Mad Adam - II

There are green activists and there are big corporations. Corporations are controlling everything. They are de-facto government. Rich people of these Corps live in a separate worlds and plebeians live in another world (slum).

Green activists are trying to save man from destroying himself and the earth. Their efforts are clandestine because if found, activists just disappear. Because these activists are pose a hurdle to Corps.

Even the church is part of these corps. Priests try to interpret bible words into some thing which benefits Corps.

Corps have huge research facilities. And some such places, they have invented vitamin pills which have some disease vectors mixed. People who take these pills fall sick. More medicines are sold. Patients are hospitalized - hospitals run by Corps get more money.

So men are plundering other men and the earth non-stop.

Then there are pain ballers, who are frustrated, angry plebeians who are  almost psychopaths. Pain balling is gladiator like game where prisoners fight with one another until the opponent dies and is eaten. Corps have created these demons

But the book starts when all these atrocities have stopped and only very few humans are left on the earth. Few green activists and three pain ballers. Entire cities, towns and nations have been decimated. No electricity, no running water, no decent houses. The survivors are living in make shift structure, cooking and eating roots and leaves. They live in fear of huge hunter pigs and other wild animals and pain ballers .

So who destroyed civilization? Corps? Green activists? Or natural calamity?

"MaddAddam" by Atwood is scary. But we should take solace from the fact that we are not there yet. And we may not live to see those days. Our Corps have not gone so wicked. Our pleebs are not yet pain ballers.

There is a name for this category of books - distopia, As opposite to Utopia.

From Wikipedia
"A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia,^[1] kakotopia, or simply anti-utopia) is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening"

Other books in this category are 1984, Brave new world, The hunger games ( and many more)

If you think that we are heading towards this direction, there are some people who still see hope. Listen to this TED talk by Jonathan Tepperman where he is giving live examples of countries who have successfully handled terrorism, ineffective governments and immigration problems in their own ways,