THE COLLECTIVE ERA

The long and tangled history that led to the formation of the Collective is told elsewhere (the pre collective era is explained in detail in the "Cutter stories"). What is certain is that on 2135 AD all of Earth came under control of the Collective and the year was renamed 1 CE (Collective Era).

The Collective system of government had gradually been adopted by most governments due to its undeniable appeal to the mass of people. At its heart it is the most Democratic form of government ever know to humanity. Simply put - the people decide everything.

By the 22nd Century communications technology had infested every area of life. The national dialogue of many countries was no longer dominated by those who were given access the media outlets. With the "net" now being the mode of choice for information gathering, opinion leaders were now chosen by virtue of their popular ideas rather than any kind of party or media backing

With popular opinion polls now shaping every single decision of government anyway, experiments in 'direct democracy' began to take root all over the globe. Under this system know as "The Collective" Senators, MP's and Congressmen no longer voted on issues. They debated them on camera and then the people voted directly on the issue via their personal communications devices.

A Collective voting device.

This form of government was remarkably successful in terms of bringing prosperity to the people it was also harsh as the majority of average citizens were not as forgiving as politicians who were bribed by special interest groups. Companies who previously only had to bribe a few hundred Senators with contributions now found themselves in the position of needing to bribe everyone in the country.

The system also brought about the birth of a new "voting class" of citizen. Housewives and the elderly tended to be at home all day and started to punch above their weight in terms of voting. The amount of time they could give to voting on issues gave them a huge boost in status and the elderly in particular once again regained their ancient role of tribal elders. Decisions that were dominated by mothers and grand parents tended to be balanced and compassionate, the system was a huge popular success.

There were of course losers. The death penalty was introduced for a large number of crimes and people voted for more and more policing to eradicate crimes in their neighborhoods. Minority rights were dependent on the will of the majority and these laws were quickly abolished. This led to the formation of a vast government civil service whose job it was to oversee the peoples decisions. The organizers of these large civil service offices were known as "mandarins" and they wielded huge amounts of power. On the flip side any mandarins caught abusing their office (and some who were just unpopular) found themselves in prison or even executed.

After several years of the system working in various nations it was quickly adopted as the only fair way of making decisions on the international scale. Fears from small countries about being overwhelmed by a mythical Asian voting block were quickly dispelled as it was revealed that people tended to vote more heavily along lines of sex and wealth rather than nationality on issues.

On the international scene the system brought about massive changes. Wealth re-distribution, the environment and drug legalization were all universally accepted. Policies that politicians had been unable to make due to fear of special interest backlash were taken without a second thought. Large projects were no longer taboo as government was seen truly as the servant of the people rather than their master. But, one issue that for over a century had languished under huge costs and lack of political will, received the most support.

Space exploration it seemed was everyone's favorite issue. Anyone could see the benefit to conquering new lands for mankind and people placed all their dreams for the future in the exploration of the Cosmos. Arguments about how it would be possible to make money in space were replaced by a feverish gold rush of humanity leaving earth to stake out their plot for themselves and their grandchildren.

It was in this expansion into space that real divisions began to appear. The needs of Earth were vastly different from the needs of for example Titan. How could it be fair that when 90% of the population of Titan voted on an issue that it still lost when 51% of earth voted against? Increasingly the colonies began to regard the Collective as an Imperial master rather than their government.

The strains that brought about the break up of the Collective separating earth from its colonies still does not resonate with the citizens of Earth. Most citizens cannot conceive of why the colonies would want to leave the embrace of the collective. They are still regarded as "terrorists" of "subversives" who are ungrateful for what Earth has done for them. The Collective looks in horror at the systems of government setup on these new worlds, governments that have Presidents or Prime ministers are label "primitive" or "backward". Indeed several earth universities have launched studies to find out what psychological disorders occur in the colonies to create what they regard as tribalism.