“So what did you do before the civilization was destroyed?” Her voice was dark and sincere and she looked back for just a second as the scientists continued tromping through the trees.
“Hold on, let me guess,” said Dane slightly playfully.
Immediately Gabe was expecting some kind of cheeky remark, considering the very unlikely probability that Dane was going to even try to be right. Gabe was right that the cave hadn’t shown Dane’s true character. Dane was, in reality, (and with no better word for it) silly and not worthy of reckoning with. Since they had reached the sunlight, everything about him relaxed, which made Gabe wonder if he was claustrophobic, too. In gentle, almost unseen ways, he calmed May’s tension. Dane had darker hair and dark brown eyes. Lean, as well, but a little thinner than seemed natural. He was a handsome guy – no CGI movie star, to be clear, but enough to encourage his charm. Gabe tried to find the arrogance in him, but was disappointingly unsuccessful.
“You were philanthropists?” Dane said, with a charming smile, and just enough sarcasm that they would catch it.
“What are we, dead?” Jonathan rebutted.
Gabe sighed and tried to make his response slightly more philanthropic, “We’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about us as though we are dead.” Said Gabe, “even though, you’re being smart, it’d been much better if you’d have said, we are philanthropists.”
Jonathan said, now terribly irritated, “we were scientists, psychologists”
“Anthropologists, philosophers” Gabe added, thinking it was quite stretch for Jonathan to be calling himself a psychologist. Yes, he studied psychology, but for the perspective of how to fix the mind, not help the person. It was more of a minor minor to the neuroscience.
“And what are you now?” May asked just as plainly and sincerely as before.
As a matter of fact, Gabe had never really considered this question; assuming it was the same. Perhaps those titles didn’t mean much here. But, they recognized them… so that was something. But, an anthropologist of a totally different society and culture might as well make you nothing. That is, unless people are generally naturally the same, which, Gabe believed they were. They were still doing research in a way and that made him feel better to realize his identity wasn’t completely lost.
“Just a couple of idiots who learned to come back to life and rebuild society.” Jonathan tossed out coarsely.
“Five times” added Dane.
Yeah… that wasn’t helping the mood of the entire group. With more knowledge than had yet been in the world, and every effort to succeed, human nature had a vengeance, and, yes, after five times of failure you begin to doubt, and wonder if anything you know can work. Childish though it was, Gabe had to admit that at times like these it just seemed unfair. And you’re old and you’re tired and you’ve been patient and you begin to feel winded when the only people you know think you’re a psychotic fool. It was his refusal to dwell on that and his hope that he was not that forced him to persevere. Yet, her next question was worse.
“What contributions did you make to the society?”
Jonathan was feeling the weight of the same failures and was letting it bother him, shame, because once his fear hit the rim, he was brutally honest without reservation. So, here is what he said,
“We let everyone see how unhappy they were and came up with a plan to restart, and we did it. You’re bloody existence is our contribution to society.”
Great. Smooth, Jonathan... What an idiot.
It’s likely they didn’t entirely comprehend what that meant all in one whack, but they became tense and walked a bit slower. They probably were considering if there was any other thing Jonathan could have meant by that statement, other than the obvious truth. And for that to even happen, they needed to consider if the truth was even possible. To them it was grossly inconceivable; which was nice, because it meant Jonathan and Gabe weren’t dead yet.
Stopping dead in their tracks, both turned. Time for a DTR. This would be it, the moment where May and Dane decided to kill them or not.
May again asked for clarity on the situation. She had done so four or five times already.
“Okay, so you’re from the past, but it was highly advanced, so you know a lot about everything, and you buried yourselves in a cave because you want to help us…?”
When she said it that way it really did come across as stupid. Gabe was tired of explaining, and sighed, “Um… sure…”
“And you’re gunna help us with… politics? Agriculture? Architecture?” Dane asked.
“Well, not exactly… we don’t know much about those things.”
“So what then? Just tell us straight up, we are intelligent enough to understand.” Dane’s voice was more abrupt than was comfortable .
Gabe was shockingly feeling nervous now… “It is a little abstract, but it’s more of your thoughts relating to those things… and your attitudes in context of it all… if you are… tolerant.” He wasn’t sure if they would understand the connotation of the last term.
Dane became now visibly skeptical. Perhaps it was irrational, but Gabe couldn’t help but think of the worse possible scenario.
Gabe thought about all their deaths until now. Seemed like the deaths got worse and worse each time, which made this next one most certainly a frightful and agonizing one. Maybe that was superstitious, which was such a calamitous and disagreeable human condition, still, there’s something to be said about patterns.
Thinking of calamitous and disagreeable, Gabe always felt this weather fit in that description. They hadn’t even realized they were sweating until something tickled as a drop ran down their face. It wasn’t the Gulf of Mexico, either, that’s for sure. And why was it dying?
Dane interrupted his thoughts, “Explain, please.”
