the bird on fire

The Bird is the Word: Sophisticated Schoolyard Shenanigans

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The last string. 

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By 7th-Grader Penny Andreas

Wednesdays, Blog students respond to creative prompts. Sometimes, as in Penny’s case here, the creative response morphs into a full-fledged blog post. This particular prompt was borrowed from Poets&Writers: The Time Is Now: “Page as Canvas,” Fiction Prompt.

   Noah Baumbach’s film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Sam Esmail’s forthcoming film adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, HBO’s miniseries adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven—novels with apocalyptic themes are appearing on screen more and more. Whether through satire or stark realism, this suspenseful setting allows writers to explore profound themes of survival, friendship, trust, hope, and resiliency. 

Poets&Writers

Our bloggers’ assignment: Inspired by apocalypse novels, imagine the end of a modern civilization. What follows is Penny’s response in verse.

The last string. 

The end of a modern civilization

The shortening of population

The stop of an endless creation

The ruins of a unhinged foundation

But the beginning of devastation 

The start of agonizing situation

The rise of a falling nation

The awakening of isolation

The abrupt stop of our rotation

The question of never ending hibernation

Something of no explanation

Something without any information

Something beyond imagination

The ending of our generation

The beginning of separation. 

The endless echoes of screaming

About what’s beyond our dreaming

Nothing’s real, as it seems

That it’s all been some scheme

Whether it was life or death, 

And endless stream

Of life taking away the giving of what was meant to gleam.

But now all we see,

Is the decay that now lies at our feet. 

The years of endless heat

The cracks below the concrete

The things that were incomplete, 

The wrinkles and folds,

Permanent on our sheets. 

But now forget about the things 

That devastation may bring

But as we lie here in silence, 

We hear the earth breathe

Only for a few seconds….

Before we pull the last string.

Слава*

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By Junior Remy Haring

Junior Remy Haring continues with his third installment of his serial fiction inspired by The New Order–a mod for Hearts of Iron IV. If you recall, Remy visits an alternate dark history here, where, in WWII,  the Axis powers have won.

Outskirts of Zeya, Amur, the Russian Far East, January 24, 1962

It was the crack of dawn. I left the house garbed in a ski mask, winter camo and snow boots. It was time to check the snares I left out in the forest for small game. The air was crisp and cold with not a cloud in sight. After 15 minutes of trudging through the dense thickets crowned with snow, I finally reached the clearing where I left a trap. A snow hare was hanging from the wire. After carrying it back to the house, I produced a skinner knife and got to work. Look, it’s not a pleasant job, but people need furs, and I need to eat.

When I finished the job, I cleaned the hide, rolled it up and carved the rest for food. I rolled up the pelt, put the meat in the freezer, and set off for Zeya. When going down the road, I saw what transpired the night before: deep boot tracks and, next to them, a deep indent in the snow implying something heavy was dragged. Blood stained the snow. Ahead of all of that, tire tracks. Damn, I thought, they must have got Kozlov. After following the dirt road for a while, I finally made it to Zeya. It was a bleak little coal town that was divided into two by the river. The only way to get from one side to the other was by crossing the old, decrepit hydroelectric dam that has been offline since the war. One side was where most of the higher ups of the RFP lived. The cluster of houses almost looked like an ideal American suburb if it weren’t for the drab paint and withered roads. The next area was where most of the Russians lived. It consisted of these massive, concrete bricks for apartments that looked like they were about to fall apart. Near the coal mine to the west was where the undesirables lived: non-Russians, non-Orthodox, etc. Their dwellings were little more than hovels huddling around the mines. Some were made of metal scrap, others logs. Some people had nothing and huddled around fires for warmth.

As I walked down the main street, I couldn’t help but feel a creeping dread. The crisp, cool air turned stale, and barely anyone was out. Lifeless buildings towered above me like the corpses of giants. I could hear the echoes of my footsteps, the snow boots crunching against the snow. I looked to my left to see pockmarks on a wall and below that a line of shoes. I could have sworn I saw a couple casings in the snow, but I could not be sure. Directly in front of me, I came across a dead tree draped with nooses–more than normal.

