DON'T PANIC!

 

Sometimes I recommend books to read to Robert and Richard and it's like suggesting that they jump over the moon for all the good it does.

Here's another recommendation of a book that I'm reading, by one of my favourite authors - Robert Harris. He wrote some of our generation's best historical fictions like Fatherland and Enigma along with many history based novels like Pompeii, Imperium and Lustrum along with Archangel, An Officer and a Spy, Ghost Writer and others. including the one about the selection of a Pope - Conclave. This guy is good.

The Second Sleep should appeal to Robert (who hopefully read Conclave) as it is about a young priest who arrives in a remote English village after the death of the resident priest, to organise his burial. There is mystery surrounding the death and the dead priest had been collecting ancient artefacts  - coins, fragments of glass, human bones and other historical items.

The setting is like 17th century Europe with the Church having great power over the people (not unlike some of the current blog discussions on Hell) except that here, the Church has a much greater political control of the populace since anyone who doesn't follow its teachings and who tries to use common sense and look for science to explain any phenomena at all is deemed to be a heretic. And is murdered.

The year is 1468. OK?

But it is 800 years in the future!

Whaaaat? I hear you scream. Well, and this isn't a spoiler, the world aka Earth experienced cataclysmic events in the year of about 2028. The outcome of this is that the Church, having taken over from 'Science' which failed because of an overreliance on computers and technology, reset the calendar to the year 666 (as per the Book of Revelations) and 800 years or so in the future became 1468. A mistrust of science and learning meant also that this Church (I suspect Catholicism here and not just Christianity) burnt every remaining written record of civilisation except the King James Bible so that the language and narrow beliefs were more that of the 17th century than of any other.

"All civilisations think they are invulnerable. History warns us none is."

I like this statement. It relates to this book.

As a 'student' of world history I always believed that the American 'Empire' would eventually collapse in similar ways to how the Babylonian, Greek, Roman and other 'great' empires did. (Germany's Thousand Year Third Reich hardly lasted 20 years but that was an example of hubris getting in the way of planning not unlike Donald Trump's vision).

Harris's book matches my thoughts and beliefs, but highlights my worst nightmares. What happens if technology fails? What will people (who haven't got basic survival skills) do if the utility networks- water, electricity, communications - fail? I've often thought about this but The Second Sleep woke me up way beyond my previous sleepiness. In this novel, Harris reminds us that our reliance on 21st century technology and communications can leave us very vulnerable. J.I.T. (just in time) logistics planning for the delivery of food, medicine, water, energy and everything else we need to survive on, means that  if there is serious and ongoing disruption we are fucked.

In The Second Sleep Harris draws from some recent statistics that show that, in Britain, the average household has about two days worth of food in the house - about 6 meals. The average cash holding is minimal and is basically pocket change. If ATM machine don't operate (reliance on technology and communications) then it doesn't matter how much money you theoretically have - you are fucked.

DON'T PANIC