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    Our New World
    Our New World
    Our New World
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    Our New World

    By Sherman Morrison and Joseph Elias A R

    ()

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    About this ebook

    What would you do if you lived in a country plagued by disease, unemployment, obesity, crime, poverty, illiteracy, pollution, and violence? Would you be just like everyone else and put up with the status quo? Would you be willing to rise up and do whatever necessary to take your country back? Would you be willing to start a revolution to overthrow the government? How far would you be willing to go to make the world a better place?

    In Our New World, Numerika was once the greatest nation on Earth, but now is crumbling under the weight of its poor choices. Politicians are more interested in keeping huge corporations happy in order to fund their re-election campaigns. The health and vitality of the vast majority of the country’s citizens has taken a back seat to the interests of the rich and powerful, who seem hell-bent on wrecking the planet for the sake of short-term profits.

    Enter...The Doyen, a young man who decides he won’t just follow the crowd. He finds a handful of like-minded people and forms The League. They want change and they want it to happen fast. They embark on an adventure to plan and execute a complete takeover of the country, and they do it all under the cover of a massively multiplayer online virtual reality game called Our New World. As cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Our New World tells the story of one such small group of people and how they profoundly changed their country and the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSherman Morrison
    Release dateNov 30, 2015
    ISBN9781311680921
    Our New World
    Author

    Sherman Morrison

    Sherman Morrison is a freelance writer and editor as well as an emerging author and playwright who enjoys the thriving arts culture in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, where he has called Keene home since 1996. He has performed, directed, worked behind the scenes, and taught theatre for a variety of groups in the Monadnock Region and beyond, including Branch River Theatre, the Rude Mechanicals, WKNH Radio Theatre, The Keene Lions Club Annual Musical, Front Porch Theatre of Bellows Falls VT, The Raylynmor Opera, The Hourglass Readers, the Compass School, the Edge Ensemble, the United Church of Christ in Keene, and the Great Books Summer Reading Program in Amherst MA. As a budding playwright, Sherman’s first play, CUFFED, was published by Brooklyn Publishers and was a Top Three Finalist for Best Original Play, community division, in the 2007 New Hampshire Theatre Awards. He shares a little house in the woods with his wife, daughter, and two gray cats. Sherman is an active member of the United Church of Christ in Keene, where he is the bass soloist in the choir, a member of the Mission, Outreach, and Social Action Committee, and the coordinator of its emerging Cheshire Inmate Ministries (ChIM) ad hoc committee. His freelance writing and editing clients are from all over the world, including the USA, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and the Ukraine.

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      Book preview

      Our New World - Sherman Morrison

      Our New World

      GeneratiON

      or

      GeneratOFF

      It's Your choice

      Written By

      Joseph Elias A. R.

      and Sherman Morrison

      Based on true events told by a time-traveler I met a while ago at a local bar…

      © 2015 by Joseph Elias A. R. and Sherman Morrison

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN: 9781311680921

      DEDICATION

      To Jennefer B.

      And to people everywhere whose passion is making the world a better place.

      CONTENTS

      About the Book

      Chapter 1: The Doyen

      Chapter 2: Headhunting and Team-Building

      Chapter 3: The Game

      Chapter 4: The Speaker

      Chapter 5: The Convention

      Chapter 6: The Pledge

      Chapter 7: The Facility

      Chapter 8: The Action Plan

      Chapter 9: The Tour

      Chapter 10: S#*! Just Got Real

      Chapter 11: The Presidential Campaign

      Chapter 12: The Last Stand

      Chapter 13: The Result

      About the Authors

      About the Book

      This is the true story of The Doyen telling his grandson about how, with the help of Internet freaks, book addicts, art lovers, and tree-hugger friends, he managed to overthrow the government in the second decade of the twenty-first century and transform the United States of Numerika from a crumbling nation overwhelmed with obesity, disease, high unemployment, illiteracy, poverty, pollution, and crime, into the great country it once was. As one fictional anchorman once snapped, The USN isn't number one. It's not the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, fourth in labor force, and fourth in exports.

      This is the story of how The Doyen and his friends encouraged the whole nation to join with them in restoring the USN’s previous glory. They brought life back to the Numerikan dream by raising employment rates, improving the healthcare system, implementing clean air and clean energy policies, and enhancing security. In just ten years, they transformed the country from being fourteen trillion dollars in debt to being voted the happiest country in the world.

      Join us on this journey and be a part of it so that you and your friends might create your own ONW league and fight for the right to make your home, city, country, and maybe even the entire planet, a better place for everyone. At the end of the day, even ‘larger than life’ things begin with a single thought.