Despite every fiber in my body telling me to turn back, that I would be next, I kept walking through the snow. In the distance I heard a crowd chanting, “Slava Rodzaevsky, slava Russia!” Then I heard the rhythmic tramping of boots and the roaring engine of a truck. Despite the thick cover of snow, I could see a crowd of people waving flags at an intersection. When I finally reached the crowd, I saw legions of Blackshirts marching, rusty bayonets pointing into the air like missiles, and a tank roaring through the street. At the far end of the street, I saw him: Konstantin Rodzaevsky, vozhd of the new Russia. He was standing at a podium with Blackshirts on his left and right. With a raise of his hand, the crowd fell silent, and he began to speak:

“Citizens of the Amur, it is time for us to water the flower of our new Russia with the blood of her enemies–Mikhail Matkovsky and his godless heathens of Magadan to the north and Grigory Semyonov and his illegitimate puppet of a Tsar and the “monarchy” of Chita to the west. Once these enemies are defeated, we shall all be unified as the holy and pious people of Amur. We recognize that a true Russian state cannot be without God and yet must do away with the Tsars of old, for we are the true heirs of Harbin. With aid from the Japanese, our Blackshirts will march to the Sea of Okhotsk to the north and Lake Baikal to the west, and we will win. For we have God and the state on our side. Then, our land will have been purged of all who shall stop our efforts, and a new Russia shall be created.”

After his speech ended, the crowd erupted in cheers. The word ura rang throughout Zeya as the crowd roiled in ecstacy.

*Glory

Удалять*

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Junior Remy Haring continues with his second installment of his serial fiction inspired by The New Order–a mod for Hearts of Iron IV. If you recall, Remy visits an alternate dark history here, where, in WWII,  the Axis powers have won.

Zeya, Amur, the Russian Far East, January 23, 1962

Rodzaevsky was sitting at his mahogany desk in his office. Behind him two flags flanked him — horizontal, yellow, black and white tricolor with a double-eagle grasping a bundle of sticks on each. To his left was an ashtray; to his right was a pile of photos of dissidents. Some had a red X drawn over their faces; others didn’t. Their occupations ranged drastically from those of lowly citizens to bureaucrats to the most trusted officials of his own cabinet. One photo in particular stood out to him.

It was an old black and white group photo from the beginning days of the Russian Fascist Party (RFP). Rodzaevsky was in the center with Grigory Semyonov on his left and Mikhail Matkovsky on his right. In each of their hands was a raised shot glass of vodka. None of them had a red cross marked over their faces. The photo was marked, “Harbin, Manchuria, September 13, 1932.” As Rodzaevsky was looking down at this photo, he heard a knock at his door.

“Enter,” Rodzaevsky ordered.

A Blackshirt entered the room. His uniform was pristine, all black snow gear with the only splash of color being his medal of the double-eagle grasping a bundle of sticks.

“The dissident Vlodimir Kozlov has been eliminated,” reported the Blackshirt. “He was hiding out in a forested neighborhood a few kilometers away from Zeya. He was… difficult but has been pacified. Given the remote area and that I was under the cover of night, I doubt anyone saw.”

Without another word, Rodzaevsky dismissed him with a wave of his hand. After the door shut, Rodzaevsky took a red marker from his drawer and crossed out the face of the most recent victim. Kozlov had been a middle–aged woodsman and a father of two. It was his youngest child who had reported him for the crime of freemasonry.

Rodzaevsky leaned back into his chair and turned on the radio:

“This morning, at 4:00 a.m. CET, the Swiss Seismological Service detected a seismic event from southern Burgundy that reached a 4.6 on the Richter scale before suddenly ending with no aftershock. The Swiss government has come to one terrifying conclusion: the SS State of Burgundy has successfully tested its first nuclear device.”

Radio Free Alps

*Purge

The Social-Media Apocalypse

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Jake is here to warn us:

No need to look to large governments and nuclear power plants for apocalyptic mishaps. The Apocalypse could come via your smartphone.

By Jake Sonderman

 “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”–Voltaire

At first, saying social media will cause the apocalypse makes me sound like a  middle-aged technophobe, but let me walk you through how social media amplifies hate and falsehood and how that can lead to real world violence and chaos. Let’s consider how propaganda has always been a vital part of dictators’ politics.

