The Second Comingby J.R. Mooneyham(previously under the pseudonym S.C. Summers)
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE: SPRING 1993
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* The religious right warmly embracing alternative lifestyles, and giving their blessing to marriages between partners of the same sex.
* A world where severe labor shortages threaten to bring on a thirties-style depression, or worse.
* Western governments in a near panic to legalize both marijuana and prostitution.
* Trade and budget deficits throughout the western nations turning into surpluses. And yet financial institutions are threatened from an entirely new and unanticipated quarter, with a scale of failure that makes the Savings & Loan debacle of the eighties look miniscule by comparison.
* The western democracies do an abrupt about-face on recent immigration policies, literally begging for people to come to their shores.
* Dictatorships and other forms of totalitarian government not only collapse across the board, but appear destined never to rise to prominence again due to a new phenomenon on the world stage. Paradoxically, this 'social vaccine' protecting the world forevermore from non-democratic governments gaining a substantial foothold again is not welcomed by the community of nations, but rather greatly feared and despised by them.
* Finally, all of the above comes about within only a decade or two after the appearance of a single precipitating agent.
What on Earth could have such an effect on so many diverse issues?
Now variations of the pill are appearing; one induces abortions, another works through the male rather than the female sexual apparatus. But neither of these promise as dramatic an impact upon the world as the original pill brought with it. The first pill literally was a breakthrough not only in terms of technology, but in the changes it wrought in social policy and individual options. Yet even as the world still struggles to cope with the implications and new choices presented by the wake of the original pill's introduction, another, perhaps still more significant medium of choice, looms on the horizon.
We could soon witness a Second Coming, of sorts. Not of a messiah, but of a second pill. One which may affect us so profoundly as to make the advent of the first seem but a herald of its coming.
Where the first pill provided a revolutionary and viable form of birth control, the second will offer convenient and reliable death control.
This second pill would have a simple function; it would provide a quick (perhaps even pleasant) death for the taker. The ultimate deliverance from a world of troubles, pain, or loneliness. A last resort more reliable than anything else man's expertise might provide, for centuries to come. A final, fail-safe option that could be so complete as to provide comfort and security even for those who simply kept it in reserve, never deigning to take it unless circumstances became truly unbearable.
Why would there be a huge market for such an 'easy death' pill, and why could it have such a great impact on the world?
Job creation is booming world-wide. But so too is stress. The stress of intense global economic competition. The stress of coping with traumatic social and technological change. The stress of switching career tracks on a regular basis, as the old professions are replaced with the new at an ever increasing pace. Suicide rates are higher than ever in the most rapidly advancing of nations. Spotty but hard hitting labor shortages are forcing the world to utilize more and more of the unemployed of the poorer regions, such as the Third World.
Just as high technology makes citizens on the home front as vulnerable to the ravages of war as soldiers on the battlefield, so too does it make every citizen vulnerable to the fierce economic competition raging globally. No one's job or business is safe. Not when someone half a world away can decide at any moment to compete with you for any wage or profit you enjoy. In this manner will there be considerable job stress, despite the fact of almost nonexistent unemployment. For workers will know that failure to compete well in their present job guarantees retraining for another, or a demotion, with an attendant fluctuation in income. There'll also be the strong possibility of relocation; a traumatic uprooting from home, extended family, and friends. Jobs will be plentiful, but require more education and skills, and make greater demands on personal lifestyles, than ever.
Beyond the horrors unleashed by accident and terrorism, are those of outright war, as ethnic and theological strife is whipped into a near frenzy in some parts of the world. Religious factions, alarmed by a waning of their fortunes and influence, react as they have time and time again throughout history; with hysteria that eventually turns to bloodshed. Ethnic feuds are strengthened as technology transfers power from central authorities into the hands of individuals and small groups, who are often ill prepared to use this new power in a responsible manner.
The earlier incidents of Bhopal India, AIDS, Chernobyl, and the Kuwaiti oil fires have turned out to be only the smallest hints of what is to be seen on a regular basis throughout the twenty-first century.
