A Note on How to Prepare for WW3
By Jesse Mills (The Magic Room Band)Pro-cras-ti-nate: to defer action; delay; to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.
Today, instead of engaging in crucial revision for my impending exam, I watched a documentary detailing the great circumnavigation of the globe by the “Graf Zeppelin” in August 1929. It was from the very personal perspective of the first woman ever to achieve the feat by air, Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, as written in her diary entries. The voyage sat within an uncomfortable period in global history with the scars of WW1 running deep and the Great Depression only two months away. The international crew and their close cohabitation represented the uneasy relationships between the world powers, with the fissures of future conflict firing up in topical political discussions along their journey over the geopolitical landscape. I began pondering over the similarities between the Great Depression and our current recession, with the rise of the far right across Europe...
But then a bright light struck me! To my shock, electricity surged from a central spot on the ground just a few metres away from where I slouched and grew upwards until lightening swarmed like a storm around a tesla coil. In a jolt of quick reflex I brought my arms up to shield my eyes as I felt hot energy surging through my veins. A great noise like a thousand giant whips cracking pierced my eardrums and knocked my glass sideways to shatter silently against this overwhelming cacophony of crackles. When the chaos finally subsided I tried to squint away the pink plasma from my vision where light had burned my retina. In a confusing pink blindness I began to make out a rectangular shape where the storm had been just moments before. As my vision improved I could tell a man stood before me and as my focus returned I could see it was a man in fancy dress.
“Jesse”, the fancy man said. “I am from the future sent to stop you failing your exam tomorrow. The future of humankind is at stake. In the future we live in perfect bliss and harmony, where lambs lie with lions and all living things love each other. And that’s all thanks to you, and your Magic Room Band. You see, the righteous music that you guys wrote in the Magic Room went onto change the world and solve all our problems. Our perfect society is built around the messages that you sent to the world. But you see, if you don't pass your exam tomorrow you will fail your degree and a sequence of events will unfold whereby The Magic Room Band never achieves world-wide success, and thus never creates the Magic Room utopia that is the reality for my – your – people of the future.”
“No way!” I exclaimed.
“Yes way” he replied.O.K. – parody/fantasy over. The reality is there are many reasons to be worried about the future. There are many startling parallels between the current economic and political atmosphere in 1929 and today (collapsing economies; rising youth unemployment; growing popularity of far right) as well as clear differences (no recent European war; relatively limited appetite for revolution among the public). Either way, history would not be history without big events. Something's gotta happen! So I wonder what the 21st Century has installed for us? And how should we prepare for it? These are pressing questions...
Perhaps the tale of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure can give us a clue. Amidst the semi tongue-in-cheek time-travel romp a message carries through about the perils of procrastination and never achieving what you most dreamed of. So what can you really do about a future war, crisis or even Armageddon? It may be that the best thing you can do is try your very hardest to achieve the thing you most want in life. For – at least – you'll know you've tried and – at worst – you might just change the world.
So hurry down, because time is passing by.
Jesse Mills
-------------------------------------------------------------------Jesse Mill is bassist in the Magic Room Band. Check out his band at http://www.facebook.com/themagicroomband
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