The year is 1919 and Hitler has just become the 55th member of the German Workers’ Party. In two years, Hitler would take over the party, now called the Nazi Party. In two more years, he attempts to overthrow the government of Bavaria and is thrown in prison. From prison, he writes Mein Kampf, a half biography, half manifesto, that foretold of his intentions of genocide. In 1932, Hitler lost the presidential election but was named Chancellor (similar to a congressional majority leader) in 1933 by President Hindenberg of Germany. From here, Hitler gained the overwhelming support of the German public and took control of the government. But how did this failed middle-class artist gain so much popularity and power? 

Sometimes, I think we forget, since we all despise Hitler, that he was loved by the public when he took power and continued to garner support from the public well into the war. Many historians agree that it was Hitler’s speaking skills that propelled him to power. His ideas were far from original, and he had no status or family of status. In the 1920s and 30s though, radio became common in many households. This multiplied the effect of Hitler’s speeches and message, and certainly expedited, if not enabled, Hitler to gain public support (lifescience.com). 

Obviously, we could not have stopped the radio from being created and used by Hitler, but today we have something much bigger than radio: we have social media. Social media amplifies content that is likely to get more views and attention. According to a recent MIT study about tweets, fake news and falsehoods spread significantly faster and to more people than accurate information. This is largely because of the “novelty and the emotional reactions” that go along with conspiracy theories and false information (sciencemag.org). Often times, hate speech and hate groups are tied with conspiracy theories. 

One type of hate that has gained steam in the past decade is Islamophobia. Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Ali G) recently gave a speech at the Anti-Defamation League summit. In his speech he recounts a story from one of his shows. Sacha Baron Cohen’s thing is to play a ridiculous character who talks to real people and tries to get them to show who they really are. In his show Who Is America, he went into an Arizona town posing as a woke developer. He proposed to a town hall that they let someone build a big Mosque. He declared that it would bring millions of dollars of revenue to the city. This outraged the citizens and led a man to proudly proclaim: “I am racist, against Muslims” (adl.com).

There have been multiple instances of Islamophobia on Facebook. The most famous, atrocious incident was in Myanmar. Facebook has 18 million members in Myanmar. It has become “synonymous with the internet” for many citizens. The Myanmar military took advantage of this and started multiple propaganda accounts under the guise of celebrities  and news sources. These gained millions of views and followers. The false accounts frequently posted complete fabrications about the minority Rohingya-Muslim population of the country. Tensions boiled when the military messaged (through Facebook) many known buddhists and anti-muslims and said that an attack was imminent from the Rohingya group. This led to what the UN called a “cultural genocide” of the Rohingya-Muslims, leaving 10,000 dead and 700,000 dislocated and disenfranchised (The New York Times). If Facebook had an effective monitoring system and had deleted those accounts, the whole genocide would have likely been avoided or been less extreme. 

A settlement for Rohingya arrivals in Thang Khali, Bangladesh. More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar in what United Nations officials have called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Displaced Rohingya Peoples

Facebook monitoring, though, has changed over time. An in-depth New Yorker article tackled Facebook’s questionable moderating system. At first, Facebook employed a small monitoring group that was left to its own judgement to say what was acceptable and what was not. The group was driven by the sentiment, “If something makes you feel bad in your gut, take it down” (The New Yorker). As Facebook grew and calls for monitoring increased, Facebook moved international monitoring to a large Dublin facility. Not many have come forward about what really goes on behind the scenes in Dublin, but those who have tell a dark story. In training, moderators are told that if they are unsure as to whether a post violates Facebook’s community guidelines, they should let a post stay up. The supervisors give some examples. A couple examples include a meme of a white mother holding her little girl underwater with the caption, “When your daughter’s first crush is a little Negro boy.” According to the supervisor, that image “implies a lot, but does not actually attack the . . . boy” or his ethnicity (The New Yorker). So, the post stands. Another example the supervisors show is a username “Killall [slur for LGBTQ+ peoples].” According to the supervisor, “L.G.B.T. is an idea” unless used with pronouns. This story of Facebook ends with many of the moderators leaving the company and suing Facebook for 52 million dollars for emotional damage (The New Yorker). The New Yorker article implies Facebook no longer worries about morals, only about negative PR.

Hate is what starts genocides and major conflicts. Social media is amplifying hate and conspiracy. None of us expect these companies to be perfect, but we have a chance now to stop future conflicts, wars, and genocides. Sure, World War II was not the Apocalypse. But if we had another World War, would it end in the Apocalypse? 

