Philosophical Musings of a Book Nerd

I sometimes wonder whether a sequel is written because the author has decided to make the first book a chapter in a larger story, but only holds back to see whether the first book is a success, or whether it is something that the author decides to do to cash in on the popularity of an earlier book. In all truth it sometimes is very easy to tell, but in other times it is not. However, one of the good things about some sequels is that it does tend to dispel the myth of everybody living happily ever after. Take John McClain from the Die Hard series, he just does not seem to be able to actually live happily ever after (and I believe they are up to movie number 5 now).

Well, when it comes to Logan's World, there was always room for a sequel, namely because there could not really be a happily ever after since the world of Logan's Run was brought to an end and the population of Earth had to begin to fight for themselves after the computer practically blew up and their lives where everything was provided for them was suddenly brought to an end. Indeed, in Logan's World we enter into the aftermath of this revolution and it is simply not pretty. Society has collapsed and it shows it, big time.

It sort of makes me wonder whether it is possible for us to survive if our society where all of our needs are met, especially if we have money to meet those needs, were to suddenly come to an end. Numerous authors have written on the topic that our economic system is so delicate and intermixed that if it were to come to a grinding halt then we would be in serious strife. Our system works on the fact that many of us have developed specialised skills to be able to allow the greater society to revolve, however if left to fend for ourselves were would be in a lot of trouble. Ask yourself this question, if all of the shops suddenly closed their doors tomorrow would you be able to feed yourself?

We take it foregranted that we can simply walk down to the local supermarket, load ourselves up with groceries, and put them in the fridge to take them out when necessary. In fact many of us do not even know how to cook a meal. Instead we rely on other people to cook those meals for us. In fact, many of us do not even want to stoop to the level of heating up frozen meals and chose to eat out at fast food restaurants every night. That can be a really expensive habit.

This is pretty much what has happened in Logan's World. In a nut shell, humanity has reverted to its base characteristics and only those who have managed to adapt to the new environment have survives. In fact, I suspect that if that were to happen to our society many of us would die of starvation, if we were not killed first in the resulting free for all as we tear into shops and warehouses to try to scavenge what food was left. Then there is electricity - we won't have any, unless of course we are able to work out how to produce our own.

That is the serious flaw in such a specialised society. In fact many of us who work in offices all day, whether we are a clerk taping away at a computer, or a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, will pretty much be in the same boat. If the economy collapses, the CEO may be hurt even worse because they have everything done for them as opposed to being able to do it for themselves. In a world were money is worthless, it suddenly becomes impossible to actually use it as leverage to protect your interests and your health. No wonder the American Government was ready to pour trillions of dollars into the failed banking system to keep it afloat while the billions of people that could have used it are left in their suffering.