Under New Management

It felt good to be going home at last.
Not that it had been that long since I left Earth, but it felt like a lifetime.

As we approached my planet I looked through the large observation window to catch my first glimpse of Earth from space.
It was still a long way off and looked like a blue-green marble with white wisps - but a marble about the size of a football.
I had hoped to get a much closer view but the window’s heat shield was due to close soon in preparation for the ship's entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

I went back to my quarters and continued watching the approach on a view screen but it somehow seemed less real, more like watching a video somehow, and I soon tired of it and switched to one of the Earth News channels.

Everything seemed to be going well with the reforestation program and according to the latest projections the CO2 level would be well below twentieth century levels within a few years.

Almost all Earth's species were thriving again now and the very few which remained endangered were soon expected to begin to thrive too as the planet’s eco systems continued to stabilise.

The Earth’s human population had started to grow over the past six months as more people had been allowed to return.
It was at almost a quarter of a billion now and it was planned to allow the return of up to half a billion more.
The plan was to cap the global population at just below a billion and maintain it at around that level.

Those who returned to Earth were all reconciled to the fact that if they were to have any children they would not be able to parent them...

The Galactic Union had long since adopted a strict policy of Universal Maternity which stipulated that babies should be cared for from birth by the specially trained 'Weenas', at first in small groups and later in larger groups, and then, still in the same groups, by ‘Proxy Parents’ until at age thirteen they moved on to University to complete their education.

The principle of not allowing the 'sins' of the parents to be passed on to their children had proved to be so effective in reducing all manner of social and psychological problems that it was strictly enforced for all new Galactic Union planets for a minimum of twenty five generations.

The observation window opened again just before we landed in Space City.
The giant space port had been built shortly after the Galactic Union had decided that many of the most interesting and unique forms of life on Earth were on the verge of extinction due to gross mismanagement of the planet and had reluctantly stepped in to take control.

The GU had devices that interfered with the flow of electrons in any mechanical device which effectively neutralised all the more destructive weapons that the Earth’s warlike ape decendants had created and so it was not a particularly difficult task to negotiate a change of management with the various global leaders around the planet…
although, there were a couple of notable exceptions.

Once the GU took control then the humans who had been taken off-world and had already been ‘educated’, in preparation for the task of managing the planet should the need arise, were installed as the new leaders and the task of putting the planet right began in earnest.

Over the next few years most of the Earth’s billions of people were transferred to various other planets depending on their preferences and qualifications.
It was a shock to many to discover that with the amazing technology available to the members of the GU that aggression, human intelligence, cleverness and cunning were of little value and it was imagination and good nature that was most prized.

So, when it was agreed that the Earth was ready for some of its people to return it was no surprise that kindness and caring were the qualities highest on the list of qualifications for those who wished to return...
Hence, in an unexpected way the old promise that the ‘meek shall inherit the Earth’ was finally fulfilled.

Perhaps the thing that summed up the changes best for me was when we enter immigration and I saw the sign -
“The Earth Is Under New Management : This Is A Weapon Free Planet!”

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I was really looking forward to seeing trees again!
I’d spent most of my time away from Earth stuck in airless cities…

I don’t mean that literally, there was a carefully blended mixture of gases to breathe, but no matter how deeply you breathed you could not detect any smell, nor ever feel the air catch in your nostrils.

Always kept at precisely the same temperature with never so much as a gentle breeze.
Even food had no aroma and so was fairly tasteless - a small price to pay for the elimination of all airborne diseases I was constantly told, but I was not convinced.

Occasionally I would be severely tempted to join the ‘gourmets’ who elected to wear special nose masks into which various meal cards could be inserted which could simulate selected aromas to accentuate the basic tastes that could be detected by the tongue...

I never did so because the ’gourmets’ were seen as ‘sensory addicts’ and it would inevitably have gone on my record and made it more difficult for me to earn my ticket home.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that I was unhappy there or even that I had been happier on Earth before the Change.
I simply longed to escape for a while from the uniformity, the perfectly programmed environment, the predictability, the sameness.

Everyone wore basically much the same clothing when they were not in uniform and there was no apparent sense of fashion or individualism in dress.
Uniforms were worn by most of the population when they were on duty.
The uniforms were designed not only to aid identification but also to be of practical use in the wearer’s profession.

You’re probably starting to wonder if I was on a planet of Communists and perhaps you could see the Buddhis (pronounced buddies) in that light for they were part of a Universal Brotherhood.
However, it would probably be closer to see them as a ’family’ with a command hierarchy that is task dependent and so varies with the demands of the job in hand.

Of course this would not work if the Buddhi’s were not trained from birth to overcome their ‘primitive programming’ and master their egos. Their education includes both mental and physical training and the completion of the Buddhi Basic - which is essentially reaching a level at which the Buddhi has mastered the first of the seven states of non-attachment.

You are forgiven if you had arrived at the conclusion that the Buddhis are humans brainwashed into becoming insects whose only purpose is to serve the hive… in fact they are happier and have more freedom than most people on Earth ever had because they have escaped much of the tyranny of self.

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After a recent chat with Mystic I feel that I should admit to certain mistakes and misunderstandings on my part regarding my somewhat careless descriptions of how things were off world.

I should have made it clear that the planet I was on was not a Buddhi planet but rather a ‘school’ planet run by a species whose name I cannot pronounce and that I call the “Vulcans” in honour of Star Trek not because they look like Vulcans but because they are a very logical and scientifically minded race.

You don’t see anything of them if you’re an Earther because they spend all their time at the Universities teaching the intelligent races. They see no point in wasting their time trying to educate emotional ‘children’ who can’t even speak ‘Common’ let alone a ‘structured’ language.

The Budhi are used to teach new members of the GU who are from the lesser developed end of the emotional/intelligence/spiritual spectrum because they have a highly developed sense of empathy and the ability to get along well with almost all known humanoid creatures and many non humanoid.

The ‘gourmets’ are a small group of Buddhi ’helpers’ who have been corrupted by their continued contact with “lesser” races and are generally pitied rather than frowned upon.
The Budhi in general take things as they are and they would quite happily eat tasty food if that was how it came… for them it would be just as misguided to try and remove the flavour from food as it is to try and add to it.

According to Mystic the Buddhi find the ‘Vulcans’ quite amusing as despite their belief that they are a logical race they rarely achieve level six non-attachment, and don’t seem to notice their tendency to haughtiness and occasional sense of superiority.

Although the believe they are sufficiently detached to remain unaffected by ambition they don’t see that they do compete and they also seem oblivious to the fact that their thirst for knowledge is driven by a need to modify and control.

It is probable that the Vulcans see the Buddhi as emotional despite the Buddhi’s higher average non-attachment level (often level seven)…
but only Vulcans truly know what Vulcans know.

However, the ability of the Buddhi to psychically interact with the physical - an aspect of Buddhi ‘Magic’ - fascinates the Vulcans…

If I ever get the time I’ll try and re-write it in a more coherent fashion but until then at least the above should help clarify my more obvious failings in my earlier attempt to try and give the reader an idea of what it was like to be an Earther in a GU re-education program.