      Disclaimer: Some country names have been changed for their own protection…

      Chapter 1: The Doyen

      Peeran was on the verge of creating the ultimate weapon of mass destruction—a nuclear bomb. Kyria was in the middle of a civil war in which the leader refused to leave his position, even if it meant all of his people would be killed. Tsina, Fussia, and Peeran were fiercely defending Kyria's regime, while Ourop and Numerika actively sought the regime’s demise so their particular brand of democracy could prevail in that part of the world.

      Ourop had been the queen of the nineteenth century and Numerika ruled the twentieth century, but the twenty-first century belonged to neither. Both were struggling financially, and both still held tightly to a self-induced fear of terrorism. Both nations were so focused on foreign affairs and policies that they neglected their own democracies, policies, laws, and people. Pollution was out of control, unemployment rates had skyrocketed, and people were becoming more violent, more illiterate, and more prone to disease, not to mention the most obese and diabetic people on the planet. They also witnessed the worst refugee crisis the world had seen since world war Two.

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Stop! Please, stop, said the grandson.

      What? Why? his grandfather asked. They were walking together in one of The Big City’s many parks while the grandson was on his lunch break from work.

      What are you talking about? What’s all this about violence, illiteracy, high unemployment, obesity, disease, refugees, and wars? We haven't had a single war in forty years! We’ve got the lowest unemployment rate in the world, and pollution is barely even a problem. I don't know a single person who can’t read or write, and everyone I know is physically fit, he paused. You know what? This is all my fault.

      Why is it your fault? questioned his grandfather.

      I shouldn’t have asked what you meant when you said, ‘It wasn’t always like this.’ I should have simply smiled and changed the subject. How in the world can a casual walk in the park on a gorgeous day catapult you into talking about disease and war. That escalated quickly!

      His grandfather smiled.

      Why are you smiling?

      Just reminiscing. Our generation used the sentence ‘that escalated quickly’ as a meme.

      I don’t get it, the grandson mumbled.

      Well my boy, you won’t get it unless I tell you about wars, disease, and pollution!

      Again with the wars! exclaimed his grandson with exasperation. "Let me remind you that this is Numerika we’re talking about here. I’m twenty-seven, and I’ve never seen any signs of what you’re talking about. Which reminds me—you didn’t even wish me a happy birthday yesterday, Grandpa! You talk like you’re two hundred years old. As if you ever saw a real war."

      The grandfather pretended to be offended. "Two hundred? I am seventy-three, thank you very much! But yes, I’ve witnessed many wars, and it was we—my generation—who made this planet a better place. Just like you, I still find it hard to believe how we managed to pull it off. Just when it looked like it could never happen, we all stood together and decided enough was enough! We decided Mother Earth would survive, and our entire generation as well—and that it was up to us to make it happen."

      In spite of himself, the grandson was curious. There was much he didn’t know about this grandfather of his, who was always a somewhat mysterious presence in his life. He sometimes overheard people calling his grandfather The Doyen. He always wondered about that. Maybe it was finally time to find out more. He asked, Why do they call you The Doyen? Did you really participate in a war? Were you some kind of leader? There’s so much I don’t know about you, but my lunch break is already over and I haven’t even eaten yet!

      Call and tell them you won't be back to work today, his grandfather said.

      I can’t just do that, Grandpa. I have to give some kind of legitimate reason.

      Tell them it’s Code 2016—The Doyen is teaching me about ONW—and they will approve.

      You’ve got to be kidding me. No one at work even knows you.

      Just give it a try, his grandfather said. What have you got to lose?

      The grandson refrained from blurting out, My job! Instead, he made the call. Much to his surprise, his supervisor said Absolutely. No problem. The grandson couldn’t believe it worked. He eyed his grandfather suspiciously. "Who are you?"

      Let’s order some food and I will tell you how our generation rose up, took control, and changed the world for the better. This will be your birthday gift, by the way.

      Took you long enough! his grandson joked. Food first. Your story can be the dessert.

      After they’d finished eating, his grandfather sat back with a satisfied sigh. That was a good meal. Then he began his story.

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Do you want to hear something crazy? A long time ago, being fat meant you were rich. Most well-off families who owned land and big houses also had big stomachs. It was considered a sign of high status. Being big meant you were well-fed and had a good life. Poor people were skinny—they worked hard and had little food.

      Fast-forward to the early twenty-first century, and being thin meant being fit. This too was reserved for the rich who had enough free time to train, money to join expensive health

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