Even as the probability of large-scale nuclear conflagration appears to recede from the world stage, other just as frightening dangers appear. Though the majority of these afflictions are successfully contained, still the news of them contribute to anxiety levels world-wide, and so spur greater potential demand for an easy escape.
Beyond the possibly smaller numbers of females in a generation, there is also the economic factor. Recall that successive generations in most nations will likely enjoy higher living standards than their predecessors throughout this period. Higher living standards seem to encourage a lower birth rate ( at least in the experience of the more developed countries ). Therefore, in the worst of all possible cases ( regarding birthrates ) we have an ever increasing shortage of women, and they enjoy sufficiently improved living standards so that each tends to bear far fewer children than previous generations.
In such cases drastic measures such as artificial wombs and a much more expanded government role in child bearing could become an economic necessity.
Perhaps another relevant issue regarding all this will be the increased frustration, competition, and stress which men in regions of few females will undergo, as one consequence of the women shortage. Considering the importance that sex and family hold for many males, chronic depression may ultimately become one effect on many of these locales-- with some portion perhaps seeking a convenient end to their woes.
A lot of people might already have killed themselves if they weren't afraid of the pain of slashed wrists or blown out brains. Or of making a mistake and living beyond the act, with a disfigurement or handicap, and the humiliation in facing those who knew them before the attempt.
If dying was as easy as taking a pill and going into a peaceful sleep, a lot of people would likely take advantage of it sooner or later.
NOTE: A simple overdose of sleeping pills presents no clear guarantee of quick and easy death; there are too many nagging questions involved. How many capsules constitute a fatal overdose? Does your age, weight, or health have any bearing on the dosage and effectiveness? Can the pills act quickly enough to prevent discovery and rescue? What promise is there that the process will indeed be painless? Sure, one or two tablets seem pleasant enough. But would dozens eat painfully through your stomach lining before they killed you? These are all questions which a thoughtful person might consider important. Therefore potential suicides would much prefer a drug specifically designed to afford them a quick and painless death, over any sort of jury-rigged affair.END NOTE.
For some, just the possession of a death control pill would be a comfort, and probably add to their capacity to absorb punishment and stress in their daily life. For the pill would represent a guaranteed escape route for them, allowing them some minimal control over events, no matter what the future might bring their way.
Sedatives are already a well-established category of the drug industry. There are a multitude of substances, both natural and synthetic, which might be used to slow the human organism comfortably and rapidly first into a state of unconsciousness, then death. Depressants are widespread throughout our society. An acceptable death control pill might be formulated purely on the basis of a fatally powerful sleeping pill, provided the resulting compound brings about a fast and painless cessation of life.
Somewhere too there exists explicit formulas for suicide pills, as used by agents of espionage in decades past. A retired CIA or KGB chemist might be one of the very first pill producers.
Beyond the substances already known and available to the public that could be modified or concentrated to create the pill, there is also the wealth of knowledge available regarding poisons and drugs in general; their chemical formulations, ingredients, sources, and various effects. This smorgasbord of recipes is expanded on a daily basis as new discoveries are made and documented in the press or latest murder mystery thrillers. Information on how to produce the pill will be readily available to whomsoever wishes to find it. Local libraries will likely be a convenient source of such information.
This wealth of knowledge will make for a multitude of pill production methods, strengthening potential manufacturers' positions with flexibility in materials and processes, and so practically guaranteeing low costs of production and little risk of significant shortages of the materials required for the procedure. If one set of ingredients is made unavailable, producers could simply select another formula.
$100? $1000? $10,000? How much would people be willing to pay for relief from their problems? For permanent relief? Would any price be too high? Even at only $ 50 per pill, if ingredient costs were two cents each, you'd have a possible gross profit of $ 49.98 per tablet. Or 249, 900 % of the original two cent investment; almost a quarter million percent profit. In a world where conventional investments are considered high yield if they provide fifteen percent return on investment, such windfalls could entice many into the trade.
Though pill production and distribution would enjoy great logistical and pricing advantages over many previous drugs, and even the benefit of a somewhat ambivalent public attitude ( notwithstanding that of governments ), the pill trade will also be able to operate with a much slimmer hierarchy of personnel. Producers may typically be much closer to the end-users, thereby cutting out entirely many of the middlemen who have prospered in the more traditional markets by way of smuggling drugs across borders. Therefore producers would retain a larger share of any gross profits garnered.
