The Registry Ch. 01

Introduction.

The story deals with a future world where things are very different and it involves harsh language, harsh realities and unexpected civil and sexual behaviours. In this not too distant future, in a new type of society, there are citizens and then there are servants, maids, registered slaves and wild beings. This is their story. There is use of some coarse language and the readers are warned that the content is sometimes unpleasant and disturbing.

It was now Mid-October and Olav had been busy picking up branches all morning in the rainy woods as the harsh Canadian winter was quickly approaching. If he could capture the lovely hues of red, yellow and orange of these quiet woods along the grandiose Richelieu River, on a canvas, he would. He could clearly see the composition of radiant colors reminiscing of the vibrancy of a Riopelle painting attached to a 20 foot wall that would be the centerpiece of a chic, architecture-designed villa. Olaf liked to reminisce of the good old days when he would visit art galleries along Sherbrooke Street and have discussions with the Gallery Owners about such things. Helas, he realized that the time for Subterfuge, for Caprice and Luxury had passed.

As his father told him just before dying. "If you want to be safe, just stay away from the Citizens and their system of registries called the "Registre des resources matérielles et humaines" in this province that prided itself on preserving some vestiges and symbolic hints at their French Ancestry. There was a registry or license now required for everything and Olav had rebelled and run away from it all. The people who ran those registries were all powerful and they could keep you from working and often sent you for re-training. Computer engineers had all been re-trained either as book-keepers, administrators or as if they were male, usually Maid-servant to the Citizenry.

Things were now quite different since September 11th 2022 due to a large geomagnetic storm that changed the world. On that date, a severe geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro Trebec power grid in a matter of seconds as equipment protection relays tripped in a cascading sequence of events. Two hundred fifty million people were left without power with significant economic loss. The economy stopped working just when Governments had told us that we were on the dawn of a new economic renaissance.

Power was eventually restored within months but only to a small portion of the grid. The governments and utilities were now bankrupt, or lost their legitimacy and their limited resources only enabled them to restore power to some wealthy communities that could bankroll these extensive repairs.

To make matters worse, the supply and use of hydrocarbons was now restricted to the Elite, the Military , the police force and the commoners all had electric vehicles, rendered suddenly useless. All wood-burning stoves had been replaced and people in the city were dying of the Cold. Unless one had access to fuel, and a generator, access to the initially successful Cloud Computing was now made impossible. Pumps stopped working so water had flooded most basements redefining entire neighborhoods. High-rises were popular and were now seen as the ultimate Status symbol because of the basic Security in this new world.

Olav went to his Cabin and lit the Wood stove to keep himself warm for a few moments, drink some tea so that he could return for some more foraging and trapping in the woods. If he was lucky, he would find a rabbit in some of the traps he had carefully set up. If not, Olav would get by on some home-grown roots and carrots. He had always refused to register and to render himself available for Sperm donation and other medical experiments.

One of his neighbors had volunteered and was extremely keen to undertake a new life of obedience, security as a numbered wild one. A few months later, he showed up a broken man. He was skinny, toothless and he had been beaten and kept in a cage like an animal. When he was let out, it was to clean the grand Mansion of his Mistress – a Citizen with a herd of dozen slaves, all with specific purposes. He had been chosen to donate some blood, some sperm and his lefty kidney and he had managed to escape one day and return to the river.

The wild ones, as we were now referred to, belonged to nobody, most of the time because those ex-citizens were cantankerous, stubborn, old or sick and/or yearned for a sense of freedom that could no longer be had in the light of September 11th . Those people were completely ignored and they existed in complete isolation from any hint of modern society, human rights or medical care.

Governments had long ago withdrawn from providing such services anyways. Rampant corruption had enriched a few but it had destroyed the state. The Corporations that had survived extended such care to their Employees and their veneer of morality and respectability usually would move them to organize Food Baskets for or some Year-end Dinners for the disabled, the fallen, the poor , the unlike them.

There was a true fascination for them by some Elite designers who considered them as wild animals belonging to a Nature left behind, and they were the source of great Inspiration. Artists would love to photograph and venerate them, like they would with the Wild Horses of Sable Island. True freedom had been lost for most people. Some ersatz-type of Freedom and Nature was therefore required. Compassion no longer existed but it was considered fashionable to say you were. One or two days in the year, the announcers of Radio-Cadenas would make a charity drive to maintain the illusion that all was well.

