Bully Island: A Satirical Fantasy

We were on the cusp of a true apocalypse, with nothing left to lose. At the time, our proposal seemed extreme, but if we’d waited even a few more years to act, it would have been too late. At that moment, most cities were either flooding, burning, or chemically poisoned. Thousands of species had been rendered extinct by deforestation and climate change. We suffered from a constant collective anxiety. With impulsive, volatile leaders, new wars or oppressive policies could emerge without notice. We sent our children to school under a cloud of dread, due to the daily mass shootings.

Unscrupulous banks had rendered millions of people homeless. Our friends were dying from lack of healthcare. Unchecked predatory practices ruled the marketplace, and yet, those harmed most by these policies were brainwashed into voting for their oppressors, again and again. At one point, we discovered that there were men quietly traveling the world, with the sole intention of cultivating violent nationalism everywhere they went. An insidious corporate mentality had infiltrated the culture: a few companies had even convinced people that they “owned” the earth’s potable water, and they were selling it back to us! We had tried to change things in a number of different ways over the years, but finally, the system became so corrupt that there was no other way out: we needed a truly radical solution.