It will take quite some time to saturate the world market with the pill. First, some 70% of the population will be unable to afford the pill in the beginning ( as sellers will naturally keep profit margins high for as long as they can ). So sales to that 70 % will slowly and gradually take place over time. Secondly, not everyone will immediately buy the pill when it first becomes available to them. Heavy government propaganda, huge penalties for possession, and strict enforcement of bans by authorities may discourage many for a time. Thirdly, those places where religion and tradition are still strong may prove resistant to the pill's lure. But this resistance will usually weaken as modernization takes hold in such areas.
It is likely too that it will simply take some time for many to make the personal decision to purchase a pill, even if legal risks and availability issues are ignored. Some may have to cast off the final blushes of vigorous youth before such an option becomes attractive. Others may be so absorbed in their lives and careers that only the arrival of more sedate and boring times, such as retirement, will spur a purchase.
All these different restrictions and lifepaths might tend to cause a steady stream of sales worldwide of the drug, over a period of decades ( at the very least), unless a better alternative makes its debut.
A chilling certainty about personal fates
Our modern-day saturation in knowledge about all the world includes the trials, excesses, tortures, and temptations of a great many of our fellow human beings. Such knowledge forces us to face, among other things, the more unpleasant implications of each passing birthday, and the increasing pace of deaths and afflictions among our personal peer groups. This unrelenting 'in-your-face' presentation has scared many about growing older or becoming critically ill or injured. Scared us to a magnitude unprecedented in human history for any generation. Three generations, two, and even one generation ago, the individual was not nearly so thoroughly drenched with certainty as to their own fate concerning aging and other mortal liabilities. Sure, we have uplifting and inspirational stories about many traumatic instances of same; but the net effect on many of us remains a growing apprehension and awareness about it all, and a coalescing of conscious commitment on the part of some to affect a quick and clean ending for themselves, should certain conditions come to pass.
Dashed expectations
Then too, there is the factor of rising expectations and dashed hopes. We are continuously bombarded with titillating promises of breakthroughs which could break the age-old cycles of death and disease endured by our forebears. Yet the pace of application of these innovations continues to fail miserably at living up to such grandiose visions. Indeed, it may well require a century or two for science to deliver a large part of what it has already promised in the way of longevity and quality of life. This juxtaposition of elements makes for deep disappointment in many. And deep-seated distrust of those who offer so much yet seem to deliver so little.
Other relevant dashed expectations can be found in economic statistics. Many among the Baby Boom generation and those following in America are finding it difficult to match the prosperity of their parents. In fact, many may never achieve such a goal, unless economic conditions change substantially. The resulting disillusionment could contribute to pill demand ( Though the early twenty-first century will be a prosperous one overall, it will primarily raise living standards in the rest of the world to better match those already present in the West; the standards of the developed countries themselves will tend to stagnate or rise relatively slowly over the long term, compared to many other nations ).
Deathstyles of the rich and famous
Our faith and confidence in the capability of our technology to protect us from the ravages of time, illness, and injury will be greatly eroded by the obvious deaths and suffering of others on the evening news each night. We will all be especially attentive towards life-threatening and fatal events involving celebrities; not only because of the attraction of their notoriety, but also because we will be aware that many of these people enjoy all the benefits that wealth and modern medicine can bring to bear against their suffering and death. They will most certainly enjoy far more protection than most of we common folk. Therefore, the experiences of these people will define for us the very limits of what can be expected of our medical resources.
All too often, we will be chagrined to see that even the greatest expenditures will be inadequate to the task. This will help strengthen demand for the pill across-the-board.
On the other side of the confidence coin, few would doubt the possibility of a death control pill. For virtually everyone recognizes such a product is feasible. We'd know that such a drug was no pipe dream. And this awareness would help fuel pill sales still further.
