We continue our thought experiment. This series is not a prediction of what’s most likely, but a scenario designed to provoke deeper thought of how a Christian should conduct themselves as the world falls apart and prophecy is fulfilled. I recommend reading the previous entry.
The year is 2025. There are two presidents, and both depend on their respective sponsors: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson presides over America itself, and obeys the public-private conglomerate known as the “Global Trust”, while Donald J. Trump presides over the military and obeys Israel, who have emerged as the victor of World War 3 thanks to strong US support and their advanced cyberweapons. The US dollar has been killed by stock market implosions and the Trump administration forcing the Fed to print trillions of dollars a week to fund the war to save Israel.
Survival is tough. In the Western world, every business, bank, and institution has gone bankrupt, and sold itself to the Global Trust for survival. Thus, it has a monopoly on almost all natural resources, production, distribution, and pricing. Their goal is to reform the global economy to be Green, tolerant, inclusive, and highly-regulated.
To get by, there are three options:
Off the grid, independent, as part of a militia commune;
Underground military base for the elites and their hand-picked servants;
Global Trust partner cities, which offer a new support network.
Yes, they call it a “support network”. It’s a welfare program designed for those who apply and qualify. Of course, since fundamentalist Christians have been blamed for Zionism, World War 3, and domestic terrorism which led to the Collapse, they must renounce their adherence to the Bible if they wish to receive support.
This is a Social Credit Score, Universal Basic Income, Digital ID, and Smart City infrastructure rolled together. It controls what you can say, do, and buy, and you have to sign up for it. Your relationships, food, housing, education, and amusements are all tracked, connected, measures, and scored. Nobody will force you to participate, but the alternative is to cozy up to one of the elite or fend for yourself in the wilderness.
In this system, necessities are provided by the Global Trust’s Beast Market, or subsidized by it. Effectively, nothing can be bought or sold without their regulation. Global Trust maintains fleets of surveillance drones with Smart City technology to identify those who don’t belong to their network, and they label them domestic terrorists. These outsiders have no rights or protections in the new government.
The Underground
Those who reject the Beast Market exist in a fragile, unregulated ecosystem known as the “Underground”. Private property, and especially family farms, has been seized by the Global Trust using eminent domain and other legal theories revolving around FEMA’s role in managing a national crisis. Only heavily armed militias can protect their land from the government, and offer shelter to the multitudes who have nowhere else to go. They exist in a state of paranoid asymmetrical warfare.
Anyone who wants to be sheltered by the Underground must agree to their terms;
It’s forced labor, governed by a military-style chain of command;
The National Guard of each state will be divided, creating Civil War conditions;
Private Military Contractors will be hired (including from overseas) to destroy Underground’s logistics and intelligence systems, reducing them to a state of bare subsistence and confusion;
Organized crime will rise to the occasion and team up with the Underground to counterstrike against the Global Trust system and “liberate” cities.
A common enemy and the need for loyalty, hard work, and obedience will trump the natural racism and discrimination of the leadership, creating a sense of unity;
Radicals, fundamentalists, and bigots are free to leave and try on their own, but they’ll struggle more than the ecumenical networks who operate as a military.
Respect is everything. Whether the people of the Underground are patriots, traditionalists, independent, religiously opposed, or simply stubborn, they’re fighting to survive on their own terms. They’re not politically correct, but they are pragmatic, and dividing along ideological lines is not helpful. Everyone can have their own truth in the Underground, as long as you don’t make it a problem for somebody else.
Cartel capture
Many in the Underground have guns, and a few have medical supplies, but the strongest camps use drugs, prostitution, and crime to reward their “soldiers”. Dozens of major prisons have been smashed by the cartels and their people released, and America’s collapse has created the biggest opportunity in its history to start their own fascist states. The CIA are the ones hiring the Private Military Contractors to protect their assets, but otherwise they allow the narcos to rape and pillage the Underground.
But considering the situation, and the presence of militarized resistance, many put aside their differences to work together. The cartels do not seek meaningless war, and they see profit in joint efforts. They have their own codes, with a similar strictness in their own ranks.
Investors and factions
Propaganda is a key part of the Underground’s survival. Popular Alt-Media figures are effectively kidnapped and forced to lead as spokespeople by the independent patriots who see themselves as revolutionaries. Dissidents, journalists, and spiritual gurus join the cause, promising a way forward. They are given special treatment and taken care of, and broadcast a message of hope through victory. Whatever ugliness exists within these competing factions, information is no longer freely available, and easily covered up. Some are nightmarish, while others are nearly free of abuse. Some prosper, while others degenerate into warlords and slaves.
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