We Have Met The Eloi And They Are Us

In H.G. Wells, 1895 novella The Time Machine readers encounter the Eloi; humans in the distant future who literally know nothing. All is provided for them, all is determined for them. All is good until the Morlocks show up. In our own time knowledge is becoming superfluous to material comfort. The need to understand cause and effect, history, precedent, trial and error are optional as technology is omnipresent, robust and remarkably reliable. The remembrance of the before times are fading from living memory and will soon belong to history nobody reads (Remember the library scene where books of knowledge crumbled to dust? Or, just ask a Harvard/Yale undergrad)

The Eloi had transcended the need for ideology or philosophy. They were content with the eternal present. A causal glance around reveals competing ideologies beyond counting. What is coherent, evidence-based and sustainable in this cornucopia of “truth” is irrelevant as all go home, here in America, enjoy access to material aid and comfort the makes traditional definitions of poverty and wealth virtually inoperative.

It seems that that never so many known so little about so much. In areas where most of America resides no one gives much if any thought to the seamless integration of so many moving parts that allow them to drive/use other transportation to go to the grocery store, get food, utilize a myriad of appliances, utilities, technologies and conveniences independent of their skills, education, resources, etc. Most people it seems do not ever think about what would happen to their ideology and lifestyle after about 10 days if the trucks, trains, airplane were unable to deliver untold tons of everything like clockwork. Look at the behavior of the people in the face of a few days disruption because of a snow storm.

Perhaps it is no surprise that a populace encountering a level of unprecedented material abundance would, after sufficient generations, act is if it is like oxygen; it’s just there always has been always will. That belief will be put to the test.

Oh, I almost forgot the Morlocks. Well, they’re here too. Not resembling the subhuman cannibals of the novella but it seems to me that the ruling authorities by force and coercion deem any and all human activity to be surveilled regulated, taxed or forbidden. Of course, that is not science fiction but history and well you know about the value placed on that.