Apocalypse Editor: Erik Bearman

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/54441-how-hitler-rose-to-power.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44883743

https://www.adl.org/news/article/sacha-baron-cohens-keynote-address-at-adls-2019-never-is-now-summit-on-anti-semitism

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/19/why-facebook-cant-fix-itself

Secret Kiwi Salvation

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Worried about finding a proper bunker to wait out the end of the world? Let us help you with your bunker shopping. Blogger Evan explores the phenomenon of companies filling the market with apocalypse-proof bunkers. 

By Evan Spry

Eleven feet under the ground, somewhere in New Zealand, there’s a secret multi-million dollar survival shelter that Gary Lynch, general manager of Rising S Company, will tell us is owned by someone he’s not allowed to reveal. Rising S Co, like many other survival-shelter manufacturers, are getting clients in New Zealand. Because of this, New Zealand is seeing a rise in bunker manufacturing. Bloomberg.com reports, “The underground global shelter network Vivos already has installed a 300-person bunker in the South Island, north of Christchurch, said Robert Vicino, the founder of the California-based company.” The tech elites and billionaires of our world are literally fleeing to New Zealand to live in real life Hobbit Holes. What does this say about the current state of the world? In the past few years, Rising S Co has “…planted about 10 private bunkers in New Zealand…” (Bloomberg.com). They also said that “The average cost is $3 million for a shelter weighing about 150 tons, but it can easily go as high as $8 million with additional features like luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges, gyms, theaters and surgical beds” (Bloomberg.com). 

With our world’s current social and economic inequalities only increasing, we are seeing more examples of inequities such as these crazy kiwi survival bunkers. Fortunately, mass bunker-buying is not a new thing.  Latimes.com reports, “tens of thousands of Americans built private fallout shelters as Cold War tensions rose in the early 1960s.” This doesn’t mean that an increase in bunker buying is a good sign. Evidently, we are currently going through tough times, and it does not make sense to use the money that you have left to buy a high-tech and safe place for you and your family. This is nice for your family, but it is a little pessimistic and selfish to spend millions on a fallout bunker. I know it’s a lot to ask, but instead of spending money on bunkers, people could invest in bettering the world. People could do so much with those millions of dollars, and, let’s be real, we won’t need to live in bunkers for at least another half-decade.

I couldn’t find anything about the economic effect of these bunker-buying sprees, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt the Kiwi economy. However, it’s kinda weird having an American move to the neighborhood, only they’re at a secluded bunker at the top of the hill.

Anyways, I guess if you want to waste your money on a high-tech bunker, you should look 2,500 miles southeast of Australia in the land of hobbits, wizards, and dwarves. 

Apocalypse Editor: Erik Bearman

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/-we-needed-to-go-rich-americans-activate-pandemic-escape-plans

https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-23/rich-are-running-from-coronavirus

Why Do We Obsess over the Apocalypse?

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Our fears may actually be a survival technique. When Editor Erik instructed the Blog Staff to explore the Apocalypse as a theme, Sara looked into the psychology of why we invent apocalyptic scenarios.

By Sara Habibipour

Believe it or not, “Apocalypse Anxiety” is a real condition, and it has presented itself lately with fears of the Apocalypse higher than ever. But, why are we attracted to ideas of our doom? From viruses, to zombies, to environmental destruction, these ideas all stem from our psychology.

While there are many factors that influence a person’s fears and ideas of the Apocalypse, it all starts from the fact that our brains are “pattern-seeking belief engines” (New Scientist). There is actually a really interesting evolutionary thought experiment that ties into this idea. 

Imagine this:

You hear a rustle in the grass, but you’re unsure if it’s just the wind or something that could possibly hurt you, for example a venomous snake. If you first assume that it is the snake but it turns out that it is just the wind, you have made what is called a Type I error in cognition. This is when you believe something is real when it is not. You connected A, the rustle in the grass, to B, a snake, but found out eventually that you were safe. On the other hand, if you assume that the rustle in the grass is just the wind but it turns out to be a dangerous snake, you have made a Type II error in cognition, which is where you believe something is not real when it is. In this case, you failed to connect A to B, leading you to your death (New Scientist). 

Because of evolution and natural selection, the default position is to “…assume that all patterns are real; in other words, assume that all rustles in the grass are predators” (New Scientist). Thus, our brains favor the cognitive process of assuming that all patterns and the worst possible outcomes are real as a survival mechanism. Apocalypse thinking is just one of these pattern-seeking tendencies; these thoughts just naturally fill our mind due to evolutionary habits that started years and years ago. 