The magnitude of suffering wrought by this phenomenon will be directly proportional to the non-willingness of world governments to legitimatize the new drug with any form of effectiveness testing and quality ratings. Doubtless too, any less-than-optimum results among early pill takers will be seized upon by governments and others for heavy use in later propaganda campaigns, no matter how well subsequent pill offerings perform their task.
These early suicides will probably be concentrated in the developed nations by virtue of their greater buying power. Thus, the very populations most important to the health of the global economy will be struck first, and hardest. These people are the most important to the economy because they are the ones in whom the most has been invested, money, support, and education-wise. These folks are the resource base already in place for maintenance of economies and expansion of markets.
Final flings would not be limited to aged retirees. Indeed, the majority would likely involve the young; thirty year olds and less, who wished to live a few days or weeks in extravagant excess, and then exit the stage via pill.
The great majority of those who die by the pill will not be the so-called 'dregs' of society, but rather the very opposite. Thousands of intelligent and hard working blue collar employees from old-style manufacturing jobs, shocked by sudden joblessness or 50% pay cuts due to global competition and an accelerating pace of innovation, pleading for opportunities to retrain and rise again to the plateau from which they fell, will get no such support from business or government, and turn to the pill for final solace. Young, educated, competent, and ambitious women and other minority individuals, who are frustrated by a combination of job bias and media fostered standards of beauty, style, and income that they cannot reach, will form another large contingent of the newly dead.
We will lose many of our most highly skilled, educated, motivated, and hard working people.
There is a strong possibility that we could be left with precious few qualified people to run our institutions. And if we allow temptation to goad us into overworking or underpaying them, we will lose them too. If we lose too many, we could end up entrusting our lives and well being to air traffic controllers, airplane pilots, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, engineers, scientists, architects, construction workers, and so on and so forth, drawn from the poorest, youngest, least educated and least experienced classes in the country. For there won't be enough left of any other groups to man all the vacated posts. We can expect that productivity would tend to plummet, inflation and deflation appear side-by-side in unpredictable and savage fashion, living standards fall, and innovation decline, in such an event. And a vicious downward spiral begin from these negatives which could lead to further waves of suicides, which filled more positions with lower quality workers, and so on and so forth.
It's entirely possible that some countries could end up depending almost completely on the quality of their previously most disadvantaged classes, for many essential services and products.
Some might see an ironic justice in this turnabout. As the remaining elite would find themselves increasingly overworked because of the rarity of expertise in what was left of the workforce, and the fact that they would be increasingly surrounded by those they so disdained in previous times. Minorities and women would fill the majority of newly vacated posts. But not necessarily high quality minority and women candidates; for these would have largely 'died out' along with their WASP counterparts in the first waves of the crisis. No, in the new scenario the lifeblood of many companies and government agencies would ultimately consist largely ( in America, at least ) of women minorities, who possessed a high school education, at best. Many would probably speak the traditional state language brokenly, if at all, adding communication problems to all the others involved.
The past policies of discrimination, at all levels and in all fields, could come back to haunt what few remained of the original white male, well educated, well heeled majority in the western countries. With a vengeance. For they would find themselves 'reaping what they sowed' in terms of education and job training for the underclasses. Train conductors would be pressed into service as administrative assistants. Rent-a-cops would become CAD operators. Waitresses and busboys would become nurses. And all these events would have to occur with most training taking place on the job.
Does the thought of you or your children undergoing surgery at the hands of such a 'first timer' make you feel safe and secure?
Though this environment would represent great, unprecedented opportunity for the heretofore underprivileged, it would also be very stressful for everyone involved. And dangerous. For many jobs hold great responsibility and risks, and simply cannot be adequately taught by way of short cuts. Yet by the time all this takes place there may be no other alternative.
Why won't Japan be among the hardest hit? Its homogeneous population and culture, and confidence gained from recent economic successes may shield it somewhat from many of the pressures faced by others.