The governments would publish figures showing virtually no unemployment and increases in life expectancy . However figures were only catalogued for the Citizens, who usually either had cushy jobs, or belonged to some powerful union or worked for a Corporation with a monopoly product or service. In 2011, there were 6 engineering firms that got 90% of the government contracts. In 2016, only one had survived. It was estimated that Citizens represented about 30% of the population.

Access to nature was now difficult unless you were poor. Then you would live and piss under a tree. Citizens therefore consumed and fantasized about wild expeditions, great vistas of the Grand Canyon but most people in Cities were now getting by with a 13 x 13 foot room in a skyscraper equipped and heated by very rudimentary technologies.

The workplace was now a new world. Differences between working women and men had been annihilated as it was too costly and ineffective to manage all this. Most workers were belted and sex was now a luxury reserved for the Powerful, the Rich, and the Chosen. It had become fashionable for elites to become Transgender and to emit ambiguous messages about their true sexual desires or wants.

In 2013, a male Russian cosmonaut had raped a Canadian female astronaut in the space Station and this had also be the turning point for establishing a New World Order. In this new Order , you either had a name or a n umber. It was that simple. All who had names were considered Citizens and could work, have medical care, be looked after in some type of way. Many Citizens though had lost their Names and become Numbers when the bank foreclosed on a loan or their homes.

The Names had to stay productive to keep their Status and also respect the Code, like a Religion. The Code was like a holy book of 100 sacred rules and the pseudo-Elites were brainwashed daily from young age to abide by it. The Code was a mish-mash of the Bible, some Confucius, the Civil Code , the Quran and it was an effort by the Dictators in Power to simplify the Laws and restore some sense of order in an otherwise chaotic world.

Technologically, mankind had fallen back to a XVI th Century levels of technology and the Ethos and Psyche of most everybody had been radically changed. As the learned experts would like to say. There was a massive Paradigm Shift that completely threw out the window all ideas of Modern Living, its conveniences, the rapid-fire Google search that was now longer there. Young people especially had had a tough time adjusting as the instant search on Wikipedia or Utube was now impossible.

The Young especially suddenly felt very isolated and fell into madness, raves, drugs and a life of wondering or idling. Books or old Magazines were suddenly popular but they had become so expensive as to become inaccessible. Some outfits now leased them out for a day. Pornography, Lotteries and drugs were as always in hot demand and the State or some State-licensed Corporation had cornered the market. Those needs had become the main sources of Income and constituted most of a person's daily earnings.

The state had lost most of its legitimacy overnight and society now consisted of a bunch of Clans. Some were rich, some were poor but all were ruthless in their quest to survive and thrive.

The state was seen as just yet another service provider specializing in Lotteries, alcohol, pornography , energy, fantasy vacations and massive re-training programs.

I had walked for 5 days to the fertile region of the Richelieu valley where I hoped to survive somehow , just as the Indians before me did, through some fishing, trapping and foraging for wild fruits in forests and fields.

Gardening was now an organized activity that had to be registered. You could garden but the registration insured that most of the crop would be seized for taxes, dues, fines, tools, composted earth and the farmer was left with a pittance. This was now true for most types of Human endeavors and people had therefore all lost their sense of Initiative and were getting by in some other undeclared way or waiting for handouts of food in exchange for Servitude, blood or Organ Donation.

Gardening alone was too risky and visible. Whenever a garden would yield something worthwhile, the military or some local strongman or clan would seize it in the name of Canada. It reminded me of Russia and the plundering of the farms by the Proletariat in power at the moment. It made me realize that the nice principles of justice, democracy, human rights, international treaties, the European Community were fragile and lofty constructions of the human mind that were no longer upheld and viable.

Help from outside of Canada could not be expected as Europe, Asia, And USA were living similar crisis and quickly turned inward and most were now Dictatorships. Last time I heard, Europe was redefined to include only Germany, Luxembourg and France but it had become a symbolic Union, with little of the grand XXth Century Institutions of Parliament and International Courts. All other countries had been disconnected from it because they were either too poor or too undemocratic to qualify as Members.

The last two winters had been very cold.

As Leonard Cohen used to sing in the digital age " I have seen the Future and it is Murder"....

TO BE CONTINUED