Back on Tuesday, I wrote that Gio from Beautiful Monsters has the Substack on hiatus. Gio may have implied that it would be temporary, but it is self-evident to me that he has no intentions of continuing the Substack anymore. Anyone who needs to know the long answer should read the previous Update post. In any case, I am forced to complete the remaining Chapters of Zero Hour, the short story I have been writing for Beautiful Monsters, on The Fourth Estate. This includes reposting all the Chapters that Gio managed to post on his Substack. Speaking of which, I do not recall describing Zero Hour in sufficient detail to inform my readers on what sort of story I was writing for that Substack.
Zero Hour is a short story set in a fictional version of the early 21st century where the world is recovering from the aftermath of a Third World War. The Second World War from a century prior had ended in a stalemate, resulting in a bitter Cold War between the US, German Reich, Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, and Imperial Japan. Political upheaval in the German Reich after World War II led to the rise of a new movement to disavow Hitlerism and achieve the end of the Cold War with the other four Eurasian powers. Since the Empire of Liberty did not succeed in establishing a foothold on the Eurasian landmass, the downfall of Neoliberalism occurred quickly in the Americas. World War III saw the Eurasian powers prevailing over the last bastion of Neoliberalism in the US, which inadvertently resulted in the US and even Canada fracturing into several independent American States, Alaska retaken by the Soviets and Hawaii annexed by the Imperial Japanese. It was, in many respects, an American Kleinstaaterei (territorial fragmentation) supported by the Eurasian powers in hopes of propping up potential allies in North America.
With Neoliberalism gone and the Empire of Liberty fallen, these American and Canadian States are striving to consolidate power and acquire political legitimacy as Liberal Capitalist insurgencies explode and prewar power struggles simmer in the background. For the first time in American history, State Capitalism, Syndicalism, Corporatism, and Socialism are finally being introduced and implemented by domestic political forces with support from the Eurasian powers. One of those nations in particular is caught between whether to promote two opposing conceptions of American Reunification. Some argue that America should be reunited on the basis that one State should lead the rest of the States within a continent-wide Intergovernmental Organization like in Europe. Others insist on reuniting America through long-term campaigns of economic coercion and military aggression on grounds of an “American Anti-Imperialism.”
But even then, there are lingering rumors of prominent Liberal Capitalists who went underground towards the end of World War III, plotting to disrupt the hard-fought peace by instigating the old rivalries of the Eurasian powers. What keeps the Eurasian powers from killing each other is sensible leadership and a handful of young people from the German Reich.
As of this writing, I am halfway finished with this short story. I reached the halfway point upon finishing the last Chapter I sent to Gio late last month. My goal for today is to work on Chapter 5 and repost the Prologue and the four completed Chapters that originally appeared on Beautiful Monsters.
In any case, I must confess that looking at North America from this perspective does offer me ample opportunities to encounter all kinds of people whose presences were only discernible in this context. It is amazing how, in the absence of Neoliberalism, North America has the potential to be politically stimulating even within the context of a fictional short story. There is so much potential to be had here by fleshing out the worldbuilding, confirming that the world has become pretty boring under Neoliberalism, and that a genuine Post-Liberalism after Late-Modernity opens the door to infinite possibilities.
Categories: Uncategorized
The Fourth Estate 
Leave a comment