Several of the western european countries are actively resisting many techno-economic inspired cultural changes, despite all the hoopla over 'EC 92' ( This is one reason for their continuing lackluster performance in many key economic areas today.); so they too might be spared the greatest initial harm from the pill's appearance. Another factor which will help shield them, ironically enough, will be the very socialism among some countries that Americans and others have before disparaged as being a source of their uncompetitiveness in many markets. National health care and better treatment of the poor overall may keep pill-related deaths lower in places like Sweden, than other nations. And make them much stronger competitors on the world stage as the pill more deeply wounds countries such as the United States and Germany. In this way could legislators among the great powers find the tables turned, so-to-speak, virtually overnight, regarding what the wisest social policies for economic development really are.
Therefore the greatest proportion of early suicides will be largely inflicted upon the premier cultural and economic 'locomotives' of the world, with only Japan of this group being spared the worst damage, in the initial stages.
At the other end of the spectrum, the poorest nations will be protected by their very poverty; their citizens simply won't be able to afford the pill.
However, this Second Coming could be a 'rolling change' sweeping throughout the world, for decades to come. That is, nations like the U.S., Germany, and Eastern Europe may suffer the brunt of the first wave of pill-induced suicides, but later stages will impact hard on many of those initially spared.
For all ultimately follow the lead of the fastest evolving states.
Other measures may include fast acting 'antidotes' to various recreational drugs, which could serve to prevent unwanted effects from bleeding over into other, inappropriate parts of user's lives, such as work. Significant alcohol intake the night before might no longer have a measurable impact on performance the next day, for example. In this fashion could harmful by-products of drug use by one person on the lives of others be minimized, while still preserving individual freedoms.
Some governments may realize early on that legalization of less drastic drugs, such as marijuana, could be the most effective tool at their disposal in the near term for dealing with the suicide pill. For with a stroke of a pen they could usurp organized crime profits in the form of taxes, to apply to expansion of social services. They would also be providing a new legitimatized recreational alternative for people, thus perhaps postponing their resort to the death pill for a while, at least. Too, the savings gleaned from abandonment of marijuana search and seizure practices could itself add to the monies available for dealing with more serious crime problems.
We shouldn't neglect the fact that in the case of marijuana legislation new economic opportunities would open up for rural families, and our real trade deficit with the rest of the world would be reduced.
Prostitution might also be legitimatized, for similar reasons.
The religious right may offer surprisingly little resistance to such legislative changes ( and even more radical ones ) in the face of a mounting death toll that includes many of their own members. Too, they will be influenced by the appearance of new forms of entertainment ( spawned by technological innovation ), which will seem so bizarre and blasphemous to them that old fashioned vices like pot and prostitution will seem tame and virtuous by comparison.
Dictators or otherwise oppressive governments could find themselves with hollowed out economies and bankrupt societies, virtually overnight. For death rates under such regimes could sky rocket as the pill comes on the scene. The people in countries such as China could be freed at last from their evil or ignorant leaders, as such governments would surely be toppled or resign in the face of such developments. And if new dictators attempted to replace them, the pill might defeat them too. For leaders must have followers, by definition; and the pill will ultimately allow any leader to be stripped of his strength and influence by the people. No matter how many missiles, tanks, bombs, or guns that he possesses. Even if the people themselves are trapped within the boundaries of their own country, as so many were behind the Iron Curtain for so long. Such traditional constraints will simply become irrelevant, if conditions deteriorate sufficiently within a state.
And, of course, with few dictatorships/ authoritarian states left in the world, the chances for large scale conflict will be greatly diminished. Lessening still further the need of many countries for substantial defensive forces of their own. And if standing armies become much smaller, the vulnerability of countries to internal coups will also be reduced, and stability in those states enhanced, thus opening the way for low risk economic development by foreign investors.
Business, financial, and educational bias in areas of race, sex, and religion would finally be stamped out entirely by tough new laws and the cold reality of shrinking populations. Every bit of realized human potential, regardless of its source, would be desperately needed by society. Prejudice would simply become too expensive in the new order.
New laws could empower individuals while weakening multi-national corporations, in business matters. Corporations already possess many methods by which to profit that individuals cannot match: enormous labor forces, widespread distribution chains, powerful marketing and advertising systems, deep pockets by which to manipulate changes in the law towards their own benefit, and more. Indeed, it increasingly appears that large corporations may possess too much power for the world's own good, as of the mid-nineties.
