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The Theory and Practice of Interstellar-Colonialism |
Chapter ICollapse | Throughout human history, there always existed a certain type of regime - one that coveted power above all else. Defined most by the monarchist of the middle ages and the dictator of the new, it was a breed often constricted by intrinsic human morals. Empathy remains a trait that every man is born with naturally, regardless of gender or race. As such, the common dictatorship of the past relied often on mentality, corrupting a man’s upbringing to erode the natural and replace it with the artificial. Yet even at the peak of moral degradation, there was always a small dosage of reluctance. A single rogue thought penetrating the veil and risking the awakening of morality. This, coupled with natural mortality of man, made it so any regime, no matter how expansive or cruel, would eventually crumble.
Yet this is true only within the confines of the human vacuum. If the dictator becomes both immoral and immortal, then the limits of reality change. The incomprehensible and far fetched becomes a prediction, and worst fears become facts, waiting to be realised. If all that makes a man human is discarded and replaced by the mechanically practical, then society becomes nothing more than material. The norm becomes an exploit - a trick to ease the process of production. And, while humanity has never seen this reality in full practice, the basis of societal parasitism was originally a concept made by man, and was the basis of colonialism. Through exploitation of others, the practical mind sees merely a growth of the product, leaving the moral to witness the horrors first hand. As man improved the quality of his life, so did he dwindle the need for resources. As his comfortability grew slowly in his homestead, so did the time spent with his intrinsic morality. While the practical spoke of the result, the moral begged for compassion and kindness. With each decade, gradual realisations were made, and the practice of colonialism disappeared from the public eye, left to be practised only by the very few who had neither morality, nor practicality. They were in the zone outside of the two senses, seeking only the sight of result, not the purpose of achieving it. Yet, still inherently human, they were flawed with mortality, and could not continue their practice forever. As such, at the start of the 21st century, humanity continued on its slow progression at a fair pace. The rise of democracy and world-wide communication allowed the average man to more clearly see the whole, which inevitably led to the realisation of his place in the world. Humanity slowly became more aware of itself and its flaws. The path it could’ve taken had the incident at Black Mesa been avoided will likely never be fully known or predicted, yet it would most certainly constitute a slow and natural process. Man would undoubtedly change his outlook on life, as he did time and time before, but this change would not be brought on artificially, rather slowly arriving with the change of his surroundings, affected in due part by the attitude of the new. This natural progression was not at all hindered with the arrival of the Portal Storms, but rather simply changed its course. Contrary to the common belief, humanity, while indeed witnessing a threat greater than any that it faced before, was far from becoming extinct. The world was being transformed, yet Homo-Sapiens would soon follow suit. There is no doubt that even in this new apocalyptic reality, man would eventually find a way to flourish. In a way, this was already being achieved - in the three years of the storms, humanity not only endured, but also managed to upkeep its way of life. The general shape of society remained as it was, for the Portal Storms never changed it - they merely forced it to adapt. If given time, even this adaptation would eventually become the norm. Unfortunately, it never did. Humanity would find its biggest challenge in the year 2004, with the arrival of the ones who call themselves “the Combine”, or rather, allow themselves to be called as such. They were a force outside the human vacuum, one that didn’t follow the laws of our reality, for every action taken by man, there always came a cost, taken from the very earth surrounding him. If man didn’t need to make gunpowder or bullets, he could wage war forever, yet this limit prevented such. “The Combine”, however, did not have a cost, or to be more precise, the cost was inferred to be too miniscule to care, being the equivalent of the energy man wastes to squash a small bug. Thus, the invaders went for pure, precise destruction, meaning to debilitate morale as much as they could. However, they never meant to extinguish humanity. The idea that the Seven Hour War could’ve been the end of the human race was always fictitious in nature. Just as the colonisers of old, “the Combine” sought not to purely exterminate, but to dominate. Their goal was always dominion, which couldn’t have been achieved if there remained nobody to claim control over. With their abundance of resources, the only luxury for “the Combine” became what was truly rare in the broader picture. There were always thousands of planets all across the cosmos which could satiate any need for raw materials, yet a very few in which living organisms could exist. Thus, to “the Combine”, the presence of a sentient species was always more important than water or metal. When one possesses all the natural, they will always look for the unusual and the curious. To “the Combine”, there was never a goal of destroying humanity, rather simply their complete and voluntary subjugation. When Wallace Breen brought them what they desired, they saw that the human spirit was broken, and that there was no longer need of their vast armadas, for as any tool, they were used solely to achieve a result - to scare the natives into submission. This was always the intention, for with Breen, “the Combine” not only gained a human mouthpiece to their new regime, but also made it seem as if