One World Government: It shows up in science fiction all the time – indeed, it’s hard to think of a non-apocalyptic science fiction novel that doesn’t have it. But why is that – and what happens when people see the downside of this particular science fiction trope?
Writer Matthew Jarpe wonders about that himself, and in his debut novel Radio Freefall, Jarpe tackles the one world government – and throws rock and roll into the mix as well, because what’s a revolution without music? – and sees the upside and the downside to every single one of us under the same system of control. It’s one the big ideas in his book – and the subject of this article.
So: Ready to come together?
Matthew Jarpe:
I don’t get a lot of big ideas. I get little ideas and then try to build them up. One of those little ideas became the seed for Radio Freefall. I don’t remember exactly where it started, with a sci-fi TV show like Star Trek or with a novel, but somewhere I saw a reference to the government of Earth. And I wondered, when does that happen? And how?
It doesn’t matter where it started because that’s a common trope in science fiction. At some point, somewhere between now and when we send out the starships and meet the aliens, we all come together as a team. This messy globe, divided up by natural features and racial hatred, the remains of shattered empires strewn across the land, balkanized and amalgamated through dozens of cycles, somehow becomes one country. It’s by no means a universal theme, but it shows up often enough that you can read about a single government representing planet Earth 500 years from now without batting an eye.
In writing fiction we’re always looking for conflict. Conflict is the engine that drives narrative forward, so we always look for the potential for two ideas to try to occupy the same space at the same time. At the point of Unification, that moment in Earth’s history when we erase the national borders, I imagined two groups, for and against. On the pro-Unification side I see the big businesses. They want the borders to go away now, along with their duties and tariffs and the paperwork that goes with them.
In fact I can see a lot of benefits to Unification. I don’t imagine it will end war any more than drawing an imaginary line around two ethnic groups ends their hatred for one another. But a world government could conceivably field a stronger pacifying force than our current toothless United Nations. And with all the people of the world pulling together in one direction we could accomplish a great deal more than we do now, if we choose the right direction. In fact that’s the motivation of my antagonist, Walter Cheeseman. He wants mankind to reach for the stars, and the only way he can see to get that to happen is to unify the world under one government, which he controls, naturally.
And opposed to this great idea? Once I come up with all of the good things that can come from world government, can I also think of some bad things? Well, I wouldn’t be much of a writer if I couldn’t. In Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond describes how Europe eclipsed China on the world stage because Europe was made up of a lot of little countries and China was one big country. Competition between states drove innovation, both technological and political. In Radio Freefall the opposition to Unification, the Nationalists, see the same fate for Earth. Once we lose our internal competition we lose our competitive spirit. They’re also opposed to the homogenization of culture, the dominance of big business and Walter Cheeseman himself.
Like a lot of protest movements in our past, the Nationalists fall in behind a cultural icon, Dana Woods, lead singer of the goth band Sex Lethal. My main character, a rock star named Aqualung, wants nothing to do with the Nationalists at first. He’s all about the music. But he gets dragged in after seeing the sort of behind the scenes ruler Walter Cheeseman would become. He throws in his star power, and his considerable talents, behind the movement and broadcasts his message of freedom from a huge space station in Earth orbit. The nations of Earth become the Nation of Earth, while new nations arise off planet. And the cycle of amalgamation and balkanization continues.
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Read Matthew Jarpe’s blog, and catch the first chapter of Radio Freefall.
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