Apocalyptic visions also help us make sense of our crazy world. We want to feel that no matter how chaotic the world is, there will be a new beginning after the Apocalypse of this world, which is something that many religions embrace. The idea of a zombie apocalypse, specifically, is also appealing to us because it combines this evolutionary trait with horror, something that gives us a thrill we crave (Psychology Today). 

So, next time you find yourself ready to go hide in an underground bunker in preparation for the Apocalypse, you’ll know where your thoughts are coming from. 

Apocalypse Editor: Erik Bearman

Sources:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028156-300-the-end-is-always-nigh-in-the-human-mind/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20underlying%20psychology,a%20better%20life%20to%20come

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-ooze/201810/why-we-fear-the-zombie-apocalypse

Image Source: 

https://images.app.goo.gl/JFRmN5M4MwLeZLKGA

the world is dying…part 2

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by Hannah Hall

As Erik prompted the Blog Staff to write the theme “Apocalypse,” Hannah inferred that ours is soon to come. Read on as Hannah continues her climate change saga and discusses the devastating effects of climate change. 

As mentioned in my previous post the world is dying, climate change is something that should be taken seriously and dealt with accordingly. Our world can only handle so much more. 

To help publicize and emphasize the issue, an organization called “Climate Clock” has set up clocks in three cities around the world. The clocks tick away, indicating the end of our carbon budget. That means it projects the amount of years we have left until we peak the CO2 threshold our atmosphere can take before our temperature raises roughly 35F above pre-industrial levels. This is our “deadline.” The website climateclock.world also shows our “lifeline.” This lifeline is the percent of the world’s energy that is sourced renewably; we need this lifeline to reach 100% before the other line hits 0. As of this moment, our deadline is just under eight years, and our lifeline is almost reaching 28%. This organization uses science to back their clock, which is sourced directly from multiple organizations: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, and “Tipping elements in the Earth’s climate system” from the national Academy of Sciences (climateclock.world). 

The Climate Clock located in Berlin, Germany

But, in the case we meet our carbon threshold, and global warming is irreversible, this is what will happen to our world:

  1. More irregular weather patterns will be prevalent. The evaporation of water caused by global warming increases rainfall. Excess rain in the polar and subpolar regions, and other unlikely regions, can wipe out organisms that can’t adapt to those conditions or migrate out of them. On the contrary, global warming also causes droughts, which can lead to major water crises and heat waves. This is especially damaging to plants and will cause a shortage of food. This shortage could lead to anything from war to starvation to inflation.
  1. There will be differences in the lengths of seasons. The change in seasons could be anything from seasons starting later or lasting longer. Nevertheless, this change could disrupt the natural food chain because of certain animals migrating either too soon or too late. This could lead to extinction of certain species.
  1. Ice caps will melt. When they melt, sea levels will rise. If sea levels rise to just 1.8 ft higher, that will impact 1 billion people, including Americans in our eastern coastal cities—and by 2100, the levels are predicted to rise roughly 10 ft higher! 
  1. Ocean water and air temperatures will rise. This will lead to more frequent and stronger hurricanes. Along with hurricanes, rising water temperature will lead to coral bleaching. When reefs become affected, ecosystems once flourishing will be diminished. 
  1. Natural disasters will become more regular. Rising global temperatures, caused by rising greenhouse gas levels, will have dire consequences. The added carbon dioxide in the air will lead to stronger and longer wildfires that risk the lives of humans and wildlife. The death toll from natural disasters is predicted to wipe out 75% of our population. Not to mention the people who survive will have to endure the spread of water-borne illnesses and the destruction of our world-wide electrical infrastructure.***

***all info sourced from conserve-energy-future.com and natgeo.com***

As I close out my climate change special, I want to remind everybody once again: The fight isn’t anywhere near being over. But, hopefully this article shocks you, and makes you understand that climate change is real and nearly irreversible. And, with that, I will end with a quote from the Dalai Lama, “It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.”

Apocalypse Editor: Erik Bearman

Sources:

https://climateclock.world/

https://climateclock.world/science

https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/our-planet-is-warming-here-s-what-s-at-stake-if-we-don-t-act-now

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/globalwarmingeffects.php

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-effects/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/132851-it-is-our-collective-and-individual-responsibility-to-preserve-and