Gabe sighed, but he was expecting this and thought the weather could distract him with a little peace before the blow came.
“I mentioned in the cave about the purpose of life being finding freedom; more specifically to use that freedom to find happiness. Our goal is to help society find happiness. That’s a hard thing you’ll find out soon… or perhaps you already… know?” Gabe hesitated while making the decision to turn his sentence into a question instead.
Neither acknowledged the question. Then Dane, perhaps deciding he’d been too hard on them with lack of information said,
“But that’s with the same frustrating idea that sociality and economics have something to do with happiness or success, or uniform obedience, or whatever people want. Here’s the idea we’ve already concluded. You can’t control the masses, there’s no formula. And, while offense may be avoidable, it is intended when I say that that is your obvious failure and it seems like it is in your mind to pursue the same course again. So why don’t you finish explaining what you’ve done already and tell us your intentions.”
Maybe he wasn’t irreconcilably silly, then, Gabe realized with distaste. Then Gabe said,
“Do you remember how I was talking about the inequality that created the rules people tried to live by? Once things began to change and those rules were questioned, people weren’t willing to change their opinions. They thought certain things were always right. It caused so many issues and weakened our nation particularly with disunity, so when war came, we were unprepared for it and it broke us easily. We want to avoid that. We are going to examine your society and discover what you have determined is important; if you’ve created expectations and how people respond to those personally and as a community; if they’re healthy. If you are peaceful and there is nothing that would hinder your future prosperity, according to the path of history we’ve seen – in multiple cultures, mind you – we’ll accept it and move forward.” Gabe bargained.
They didn’t ask ‘but if not’ even though they probably wanted to.
The meds must have been working because Jonathan asked, in his calmest tone yet, “Have you experienced any war?”
What they then asked was, “What is w
ar?”
“Did I mumble?” He accused and refused to repeat himself.
They hesitated still as if they didn’t understand something, but then trying to work with the context May said, “The contentions with politics, cities breaking off, public disagreements… is that what you’re asking?”
They looked between each other quizzically.
“No wars?” Gabe clarified the question.
“No what?” May asked.
“Wars”
“What does that mean?” Dane repeated with a little heat in his tone.
Gabe figured he’d better explain before Jonathan got the chance to confuse them. “People kill other people because they’re trying to prove something or take over a spot of land, with armies and weapons like knives and guns, and explosives…?” His statement turned uncomfortably into a question again.
“What?” May started incredulously, then changed her focus, “And no. But we’re getting off subject. We’ve gotta stop doing this. Answer our question, please.” May said, still with more firmness in her tone.
Gabe’s mind was spiraling. No war? No oppressive Government regulations? No disagreeable social rules? Had it worked? Looking over he knew Jonathan felt the same way. His eyes were bright and energy was building up from his toes on up to his head like a chemistry beaker of baking soda and water. Did they have any idea what that meant? Gabe was happy, but was trying to avoid making too many assumptions just yet. Maybe they just called it something different. Though, he couldn’t really help his joy. So… what was it, from the first time till now? Had they reached a healthy level of tolerance? Mutual respect? Ignorance? Or were they mostly agreed? Was it impractical to think it could continue even longer than one century? Was any change needed or should they just settle down, do some research and finish out their liv-
“Hey!” May called out, “Focus!”
She was right, Gabe was getting ahead of himself.
Jonathan leveled with them and explained with unforgiving tone the way the world was. People were unhappy, not free, and they didn’t realize it until it was nigh impossible to get out of. America was a great nation, allowing freedoms of religion, speech, political affiliation - but there’s a burden that comes with freedom. Everyone’s free, not just you. It became impossible to draw any lines. The pair asked how they knew people weren’t happy.
“We asked” Jonathan said. It came to everyone being honest with themselves and realizing nothing was the way they wanted it, or some people would say, the way it “should” have been (whatever that means). Research went on for years that he and Gabe were a part of the only conclusion of which was that something needed to be done. Society needed to be fixed… or… started over.
Numb and heartless though the researchers were, humanity had to be reconciled with when talking to other people and instead of this as simply a project they were working on together, they get a glimpse of what others must think of them and the clearly wrong side of the coin turns up. Gabe and Jonathan felt squirmy now. Guilt kills.
Gabe became intensely distracted by the failing terrain again. They were all stopped on a patch of soft ground with ten feet of cliff as the backdrop. May and Dane had faces that were astonishingly less astonished and instead were firm, hateful; daring them to say more and undoubtedly staying put until more was said. Gabe couldn’t help feeling they were more mature than he and Jonathan. Only Jonathan’s drugs were keeping him calm. Gabe didn’t have the same luxury. This old man… he played five…
Hands to his head he sat on a large mossy rock, decrepit both body and soul. How it hurt to touch so many of those memories from a stranger’s point of view. It was more like a movie that played in his head as he attempted objectivity. It was a little disappointing the way Jonathan’s work with cloning included keeping the memories. He clasped his hands tighter over his eyes while for a few moments he visited the last forty years of his life in cold-cut clarity.
