THE WORLD SET FREE, H.G. Wells, Collins, London, 1956 (1914)

This fascinating novel is one example of the remarkable vision forming
the foundation of the science fiction genre of literature. H.G. Wells is
the first prominent English author associated with this genre. This book
is written just before World War One. Here's its awesome theme:

Humans learn to tame the power of the atom. Atomic energy places great
energy in human hands, frees the toiling masses, launches a modern era
of leisures, arts and achievement. And...

The atom is used as a weapon. Airplanes dropping a single bomb upon a
city destroy that city. Europe and the world descend towards the abyss,
as atomic war rages around the globe. And...

Humanity steps back from the brink, recognizes the folly of warfare,
the insanity of contending nation states in a technological age that
includes atomic bombs and establishes planetary authority.

Here, from page 136 of this 1914 novel come the words:

   'Do you really think, Firmin, that I am here as -- as an infernal
   politician to put my crown and my flag and so forth in the way of
   peace? That little Frenchman is right. You know he is right as well
   as I do. Those things are over. We--we kings and rulers and
   representatives have been at the very heart of the mischief. Of
   course we imply separation, and of course separation means the threat
   of war, and of course the threat of war means the accumulation of
   more and more atomic bombs. The old game's up. But I say, we mustn't
   stand here, you know. The world waits. Don't you think the old game's
   up, Firmin?'

The details of the urgent recognition of the need for global governance
after the loss of some two hundred cities are less significant than the
awareness itself of a novel approach.

From page 175 of the novel written in 1914:

   The old tendencies of human nature, suspicion, jealousy,
   particularism and belligerency, were incompatible with the monstrous
   destructive power of the new appliances the inhuman logic of science
   had produced. The equilibrium could be restored only by civilisation
   destroying itself down to a level at which modern apparatus could no
   longer be produced, or by human nature adapting itself in its
   institutions to the new conditions. It was for the latter alternative
   that the assembly existed.

It is clear from this book that the insight was not denied to the human
species which could have averted the cataclysm of a generation savaging
itself with two planetary conflicts. The survivors of those terrible
wars, that incalculable suffering, attempted after those holocausts to
implement this book's suggested remedy. They did not go the full
distance, and the distance they went was soon lost in renewed political
contentions. The failure of those who lived in the Cold War and in these
more recent times to emulate, or benefit from, the insight of H.G. Wells
only underlines the poignant brilliance of his largely unheeded advice.

The novel continues with a look at the accomplishments of the first
generation of truly human, global and planetary civilization. These
include the following glimpse of human potential:

   'In a little while men who will know how to bear the different
   gravitations, the altered pressures, the attenuated unfamiliar gases
   and all the fearful strangeness of space will be venturing out from
   this earth. This ball will no longer be enough for us; our spirit
   will reach out...' (p. 245)

This is one of the most breath taking presentations of humanity's
possibility. Though tragically unutilized by the dwellers of the early
Twentieth Century, the future remains wide open. Free will to choose
continues to reach ahead.

Michael McKenny, September 12, 2006 C.E.


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