Essential as Air and Water by Matthew Bushen
Chapter 11
Underground, the climate was kept cool to keep everyone as comfortable as possible. Although the cause of people turning was not understood, precautions were made to prevent suspected triggers. The limited amount of exposure to daylight was a concern, as a reduction was a known factor in diminished health and happiness. But this concern dwindled, however, in comparison with conditions outside as the sun struggled to penetrate the smoke. As the afternoon became evening, the sun continued to shine brightly out of sight, trapping the warm air close to the ground. Lanegan had been advised that the hot autumn weather could be a factor in the intensity of the riots. His study of previous similar events informed him that these types of events usually occur in the summer months. The heat however, had been essential to the small amount of success they had had so far. The evacuation sites were mainly temporary shelters that would test the endurance of people in the cold nights of winter. For this reason he hoped it would continue for as long as possible. Time was against them.
Ken and Lanegan returned to his office.
“Ken, we need to bring the conference forward and inform everybody of our findings. Try and arrange it for later this evening.”
“I’ll make the call,” Ken replied.
Lanegan knew the time of day had little consequence. Every nation was waiting and hoping for news and information and as most nations were affected, all leaders were on their home soil. He knew they would want this information as soon as possible.
Ken returned promptly.
“We are ready to go at eight pm,” said Ken.
A telephone hotline had been set up for international crisis so that a message could be sent and received with no need for individual calls. All nations had replied within a few minutes.
Lanegan and his cabinet sat in the same room where they had witnessed Stephanie’s video earlier that day. The clock on the wall showed 7.55 p.m. and everyone watched the second hand turn slowly. They had evidence, but there was some doubt and a strong feeling that certain nations would need more to be convinced.
Lanegan began after communications were established.
“Good evening to all of you. The video I am going to show you will hopefully convince you that we have found a potential cause of the unrest we are experiencing around the world. Nothing is absolutely certain - but it is something of importance that surprised us all. I won’t waste time with explanations, here it is.”
The video played in an anxious silence from all who were watching.
“Is this real?” said John Prenton, the American President. “This is amazing and unexpected.”
“Did the music just cause that reaction?” said Alanna Engman, the Swedish Prime Minister.
“First of all,” said Lanegan. “I haven’t got time to explain the music source, it’s not important right now. Secondly, I would like to state that the tests are in the early stages. The first two men reacted in a positive manner, as you saw, and the female prisoner in a negative way. These are of course individuals from different backgrounds and with different lives. We can’t be sure of anything, except what we can see. But, what is obvious is that the music appears to affect individuals differently, which may explain why when rioting, people tend to act on their own and not in groups. It may also help to explain why many of us are still in control of ourselves.”
“Prime Minister, do you have any ideas why?” asked President Prenton.
“We do. We have a theory that humans require a certain level of change, inspiration and fulfilment that can only be supplied by certain cultural factors, music maybe being one. As you all know, we all have our own version of a policy that means we restrict and do not encourage particular aspects of our past history that were thought to fuel aggressive behaviour. It appears that this may have been an error, we cannot know for certain yet. Our species adapts to change very quickly. We took away a part of us that has been present in some form or another and we accepted it as normal. What we didn’t know was that it is a part of us that we possibly cannot be without. And now we have reached a point where it will not let us carry on. The rioters have demonstrated that the sacrifice of certain freedoms is a threat to our very survival.”
“Prime Minister,” said Fernando Cavalera, the Brazilian President. “You claim that citizens are rioting because they are deprived of cultural stimulus and yet you also say that music is a catalyst. This strikes me as a great contradiction, you must have realised this?”
“Mr President, we don’t have all the answers. That we freely admit. Our theory is that people need constant change and inspiration. The reaction we have witnessed only serves in demonstrating that the repetition of certain music affected that particular person negatively.”
“So what do we do?” asked Prenton.
“That is a good question,” said Lanegan. “We have seen evidence that some buildings have been targeted more than others. This may be coincidence, but it appears that buildings that contain media outlets have been hit with more force and intent than others. If you could all look into this in your own countries we believe this could be clarified fairly quickly. If this is so, then surely the best course of action is to stop the broadcasting of all media. Most media outlets have already stopped; but many broadcasters have carried on as a show of defiance against the riots. There are also many people around the world who broadcast from homes and private buildings. These people need to stop. Of course, this may cause people to become more violent because the music has stopped. We here in Britain, have archive rooms that store historical documents from our past. I believe it would be a good test to use some of these items to test for a reaction on detained rioters. If you have books, paintings and music, then you could conduct your own research and see what happens. Does anyone else have any thoughts or further information?”
“Prime minister if I may,” interrupted Andrei Gagolin, the Russian President. “You have shown us some evidence, which is strange and unheard of. I quite believe it though. I have openly disagreed with you all before about what I considered censorship. It doesn’t make for a free world. But I went along with you so long as there was peace. I looked at the big picture and selfishly didn’t want conflicts like those of my nation’s past on my record as President. I think we should try every idea, no matter how it goes against our principles in an attempt to stop the suffering. We have all moved citizens to rural areas and should probably begin there, away from the cities and towns that are in trouble. We must rebuild ourselves first - and then our buildings.”
“I feel that I need to say something here,” said President Prenton. “In my country and many others that I know of, we have all followed the principles of the agreement. However, it is nearly impossible to police people in their private affairs, especially in such a big country as the US. It is known that smaller nations and certain ethnic groups have not suffered the same degree of rioting as the more developed nations have. And therefore we should approach some of these groups and learn from them. I would imagine if we look hard enough at our own countries, we will find communities that have continued with traditions that we considered not to be safe.”
“Okay. Are we are all in agreement?” asked Lanegan.
Not one leader disagreed, although many remained silent.
“Then we have a plan. We will stop all our broadcasting tonight at midnight GMT. Until then we will repeat instructions for other broadcasters to do the same. How we conduct the reintroduction of cultural factors will be up to individual nations - it may mean we are reunited with the past in different ways. This could be a long and hard journey that gets worse before it gets better. I would appreciate news of any developments when you have them. Good luck all of you.”
Lanegan walked away with a strange feeling. It seemed to him that the conference had gone too well and that they were all convinced far too easily. And yet he knew what the video showed was undeniable. It was clear that there were no counter-theories on offer, only a large sense of relief that they
“Ken,” he said. “Do you think that all went down a little too easily?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Ken replied. “I have a feeling we may be about to witness the first defectors from our international agreements in a very long time.”
“In your opinion is there anything we can do?”
“Not at this moment, no. We have to focus on ourselves and our citizens. How other nations deal with this is for them to decide at this point. If we are successful, then maybe we can start to influence and give advice. Until then we have to accept that the world as we know might be coming to an end. We are potentially asking for fundamental change after all.”
“Yes we are. It is going to be hard to warn and explain to people that they will have to suffer to end this. Change is never easy.”
“They already are suffering, Tom.”
For the rest of the evening a message was broadcast on state radio stations around the world. At midnight British time all media sources would cease, causing a silence over the airwaves - and then they would wait.