…
One day in one of his classes, he was giving a lecture of the comparison of happiness among cultures. He had them write down and discuss ways they thought happiness could be measured. The thought he presented to the class was that more and more of everything was available at alarming rates, and people can get everything they need or want practically at a click of a button. Did triumph over delayed gratification make people happy?
It was a yes or no question. He wanted a hypothesis so they could eventually write a paper with their opinion. The majority of Gabe’s students were of the opinion that people still weren’t happy – and in one particular class, by the end all the ‘no’s’ conceded that if the delayed gratification was continuous, then yes, people could be happy – but that usually wasn’t the case. That particular class divided the wants and needs of people; money, relationships, progress and determined that very few were dependable sources of gratification.
In another class, they went into greater detail wondering whether people took proper actions to achieve what they want. Someone even asked if humans were capable of making the decision of what they want without making mistakes, and, in which case, as long as humans were prone to mistakes, their choices would always have a probability of dissatisfaction.
The response to that is what ignited the fire in Gabe’s mind.
A student said, “No, I think that they get what they think they want, because they no longer have the capacity to decide what they really want.”
When Gabe asked how he formulated that opinion the student said “from the bible” which he was reading for his World Religions class. Gabe had read the bible three times and was pretty sure that wasn’t in there. And, the words ‘no longer’ were offensive. To think that the society knew at one point and somehow became less capable was an irritating and provoking thought.
That was fourteen years into Gabe’s teaching; when he still stood straight and his neck sat upright.
He spent the next four years thinking about it and working with his students; formulating hypothesis and history. He required overwhelming work from them – details and philosophies from every culture and every age. What was wanted? How did they get what was wanted? Were they satisfied? Did what was wanted increase freedom? How did they define freedom: more time, self-expression, more possessions? Every night he was working over the ideas and reading their work.
What he determined was that most of the problems came when people questioned the traditional morality of a culture. People wanted to create their own happiness without a judgmental community telling them it was wrong. People had natural desires based on chemistry and not only did the societies attempt to teach the differences out of them, but they persecuted or ostracized them for it.
When it was time to publish his work and present it, Gabe was working with colleagues from across the nation and was introduced to Jonathan, whom he knew very little about.
What he knew before they met was that Jonathan was not a professor, but was an authority connected with several universities and was well known among the people New Jersey and Detroit, particularly. He was well known in New York, too, where he received his Doctorate at the age of twenty-three and then remained there for twenty years doing research and being called on to give guest lectures on cloning and the creation of sustainable life.
Gabe learned more about Jonathan from reading biographies then he did working with him, in all honesty. Reading biographies, interviews, and dissertations taught him that Jonathan had long wondered about the sustainability of life and if it was worth it if there were unhappy memories. He had researched how to transform memories in the cloning process, which would encourage positive responses toward others and influence the satisfaction they felt with their life. Jonathan worked for years with memory. True, he came up with the fail safe process for cloning, and even speeding it up, but that seemed to mean little to him unless he could change memory with it.
Jonathan would never tell all the research to Gabe himself, because he was too busy with his formulas. Therefore, by his own in-
depth research, Gabe uncovered the long process Jonathan had been through. Basically, Jonathan thought there had to be a drug that could instil happiness in the mind in a more successful way than anti-depressants. He started work with chemicals in the brain, beginning with dopamine as a base and administering them in small quantities. It had worked but wasn’t lasting – the brain couldn’t conform to it. That was when he started working with memory; with the plug that it would help veterans overcome post-traumatic stress by altering their memories.
The withdrawals from that drug put people in psych wards. Jonathan was inconsolable when the results came back. When that lab report reached the public they went wild with accusations about ethics and wanting to create new laws to monitor this use of medicine.
That was when Jonathan started becoming uncontrollable and angry, apparently. Gabe never knew him to be otherwise. His breakdown had happened a few months before they met. For a few months they worked together… or, Jonathan tried to teach him, and would sometimes listen to ideas that weren’t his own.
Their collaborative theories and Jonathan’s cloaked propositions were presented in a conference in Montana where Gabe was still teaching. A professor came up to them afterward and instead of suggesting something about God as they anticipated and as others had done before, he merely mentioned an analogy called The Promised Land as it relates to the human experience in general. He said that the creator of the Promised Land understands the end from the beginning and leads the people through the wilderness until they find it. This sparked the idea for what became their culminating project. Yes, Gabe realized the religious context of the idea, but that was far from the point.
Luckily, the next few months were bearable because Jonathan’s inner hulk was subdued by the prospects of this next project. They were preparing people to start the world over again… or the Adam and Eves. He vied to have his memory altering research re-instituted. That was not an option. So he tried to come up with other ways of conditioning the subjects to have them maintain the tolerance of the twenty-second century, but rid of the world’s self-destructive social and economic habits.
The GOD Box Page 4
