“If the earth is so overpopulated then why do scientists not publish studies?”, I asked.
“The scientists do study and publish about overpopulation. It is not discussed publicly in the media for obvious reasons. It would cause more problems. There is no point to letting people who cannot solve the problem, and are the problem, to be made aware of it.”
“I don’t understand.”, I said. I was hoping he would expand on what he was saying. There is a hint of something more, that he diverts from.
“Let’s use Steve as an example. He has a problem which he believes is a strength. In the business world, it is a strength. He manipulated his way into a position of power where he could influence the direction of his entire industry. He was able to bully and intimidate everyone around him until they did what he wanted. He is still revered as a master of his industry.”
Somehow we got on the subject of global warming. I think he had said something about climate change making certain things impossible. I asked him in reference to global warming, “Can’t we reduce the impact on the earth?”
“It’s not so simple. If we had a long period of time, it would be possible, but large populations of people won’t do something unless incentives are put in place to encourage them to change. People are inherently selfish. They do not change of their own free will. They need to be manipulated into doing good things.”
Later he went into more detail of their procedures, “If it was the child of two staff members, the child would be killed along with the parents, but since it is the child of a guest, the child deserves to have a chance to grow up and take their place, like any of our children.”
Apparently something in their sterilization process failed. I am pregnant. I am sure this will be the death of me. I have never seen any children on the island, and shudder to think of the conditions they are in if there were. I know I cannot hide it for long.
I have waited a couple weeks to think things over. I have been too scared to write it down. I thought about how I might terminate the pregnancy myself, but we don’t have access to abortive medicines, and I could not think of a way to do it. I don’t have the knowledge, and there is no one I can ask.
Yesterday, I ended up tending the bar at the other end of the pool area, near the beach. It is a large covered area with tables and a long bar along one end. There is a television behind the bar. It was busier than I had seen before. Many of the guests were talking and glancing at the screen. I felt that whatever was going on was related to what they were watching.
Today, after I asked another question, he breathed a heavy sigh and said, “I’ll most likely have to kill you one day if someone finds out all the things that I have told you. They will ask me to clean up my mistake. It will be my responsibility. If I don’t kill you, I will be punished for betraying them, and they will kill you, after they play with you first.”
One day, I was wondering about cryptocurrencies. From what I had read, before I was kidnapped, it seemed that some people believed, that these technologies would disrupt or replace the capitalist economy, much like the other technologies he had talked about. So, I asked him, “Is decentralized money a threat to your power?”
He said, “No, money cannot be decentralized. The use of money leads to centralization of everything it touches. It is a property inherent in the act of exchange."
“How so?”, I asked.
Part of me wants to shut down, and dismiss everything he tells me as something I cannot do anything about. Focus on my survival. Just worry about simpler things. Ignore it, deny it, anything that would make it easier, than reconstructing everything that I know.
Other times, I cannot believe that I have been so complacent. I don't know what else to do. These people are monsters. If anything of what he has said is true, their families have been manipulating large populations of people for thousands of years.