The Midgar Effect

by Endarire 

You either know Midgar or you don't. (Midgar is from FFVII. Y' know, that big, overcrowded, polluted, dingy, casted city in eternal darkness?) Either way, beware - Earth is progressing toward that stage. Believe it or not, signs of Midgar on earth are evident already.

The first matter is overpopulation. This is mainly an issue outside the US, although very big cities are facing it. China and Japan are also bit contributers with about 1.1 billion in China and over 180 million in Japan. (And we wonder why people pray for an anti-Viagara.)

Second is pollution. I'm not sure who -doesn't- contribute to this (Ethiopians?) but anyway, unless people embrace the fact that things are bad and will only get worse unless MAJOR action is taken against it, we might end up living in slums in a sector somewhere.

Caste is issue number three; just when you thought humanity escaped the class system, it comes back with a vengeance. The stats don't lie, about 92% of the people (probably those who are reading this) own around 16% of the wealth, leaving the other 8% with 84%. And, like pollution, it gets worse. By 2020, it's expected that the number will change to around 90% of the people holding 10% of the wealth, elevating the rich and super-rich to a spot on a pillar so high that it would be (near-)impossible to reach for the rest of us.

Crime comes fourth on this list, although not fourth in importance. Crimes on a bigger scale than bank robbery and petty theft are present, like selling out other states (and I don't mean Georgia!), mass murder, sabotage of state equipment, etc. I have no official stats, but I predict that by 2020, crime will rise tremendously, perhaps exponentially from this year.

Also somewhat connected to crime are terrorists. These groups are established on the principle of going against the established government in many forms - Israelis blowing up buildings in Jerusalem or AVALANCHE destroying a reactor, it's nearly the same. There are loads of extremists out there just looking for a reason to blow up, and they'll almost certainly find it.

Sixth and second-to-last on my list is corporate influence. In Midgar, almost everything out of the slums (and in the slums) is Shinra-run. If they want something done, it gets done because of the almighty force: Money. How does network television work today? Often, it's based on that same principle: Money. Magazines? Money. Presidential elections in America? ..You get the idea. Now, a corporate sponsor threatening to stop funding someone can be taken as a major threat to them, like a parent and allowance on a larger scale.

Anyway, moving on to the last topic, technology. It is our savior and our damnation - most of society has come to rely on machines to do tasks for us. However, these machines have replaced humans with "good cause", they often do things faster, cleaner, safer better than most humans can. In Midgar, JENOVA cells were infused into members of SOLDIER to make them more resistant to pain. On Earth, implants, drugs and machines are starting to take the place of pure humans in the armed forces in order to make a better, well, soldier. Also, at home, we have so many machines it's laughable! One for teeth brushing, dish washing, cooling food, heating food, preparing food, dicing food, door opening, door locking...... If something were to happen to our precious technology to make it unusable, it's predictable that most people would be in the equivalent of the fetal position.

Any questions?
(I encourage debate and people contacting me, that's why I left those above.)