalist Manifesto
Throughout the course of history, there have been moments that represent a shift in the paradigm of human society. The society that emerges from these moments is nearly unrecognizable as an evolution of its former self. Mankind changed with the invention of fire, and knowledge was shared through the writing of history. We see a shift in the rise of Greek and Roman Empires. The world changed forever again with the birth of Christ and the death of Rome. Some of these shifts have been given names: the renaissance, age of enlightenment, Industrial revolution, and the list goes on.
It would be easy to assume that these shifts represent positive change, but sometimes shifts have unexpected consequences. The fall of Rome and rise of Christendom resulted in a long dark age in Europe. That period of regression remained until the horrible Black Plague ushered in the Renaissance. Often the effect of a paradigm shift will not be evident until history has been allowed to run its course. The bringers of change, often with good intentions, hoist destruction and regression onto an unwitting society.
The turn of the 20th Century saw the advent of the Technological Revolution. This movement, like many before it, was ushered in by many with good intent. Technology could make life easier; it could support the world’s ever growing population. Electricity brought automation, with computing not far behind. The unstoppable march of progress continued onward. By the end of the 20th Century, it had left the devastation of two world wars and countless other conflicts, made all the more destructive by the advancement of technology. But this leap of technological progress brought with it the death of the soul of humanity.
We were reduced to lethargy as we stared at flashing screens. We reveled in the illusion of worldwide unity through the Internet. We released our control over the machines of convenience and made them our masters, allowing them to dominate our lives. Never again would our children learn the value of a hard-day’s work. We lost the ability to communicate with other humans, preferring the safety of an electronic intermediary. Technology hungered for our very souls, and we raised our hands and volunteered.
The true consequences of our lack of foresight were not fully felt until the third Great War. It is a testament to mankind’s evil nature that we turned our technologies against our fellow man. No longer were we content to destroy our own lives through slavery to an object, but rather, we must use that object to destroy our neighbors. We saw the destruction wrought on the so-called developing world, first through our imperialism, and later through our weaponry. It is a sin against humanity itself that we could not see what we had done until we left half the globe destroyed. Those places not crumbling from bombings are glowing from radioactivity.
The only reason we survive to this day is that those engaged in fighting were too selfish to risk their own homelands for the meaningless cause for which they fought. So we have America, and we have Europe, and the rest of the world suffers from the after effects of yet another war to end all wars. And yet humanity resists the answer to our problem. We refuse to admit the root cause of our struggles. It is the very technologies that are supposed to make life better, which destroy more life than they give.
The time has come to say “No!” We must stand up to those who tell us that everything will be ok if we just learn to love the machines. We refuse to sit idly as our brothers and sisters hand their humanity over to a digital overlord. We reject that technology can heal the wounds of the twentieth century. Technology caused the very wounds they would seek to heal. We cannot allow ourselves to fall asleep in the face of the greatest threat in centuries. We must act, and act strongly we will.
We call for a return to humanity’s golden age through elimination of that thing which has caused the deterioration of our society: technology itself. Only in the destruction of these anti-human machines will we truly achieve freedom. Any machine using an electrical charge must be destroyed. Humanity once lived without these devices, and we can do it once again. Indeed, it is imperative for us to do it once again. We return to our golden age armed with the knowledge of what a technological future looks like. What has been done can and must be undone.
It is your duty, brothers and sisters to spread the word to your friends, your families, your neighbors. Shout it from the rooftops: “Freedom!” Freedom from the tyranny of technology. Freedom from the electronic monsters. Raise the cry of freedom everywhere you go. Together we will maintain our humanity. Together, we will preserve our traditions.
-The Traditionalist Manifesto
Go to Part 2
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