Privately owned weapons
There had been a snowballing effect following the announcement of the Gaia Roadmap. Leaders of the world seemed so united in their new common objective, so supportive in unison of the path forward, that a real movement of hope had gripped every level of society. Every political speech now vied for peace in the world, for humility and solidarity in the face of an enemy against which weapons would be utterly useless. Many speeches had reached into deep recesses of the auditor’s brains, reaching to every child that still lived within them and who would always remember the first exposure to injustice or brutality, the sudden and unfair loss of innocence.
Unknowingly spurred on by the secret underlying push to destroy weapons in order to better rebuild stocks, Faith leaders had relayed and reinforced the message of love and tolerance, of laying down the weapons and building solidarity for a fairer world. A world of truly equal rights was seen as a necessary premise and the only possibility to emerge past the looming crisis without descending into unsalvageable dark-age societies ruled by might.
The effect of the message of love and solidarity on the public had been another electric shock added to the gloomy prospect of the road to the year 2100. Indeed what was the point of using weapons to fight for a vital space that would be uninhabitable anyway? When it came down to the wire, most people weren’t ready to become savages again. A solidarity pathway meant that you would retain most of the services that you had so far taken for granted. It would be a time of restrictions, but would remain a world based on fairness and equality. The alternative was simply not an alternative. The alternative would mean fighting to have more than your neighbor, having to organize into criminal entities to extract a bit more privilege than your neighbor. Most people simply were not so inclined, and surrendered their faith to the UN. The solidarity pathway seemed like the only possibility for the whole planet. At a global level, it was either solidarity and obeying the rules, or self exclusion and sanctions.
Overwhelmingly, people had decided to play by the book and surrender their weapons en masse. Politicians had now taken a step back as the Gaia Roadmap ducks were being knocked down one by one. Other leaders were now talking on the TV and the radio. Scientists, diplomats, educators, were now taking centre stage and the public was taking in the refreshing speeches without the double speak, denigration of others and smug narcissism that was until now so prevalent in professional political life. This was a no-nonsense world, a constructive world, where harsh realities were being exposed, but where there was a clear path out of the whole goddam mother-fucking mess! The public was actually in no hurry to again listen to their political leaders any time soon.
Generous buyback schemes were set up which recovered and sent to recycling 90 percent of all weapons held by civilian populations. Following a grace period, weapon possession would become an offence carrying heavy penalties. Programs were implemented to help farmers exclude pests from their existing cropland where control was needed. Part of the BPU’s role in guarding the interface between the human and the natural world was to use force for control where no other solution existed. That method was rarely implemented, and was now the sole prerogative of the Green Helmets.
At GR + 12 months, it was estimated that 98% of all privately owned guns had been recovered and recycled. That figure did not of course account for Great America, where a forever arms race was always raging. Being eyewitnesses to the societal crumbling of that otherwise great nation by economic standards actually facilitated the gun buyback schemes. Great America was ablaze internally, a massive scientist witch hunt was under way, anyone who was not white Republican was being excluded, a gender rift was fast developing, American society was dying from a thousand cuts and it was buying guns, lots of guns, pushed along by an arms lobby that had suddenly lost all its export markets. The world could see the broadcasts of violence on a daily basis and it did not want to go down that path.
Fate of National Armies
The Davos Boys, via the respective heads of states and in line with the requests from the United Nations, had ordered that National armies surrender their weapons to the UN. The G20 countries had nevertheless wanted to keep their hierarchy and structure essentially intact, offering their corps some sit-down money in anticipation of a comeback to the good old days, in another year or so.
The UN Peace Corps had been able to offer positions within their ranks to about 5% of all the rallying armed forces. For the remaining 95% of the former army personnel, it was now time for a reconversion. The newly created Biodiversity Protection Unit offered positions to another 5% of personnel, from foot soldiers to general. There remained 90 % of the former armies in limbo.
About half of those had accepted the sit-down money on offer from the G20 countries, at a level equal to half the salary of the last position held, and guaranteed until a hypothetical reconversion could be arranged. Any reconversion would be at a level of pay and responsibility equivalent to the former position, and permanent positions were guaranteed. Such a scheme would be a huge seemingly unproductive drain on the public purse of those countries, but was nevertheless a lower cost than having, as previously, to maintain the integrality of their now dissolved armies. In essence, it appeared to be still a saving for those countries. They were the rich countries in any case, and could afford it.
The remaining half of the now unemployed personnel had accepted a different offer, which was to take a year’s worth of pay immediately and walk away. It was made very clear to them that accepting the lump sum would all but prevent them from any potential future employment within the army, it was also hinted that the downtime would only be for a year or so.
But for most of those men and women who chose the exit path, the offer meant relief and a chance to start anew. Most subsequently looked for civilian career paths at opposite ends to their previous army roles.
Those now leaving the army sphere for good had often been deployed to war-torn countries when in service. For these armed personnel, the motives for serving in those countries were initially aligned with the claims from their hierarchy: they were there to save people from the clutches of an oppressive regime, to liberate an abused population and grant them access to true democracy. Most of those army personnel had soon become heavily disillusioned by the realization of the true reasons for their required presence in lands far away from where they called home. They had witnessed the shift in the dynamic from when they had first arrived. Their role had initially been fighting and displacing so called rebels and dictators, terrorists and their leaders. Once the enemy had been toppled, soldiers had been tasked with ensuring the safety of diplomatic envoys coming in to now fix the country.
Those imported bureaucrats from far away lands had held talks within the fallen administrations and opposition parties, rounding up and grooming teams that would align with the true objectives of the mission: to make money! The new governments, apparently democratically elected as long as they had been chosen by the envoys, would embark on ambitious plans to rebuild the mess caused by the very liberation forces that had come. That invasion, even in previously relatively peaceful countries, had apparently been a godsend, allowing the country to finally realize its true potential. Rebuilding contracts would be sought with the help and support of the newly acquired allies. Exploration rights would be granted to the new modern efficient foreign companies that would then acquire the exploitation rights and bring their tremendous resource extraction capacity to the table. The royalties paid by those economic saviours for the right to rape the land would help pay for the rebuilding contracts awarded to other new modern efficient companies that came from that same place far away.
The thus liberated countries would now be on the path of renewal and enlightenment, acquiring shiny new cities on hills, their shiny offices fast filling with subsidiaries of those companies from far away lands. As long as the cost of labor was reasonable and about a tenth of the salary of laborers in those far away lands, there would be local employment until the towns would be rebuilt. People would be paid to rebuild the houses that had been destroyed by the saviors. The local people would be paid to rebuild their own houses that had been their peaceful homes until the invasion. The money thus earned by the locals would at least offset some of the cost to them of paying for those very rebuilding works. If their life savings couldn’t cover the cost of repairs, new modern efficient financial institutions from those faraway lands, having just moved to shiny new offices, would be there to support them with low interest loans.
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