Why not tweak the balance more in favor of individuals? How? Ban corporations from owning patents altogether, allowing only those individuals directly responsible for such ideas to own them (Companies could still license the patent from the owner(s)). Or at least reduce the lifespan of a corporate owned patent to something much less that for a patent in the possession of an individual. Say an individual's patent might last for 15 years, while a corporation's only for five or six.
Sure, such changes, properly done, would cost large corporations $millions, $billions, even $trillions in some cases. But few companies would actually go bankrupt. And all that wealth would not disappear into thin air-- no, it would simply flow elsewhere into the economy. Namely, to consumers in the form of lower cost products and services, and to the real inventors of new technologies themselves, rather than a few high profile CEOs in skyscrapers who likely had little to do with the ideas in the first place. And much of the money would spawn new business start ups as well, creating more competition and innovation in the marketplace, and therefore higher living standards for all.
Another way to open the floodgates might be true election campaign finance reform-- at least in increasingly corrupt systems like that of the USA. If large corporations and wealthy individuals could no longer outright buy the politicians writing the laws, there'd be a far better chance that government would work more often for everyone, rather than just the privileged few. Such a revamped system would likely make for dramatic changes in government budget priorities within a relatively short time-- even without the pressures of a death control pill in the background. Excessive military spending would be slashed, wasteful subsidies benefiting only a few companies or wealthy individuals banned, and many taxes reduced or dropped altogether. The income tax system, freed of hundreds of thousands of legal loopholes for the elite (and the handful of subsidies included for the poor as well, as they'd get the money more directly in other ways now), could at last be simplified greatly, thereby putting even more money into the hands of citizens by making tax preparation services unnecessary too.
Corporations forced to divest themselves of their servile politicans by campaign finance reform, and suffering a loss of patent power to many of their own employees as well as many outsiders, would be forced once again to concentrate on the contest with competitors and better serving their customers as ways to get ahead. Entire departments of lawyers and lobbyists would likely be laid off at many firms, as they no longer were of much value to the companies. Law school enrollments would decline as related opportunities disappeared. And the art of business would be revitalized, as the distractions and subsidies of lobbying/supporting lawmakers, attempting to patent everything imaginable, and stifle competition with endless patent-derived lawsuits, all ended.
No longer could the companies so easily control, delay, and otherwise manipulate the pace of innovation in their respective fields. So the pace of innovation across the board would accelerate.
And those innovations which boosted productivity and convenience would be more highly prized than ever by a world with a much reduced population and an enormous need to keep the remaining survivors happy and industrious at the same time.
Too, all the above would serve to help keep the dreams of individuals alive, as it could effectively act as another sort of 'lottery', only better. For this sort of contest could be won by hard work, skill, creativity, teamwork, and research, where other forms depend solely on intangibles like luck, which are beyond anyone's ability to consciously affect beyond purely statistical means. An overhauled patent process plus the long term consequences of campaign finance reform would be a lottery in which one could 'make their own luck', to a degree. And so such reforms would be a welcome boost for many in their own perceived 'pursuit of happiness'. Such actions on the part of governments could have a great and positive impact on the psychology of their societies, and perhaps pull a few million souls back from the edge of the precipice with an old fashioned tool we used to call hope.
Corporations never truly invented anything. People were the inventors. Corporations merely claimed the profits. But post-reform, with individuals able to more easily obtain patents and truly benefit from their own ideas rather than being forced to give up them up to soulless corporate entities, an explosion of new ideas could be expected to burst forth from the previously locked out lower classes of nations. While a great many would naturally fail the tests of practicality or of meeting a real need, the sheer greater numbers invoked would likely guarantee a measurable increase in real innovation in the world, over what existed before. The new redistribution of wealth that resulted from the process would also have a great positive impact on society and the economy, that would serve to make the promise implied above more real and tangible to the common man. It wouldn't be long before almost everyone personally knew of someone who was prospering as a result of this new avenue of opportunity.
By way of the events described above and others, the presence of the death control pill could possibly force the rich to finally
give up their most cherished institution; the unwritten law that appears to demand
the difference between rich and poor always be obvious.