their actions were akin to a mercy - stopping a savage beating which was never meant to be lethal, simply interpreted as such. Were it not for Breen, “the Combine” would’ve simply waited for another to take his place, and the invasion would’ve lasted as long as was needed for them to show up. For in that very conflict, “the Combine” were already setting the foundation for the new regime. By granting Wallace Breen a claimed dominion over humanity, a pattern of perceived loyalty was immediately ensured - the idea that through collaboration, an individual can be rewarded in a short time, and often with things they could not easily get otherwise. This would eventually become a fundamental concept of the new order, which now relied on the structures of society more than ever. For, while it is true that the limitless resources of “the Combine” allowed them short term waste without consequences, just like the colonisers of the old, the invaders preferred long-term gain over long-term losses. By utilising the existing structure of the human species and their newly founded principle - the myth of collaboration - continuous occupation was all but assured even without the need of the synthetic armadas. Yet, as was mentioned, for the interstellar, the main resource is always sentient species. “The Combine”, through one way or another, knew of Black Mesa, and were likely intrigued by the intellectual potential of humanity. In this way, the ensuing regime may have kept the artificial skeleton of society not only for stability, but also promotion of ingenuity. By gathering the entire species in a few isolated locations, progress could be, in theory, quickened and varied. No longer would the genius work isolated, but, instead, be forced to stream into the ideas of his fellow peers. For the less inclined, the change would bring control, for as was mentioned, “the Combine” knew the potential of social structures. With the myth of collaboration and careful selection, the new regime boasted members of human representatives at the perceived helm of the ship. With each new addition, bureaucracy was slowly being widened, until eventually, the average member of administration seldom thought of whom he was really answering to. From the rational perspective, he always followed another human, who in turn followed another above. This chain continued all the way to Wallace Breen, who was the only one to answer to “the Combine”, or to be more precise, what remained of them on the planet. Thus, all members of the regime were part of the species, which was often overshadowed by the idea of the interstellar. Yet, it was humanity which was in control. All leaders, usually ones from the old-world, picked for their presence of familiarity, were humans, along with the newly established armies and paramilitary forces. In this way, “the Combine” made the species essentially police itself. All acts which were committed in the name of the invaders were ones perpetuated by humans, on humans. The interstellar has effectively moulded the planetary into a self-oppressing mechanism, while, themselves, wasting little to no resource. Now, they merely needed to cement this new reality - to prevent social development and natural morality from fixing what they have corrupted. Their first step was once again a long-term one. To prevent development, “the Combine” needed to directly interfere in a certain stage of mental growth. The easiest way was, of course, to focus on the first and the often preceding - for corruption starts first from upbringing. To this effect, all children were forcibly taken from their parents to be mentally eroded, far away from social constructs they were meant to inherit. Families were torn to prevent the growth of morality, and all feelings of belonging, be it to land or nationality, were stripped with the global relocation effort, which now sought primarily to flood the people with unease and anxiety. Through the myth of collaboration, man was encouraged to betray his own kind, often with societal ascendance - not only as a reward, but also as a discreet way of funnelling individuals into think-bubbles, where behaviours such as this were further promoted by other members of the species. General anger was always misdirected at other aspects of life, be it those who fought the regime, mindless infestations, or, in most cases, the other enslaved species humanity found itself living with. Often, sense was ignored for emotion, as obvious with the case of the vortigaunts, used only to fuel anger from those who were, in reality, in the very same circumstances. For despite their difference, the vortigaunts were always similar to humans - flawed, and yet always born with intrinsic kindness. In a way, just as humanity was taught to hate the foreign and alien, so too was the alien taught to hate the foreign and human. To “the Combine”, this was ideal, for they knew that the vortal hivemind would always spread morality, and thus, had to be repressed in one way or another. In the same vein, all memories of morality had to be purged from the collective mind of humanity - man taught that his history was as corrupt as his intended future. In this intended future, morality would eventually disappear as the moral died out, eventually replaced by solely the corrupted. The suppression field ensured that the unpredictable billions would slowly dwindle to subservient millions. And yet these millions would serve only as resource, used to feed the production of the truly luxurious. For the interstellar do not care solely for a natural good, even such as a sentient species. They seek to improve on the formula, and through the usage of selection, get what they truly lust for - a unique, purified resource. For “the Combine”, humanity is an equivalent of material, with the condensed product - the species’ ingenuity - being what they truly want, for it is special to man only, and thus must be extracted from him, whatever the cost. Yet, unlike mere material, a sentient species is different, with each individual naturally unique. Man achieves greatness solely through growth, which “the Combine” have to somehow facilitate if they wish to extract his inherent ingenuity. To this end, the regime has to be a specifically fine-tuned machine, existing in such a way as to artificially mandate the growth of the individual, while also preventing him from going out of bounds and realising his existence as a resource. In this way, the interstellar coloniser must create an algorithm on constant repetition, meant solely to collapse the existing and to highlight the few unique parts for further processing. |
Chapter IIMandate | In the beginning, man was but an animal, and just like any animal, was bound to two states. If his life was good and his food was plentiful, he would find peace, and if his life was hard and his food naught, he would grow hateful of the world. Living in wild conditions often degraded his intrinsic morality, corrupting the natural trust in one’s species, and thus naturally led him towards selfish actions geared towards survival. However, with the arrival of intellect, man learned to bend the unforgiving world around him, thus improving life and making the need for selfishness redundant. Realising that the state of peace is better than the state of hate, he would keep improving his conditions to perfection - which, of course, he could never physically achieve. This was the basis of humanity’s rise to power and the subsequent growth of its morality. As all of its needs become more nurtured by the century, there was eventually no point to the animalistic selfishness that used to plague mankind. Yet this, in turn, made man reliant on his own progress, and more importantly, the cemented kindness of his species.
While “the Combine’s” technological prowess could have easily allowed humanity to live in a near utopian state, it would have completely extinguished this need of man to adapt and improve his surroundings, thus preventing the showcase of his ingenuity. In fact, the opposite reigned true - degrading his standard of life would not only force desperate innovation, but also awaken both man’s hatred and his long dormant instinct of survival. To those who could not improve their needs with creation, the alternative was to rely on someone else. In this sense, “the Combine” utilised humanity’s instincts to their own benefit, tailoring the regime to maintain a constant state of dissatisfaction, while, at the same time, offering equal opportunity of improvement through commitment towards the very system that maintains the aforementioned squalor. In this, the individual was tricked just as his species was during the Seven Hour War. His societal ascension was never a gift, but a design of the system, while his assumed participation in it was the very reason that he was forced into such poor conditions to begin with. Expectedly, this has also facilitated a natural growth of his trust into the system that he relied upon. Just as humanity began to grow dependent on the social structures of the 21st century, so too had the individual been tricked into relying on his now proclaimed “benefactors” for survival. His food and shelter became properties of the regime, being able to be taken at any moment to facilitate his animalistic hatred towards whatever caused the shut-off. And, as all provisions were handed for free, man naturally assumed them to be a boon, and not a way to slowly erode his ability to care for himself. In this way, he learned to never bite the hand that fed him - his reliance on the regime subconsciously nurtured through the years. In this state of subservience, he would further convince himself that through complete loyalty of his species, survival would always be guaranteed. At the same time, the provided provisions are rarely enough to keep the individual from starvation, with the currency provided being quickly spent on either housing or supplements. As such, the citizen is forced to attend his work cycles, and engage with the loyalist system through gradual social progression. His rise in the system is not only supposed to facilitate a subconscious growth of respect to the regime, but also make him further removed from those who do not conform to the system, thus creating a fake social divide between the so-called underclasses and self-proclaimed loyalists. This divide, however, is artificial, as most often than not the lives of individuals affected are barely distinguishable from one another, differing only in the quality of food provided to them by the regime. The actual changes, or at the very least ones advertised as such, appear when one enters into the inner party. Through boons like luxury goods, legal protection, legislative functions, or sometimes, even further societal growth, the individual is lulled into making connections with existing members of the party, being forced to forge bonds of strong favouritism to reap the perceived benefits of the loyalist system, all at the cost of further alienating himself from those below him. Each of the boons he often undertakes this for, however, end up being less than expected, with luxury products having to be paid for from the pocket, theoretical protection being ignored by law enforcement, legislations failing to make meaningful change, and social growth being artificially blocked to limit further climbing up the hierarchical ladder. No matter the fanaticism or hard work, a loyalist will always be unable to enter into the strata of civic bureaucracy without heavy nepotism. As such, the individual will eventually find himself unable to progress any further and will eventually either give up, thus becoming complacent and removable, or attempt to utilise his position to further the gain of the party. In both of these cases, the regime utilises his behaviour as an example - a living advertisement of the inner party - either by showcasing that one can be a loyalist without having to indulge in any duties, or by creating the facade of a dutiful organ of politics, despite the latter often being heavily regulated and mostly fictitious. To the regime, there is only one course of action, which is to maintain the order