In the future, each individual life will be far more precious than today, as there may be far fewer of them, they will be a more fleeting or 'volatile' resource ( due to the pill ), and newly discovered economic opportunities will be begging for a labor force to exploit them.
Day care might at last become institutionalized, with many parents not seeing their children much at all except on three day weekends ( And nearly every weekend might be a three day weekend in the new economies; except for those incorporating holidays, which will span four days. ). Governments and corporations could assume proportions of the burdens of care and education of children to an extent undreamt of in earlier times. Why? To make life easier for working parents. To free them of many familial responsibilities and worries, so they can better concentrate on their work and leisure. For life must not only be easier, but better, else many will simply 'bail out' by way of the pill, leaving governments holding the bag for all the responsibilities they leave behind, and the unrealized socio-economic contributions they take with them.
Those governments which make the mistake of banning entirely all references to the pill's existence within their borders will find they have tied their own hands concerning some important issues.
For example, there could be cases of accidental death, by friends or relatives of pill possessors taking a dosage purely by mistake. Cases which might be reduced with proper public education and awareness, and packaging standards ( such as child-resistant containers ) for the drug. Yet a government which refuses to acknowledge the existence of the pill will be unable to set such standards or supply such knowledge to its populace.
In regard to enhancement of care for those who want to live
Organ donors are becoming increasingly important to modern medicine. Yet the organs of deceased stemming from pill-induced deaths may not be suitable for transplantation. This condition could reach unacceptable proportions quickly if the majority of deaths suddenly come from the pill rather than other causes. If an unregulated black market is the main source of death pills, there might be a multitude of different concoctions, making reliable and safe organ use from the new wealth of bodies near impossible. But if a standardized, well known formula is used within the killing tablets, which can be reliably washed out or otherwise compensated for in subsequent proceedings, or is designed from the start to do minimal damage to the vital organs of the body, such a waste of organs might be avoided. Thus, legislators will face some pressure to bestow at least limited legality and approval on the pill. ( For as more people voluntarily die, those that remain by choice will be ever more important and irreplaceable to us. We will greatly desire replacement organs with which to keep them alive. )
New respect for and utilization of the elderly
The elderly could suddenly become a prized resource in economies faced with severe shortages of experienced and educated younger personnel. Ironically, the greater proportion of first wave pill deaths will probably occur among the young, as many face the traumatic disillusionment that comes of maturation in the modern day world. The older generations will be already past such trials, and so perhaps less susceptible to the siren call of an easy death from such sources.
The consequences could include deep economic depression. Which itself could exacerbate the problem still further, and bring about a vicious downward spiral from which the world might never recover, if governments erred in how they responded to the crisis.
Governments and corporations couldn't keep the pills out of people's hands. All they could do would be to try to persuade them not to make use of them, by continually increasing the quality of life, for everyone. Propaganda alone would be inadequate.
For if people didn't like the game, for the first time in history they could-- easily and painlessly-- refuse to play.
A panic plague would simply be a case of pill use on a wide scale in response to particularly scary newscasts or similar circumstances. A more modern rendition of Orson Welles' famous hysteria producing "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast might be consummated in the twenty-first century with the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if a death control pill were widely available.
Such possibilities may exert their own pressures on the freedom of the media in what they present their audience, and how.
This strategy might allow for exploitation of certain financial instruments, making it advisable for some institutions to address such contingencies in their long term business plans.
A lot of people would end up using the death pill for retirement by default, as they simply wouldn't have made suitable arrangements to support themselves during their elder years. In those cases the pill could be a great convenience and relief, preventing many from suffering the humiliation and pain of destitution.
The results? Governments and businesses the world over could be forced to respond more sympathetically to social needs. If stress levels are not reduced, legal logjams cleared away, work made more humane and satisfying, and the quality of life in general improved, people will 'vote with their pill', rather than by ballot or feet, and those who remain will suffer the consequences.