set by the Interstellar while ensuring that tangible change is impossible to achieve even through the will of the civic bureaucracy. Despite this fact, maintaining the aura of a politically active state is beneficial to promoting the loyalist system as a viable civic investment. To this end, the regime hosts bi-monthly elections, meant to single out the more active members of the populace for short administrative tenures. These tenures, however, place the individual into a position without much power to speak of, responsible purely for the organisation of meetings, and not any meaningful social change. As such, the elections are merely a way to further promote the myth of collaboration, all while showing an attempt at democracy to appease the masses. This attempt, however, is a folly, as more often than not, members of the bureaucratic strata aid specific candidates and rig the elections in their favour. Usually, this is done for the most reliable individuals, who can be trusted to not seek overwhelming change during their tenure. In rarer cases, the strata may elect to support the most creative candidate, often in an attempt to make the party seem more interesting to outsiders. Any chairperson who seeks to change the status quo, however, will find themselves forcibly removed from their power, as to “the Combine”, nothing is more dangerous than change. It is due to this that the reality of everyday life hasn’t changed since the Seven Hour War. Human ingenuity, despite being something that “the Combine” wishes to utilise for themselves, is also one of the very few things that scares them. To the Interstellar, there is nothing worse than the unpredictable. Each change that humanity undergoes must be calculated and thus, artificial. While in the age of old, man slowly learnt to live with his new inventions; under the new regime, he is forced into adapting a specific, mandated life cycle. Despite the overwhelming presence of bureaucracy, the average worker is as autonomous as he can be. High management positions are often required only for civic promotions or overseeing actions, while those below them do their duties without requiring the presence of those above. This, coupled with the seeming lack of a fixed schedule, means that work is done on the daily even without oversight. This also means the loss of administrative personnel does little to nothing in stopping consistent production. The same applies to all institutions, including that of the law enforcement. It is in the best interest of the regime, however, to maintain the activity of command elements within them, as without constant oversight, their paramilitary arm may grow too complacent. The most efficient way of preventing this complacency is to exploit the very feelings of morality that “the Combine” wish to suppress, often by threatening the individual’s relatives or close acquaintances. The very same method of control is used in regards to the bureaucratic strata, although much less often, due to the lower strain on their mental psyche when compared to those who see active deployment. While the enforcers are constantly confronting their fellow men in a violent manner, the bureaucrats are, instead, left isolated from the average realities of life. This is usually due to the instilled untrust of those lower than them. As an added effect, this leads to the festering feelings of hate and apathy when it comes to the very people who they are supposed to govern, which is naturally what the regime wants. The end result of this is an unchanging system in which the individual is physically unable to grow outside of the confines placed on him by the regime. Every act he may attempt has already been predicted and prevented by the system, while the status quo maintains him in a never ending loop of work and personal dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction, however, is not facilitated to make the individual rebel, but rather to make him hopeless for change. This hope of change leads him to the loyalist party, where he usually remains for long periods of time, until eventually, they disappear - relocated, forcibly or voluntarily, to places where their tiers will be severed, restarting the cycle again and again until their ultimate demise. In this way, the status quo never changes, and the rise of the individual is but another element that keeps it the very same as it was. Despite this, “the Combine” does not desire the complete nullification of personal freedom and creativity, but rather, attempts to promote it through the dreary nature of average day life. With boredom and frustration, the individual is naturally expected to innovate on his vapid existence in new ways, primarily to make his day-to-day experience more bearable. Those who show themselves continuously original and ingenious through the imposed restrictions are singled out for promotion amid the purely loyal and fanatical. In this way, the mandated regime of the Interstellar is meant to slowly beget the most creatively inclined minds out of the general populace. The imposed order is thus maintained as a well oiled machine, serving the general goal of the planetary colony - to process the general resource into a rarer, condensed variant. |
Chapter IIIBeget | With each new development of the Homo-Sapiens, an eventual consequence always followed suit, with most changes unnoticed by those who underwent them. When man first learned to make meat softer with fire, his lower jaw slowly became less pronounced over time. With the retraction of his jaw, he unknowingly became able to make a wider selection of sounds. And with his now developed vocal abilities, he soon began to speak coherently, learning to verbally communicate his thoughts and ideas. This new development would eventually bring its own consequences, becoming the basis of human societies. And if one day, all people suddenly lost their ability to speak, so too would they lose the civilisation that was the consequence of this long formed ancestral development. Yet, they would lose only the current form of it, and not the concept.
For if man lost his ability to speak, then he would use his hands for signals, and from there, a whole new set of consequences would surely follow. Yet such a pattern is always born out of a self-realised development, and if this wasn’t allowed, then man would be forced to follow the path of the domesticated animal, bred to possess only the needed. Continuously losing each thing that made the species look like itself in the first place, this new de-evolution would beget only loss upon loss, eventually turning the human into the exploitable - a living resource, rid of all attributes considered useless by the operator, with everything that would otherwise be impossible to bring out naturally replaced by artificial modifications. Yet such is always true only for the animal, when for the sentient, the process takes greater care and effort than simple selection, with even the lesser traits being utilised to get the desired result. To “the Combine”, the menial strength of humanity was always useless, at least when compared to the prospect of automation. With self-moving walls and self-operation machines, there is no use in the work of the hands, lest they work in a creative manner that separates them from the alternative. Yet, this comes from a purely rational perspective, and when one embraces the nature of work as a constant means of spending energy, then its role as a tool becomes quite clear. The innovative will always try to save themselves the effort, and rest will be pushed to follow suit. With the eventual dwindling of the human population, this mass process will finish its course, and a more controlled method will arrive in its stead. The lack of a need for menial labour, naturally leading to pure production automation, will cause the purge of the bureaucratic strata, long grown decadent by decades of rule. Following its example, a new and higher strata will be formed, composed entirely of the most creative minds the species has to offer. On the basis of the loyalist system, they are to be funnelled into think tanks, where the Interstellar expects a greater amount of innovation to follow. Those who prove themselves unable to compete with their new colleagues, thus showing a lack of phenotype potency, will be removed from the selection, leading to a continuously shrinking number of individuals. Removed from the rest of the populace, they will be forced to innovate from the fear of retribution, until, eventually, the process begets a select few ideal candidates, ripe for utilisation. In the meantime, with the gradual reduction of cities, and as such, the growth of control and oversight of the populace, direct influence will become all the easier to achieve. Being continuously nudged with artificial conflicts to stimulate individual resourcefulness, those who prove themselves worthy of close examination will be moved to the higher strata, while the rest are left to await in the lower. The loyalist system, which by then would have run its course, will no longer be needed, with each member of the lower strata being placed on the same level, promoting species’ wide desperation for the Interstellar’s attention. With the old and the weak long deceased, these remaining few will be slowly turned into a secondary resource, primarily as a means of utilising as much of humanity as possible. Just as countless forms before, they will be mended to suit a purely practical goal - further oppression of sentient species. When the last human is processed, the long decades of effort will finally blossom into a thousand year boon. The creative genius of humanity will be introduced into the theory Interstellar-Colonialism, forced to innovate on the pre-existing concept for maximum improvement, while the rest of the species will serve as simply another tool of the practice. Copied and reconstructed for every new cycle to come, the lower will march with the rest of the transformed, causing the physical collapse of the existing. The human mind, now utilised in its purest form, will mandate the ruined, seeking to rationalise as it did once before in its existence. And, in the end, just as the colony of planet Earth and the Homo-Sapiens before, the mandated acts will lead to forced consequences, begetting another pure resource in the process. To what aim this will continue, the planetary can never know, and whether there are reasons for the Interstellar’s existence, is a question that, just as the idea of the unconstrained regime, will forever remain confusing to those who find themselves sentient. |
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