The appearance of the death control pill, in conjunction with other challenges we may encounter to our survival, might well tip the balance towards a dark and painful time for us beyond the next century. If the global population fell below a certain level, losing too many of its best and brightest, just as conventional fossil fuels were running out and innovative alternatives required, we might collapse into a much poorer and fragile state of civilization than we enjoy today. It could be similar to the Great Depression that occurred early in the twentieth century. Or worse. On the other hand, if the appearance of the pill and other problems do not damage us so much as scare us, then they might instead help us clean up our act in regards to insanely high military expenditures, inefficient government, and inadequate economic opportunity and social services. And pave the way to a much brighter future for us all. Free ( or nearly so ) education, health care, basic housing, and child day-care could become available to virtually everyone. That long time nemesis of conservative politicians, the 'cradle-to-grave' welfare system, could become an essential staple of the new global economics. This new reality could force nations across-the-board to give up their devotion to lavish military spending, and divert the funds instead to improving living standards for their people. The only alternative would be the loss of their native populations. Without people, there can be no governments, no nations, no civilization. Even the most primitive and narrow-minded of regimes will be able to grasp this fact readily when their populations shrink before their eyes.
Another consequence of the suicide pill may well be a 'pruning' of the human genetic tree. Because those groups of people afflicted with unbearable physical, mental, or social torment may opt out of this existence, taking their genes with them and out of the global pool. If there's a bright side to this, it's that it will make future generations ( if there are any ) more resistant to the pill's lure.
It is in this way that the dream of a madman from World War II might be partially realized. For only the happiest and most fiercely determined of people are likely to survive this challenge, in the long run. Those blessed with natural beauty, brains, and health may find it the easiest. The advantage of wealth would make it easier still. Those fortunate enough to have developed strong relationships with friends and family will also be resistant to the temptation of easy death. So too will be those with jobs and co-workers they enjoy. Dreamers, like artists, writers, innovators, and entrepreneurs, with a burning desire for achievement, may escape the pill's grasp as well.
But at this point we reach the very edge of the probable survivors. Dreamers, by their very nature, may undergo great mood swings. With one day spent in ecstasy, and the next in the blackest of depressions. In their darkest days they will be highly vulnerable to the seduction of an easy end.
Out beyond the dreamers, will be those of much higher susceptibility to the pill's charms; those who Thoreau spoke of living "lives of quiet desperation". And therein lies the greatest long term danger to the world.
For all those with no hope, who dare not dream of a better life, may well succumb to Death's call.
The ugly, the weak, the poor, the disabled, the uneducated, the socially abandoned, may all view the pill as their best alternative. And enthusiastically exit this world they never asked to enter.
And what portion of the world population do these people make up? Half? Maybe more? Some would argue that this group includes at least three-fourths of the people on the planet. Could humanity survive with such a horrendous loss in its numbers, at this late date?
Do not forget that many within these groups are the ones who do by far the greatest amount of work and produce the bulk of the wealth, though they may share in little of it. We would be hard pressed to live without the clothes they sewed, the ore they mined, the products they assembled, the food they picked, and the markets they represent. As well as the ideas they have. Not a few of our greatest minds arose against all odds from backgrounds of poverty and deprivation.
Even if we ignored the tremendous tragedy of the deaths of so many people, the most callous of us would soon be mourning their absence for purely selfish reasons. For their deaths would make the lives of those surviving them exceedingly difficult.
Many of us would not realize the enormous contribution these folk make to our own cozy middle-class lives, until they were gone.
At the other end of the spectrum, even the most fortunate of us have our 'bad days'; times that could lure us too into the arms of Death, if an easy exit were available.
So, in fact, virtually the entire population of the world would be at risk from the pill, at one time or another, if not all at once.
This may well be how many sentient races throughout the cosmos meet their end. Not with the 'bang' of a cataclysmic war, but the 'whimper' of a species-wide suicide which liberates them from their mortal travails.
We have searched in vain for signs of civilizations beyond our planet, for years now. Perhaps the silent skies are testimony of many races fading away simply because their populations dropped too low to sustain their technology and continued development.
Life can be exceedingly difficult at times. Even for the otherwise much advantaged. Perhaps many species would eagerly abandon the treadmill if they possessed a convenient means to do so.
The death control pill could let us discover the truth of this for ourselves.
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