Ch.19 :Campaigns : Part 1 (Marta and Gallanol In The Modern Age)

                  Chapter 19  :  Campaigns

 

   In a time of rest Janus and some of the group were watching the Vidnet at Julia’s flat. Julia was sat on Janus’ knee. Vera and Jairis were there, similarly relaxed, Luvian, and Calban. The news came onto screen, announcing the issue of a prospectus for a new company – Martatunnel. It was to be a major flotation. Even by the standards of the frequent large flotations of recent decades this must be one of the largest. Many many millions would be required for the major capital projects intended. It would be many years before the shareholders would see real returns on their investment. Such was the wealth which the rich and the ordinary people, through their savings accounts and investments, and the money held by the institutions, that there was always money available for new projects that might one day reap a huge profit. The prospective company was to come into existence with the intention of major infrastructural improvements, which would benefit, apparently, the whole world economy, and particularly the Martan Empire, and the Galancian and Gallanol-Galdellyn hinterland. They proposed to build a series of tunnels, linking offshore islands of Marta with the mainland. Work would start simultaneously on five sections. Relatively small rail link tunnels would be built in the three straits between the islands, linking the islands together with a faster transport link than ever before. The ambitious sections were very ambitious – they involved the link between the southern isle Cidrith and Seaward City. The tunnel there would directly link Cidrith East with the closest area of mainland Martainia, and would then run southwards overland into Seaward City, where it would link up with the major rail and network routes through the massive conurbations of the Senl Valley, including Marta City itself. In the north the most northerly isle would be linked almost directly with Verrig in Tunia. These last two tunnel sections would be much longer than any ever attempted before. Previous generations would never have imagined that they could ever have been built, even if they could have imagined any reason for wishing to do so when air and sea communications had been quite adequately in place for so many centuries.

 

     Janus and Julia both sat up, interested as they listened. The couple not only spent most of their time together now, sharing in their intellectual growth, their writing, their work with the group, teaching and debating, as well as sexual intimacy, but they also seemed to think the same thoughts. The others, often speculated about which one was leading the other. While Janus seemed the most developed in his thoughts, and the most capable as a leader, Julia contributed much to his ideas, and was his equal in her vision and her ability to build the group. “Well who would have thought it,” exclaimed Julia with sarcastic amusement. “What will they think of next.”

 

    “I never thought they would go for something like this,” retorted Janus. “Is it actually feasible?”

 

   Jairis said, ”Oh its feasible alright. If they can create space stations to live on and colonise planets then surely they can dig many miles worth of tunnels, as long as the ocean floor isn’t too deep. But its going to cost an awful lot of money. Remember this isn’t the first tunnel they’ve built. They built one under the ‘Jaws of the North’, between Barbarol and Gallanol, a hundred years ago. We must have all been through that at some point in our lives.”  Most of the party nodded.

 

    “That’s only a small tunnel,” said Julia.

 

    “Yes, but it didn’t stop there. There is one between Barbarol and Sarasia (the eastern continent), which stretches 20 miles at least. They built that 25 years ago. Surely you can’t have forgotten that. I remember it well anyway.” Jairis was a little older than all of the others present at this gathering. “Also I do know that there are plans for a tunnel which links Kelmar with Mandol, and I even heard of one being considered between Viknain and Sallas, although that one was thrown out as commercially unfeasible – not enough traffic.”

 

     “Have you heard anything about this one before?” asked Janus.

 

     “No, I have to admit this is a new one on me,” Jairis broke into a moderate chuckle. “It does seem rather senseless. If the Viknain tunnel was commercially unviable I can’t see this one being much more myself.”

 

     “It doesn’t have to be commercially viable for a long time,” said Luvian. “If they can predict that one day they’ll make good profits, then they’ll do it. Look at space. You wouldn’t think there would be much profit there but they still manage to find investors.”

 

     “Yeah, but most of that is for technological and scientific know how benefits. Those are returns, latent profits for many of the space investors. And governments help to keep space going,” Julia said.

 

     “There is no chance the government would ever fund something like Martatunnel,” said Janus.

 

     “If it failed financially in the end they might,” said Luvian, “rather than see all that effort wasted, they might be obliged to. They have wasted their money on plenty of other infrastructural projects that no one needed,” said Luvian, “and don’t forget the Gallanol Economic Community. They’ve spent some money on some strange projects in their time, besides space.”

 

    “Its a fair point,” admitted Janus, ”but I still would suspect they’ve told the organisers of Martatunnel they will have to raise their own money. I must say, as a non engineer and non scientist I find it surprising that they consider this as a viable scientific project, let alone a commercial one.”

 

    “Janus you lack faith. Don’t you know that we humans can do anything we want,” mocked Julia, playfully.

 

    “You’re quite right, I should have more faith in the race. I give up far too easily. Where are the application forms for the new jobs. Let me sign them as quickly as possible so that they won’t leave me behind, as they take this great step for mankind.”

 

   “Hold on a minute Janus. Do you realise this is a lifetime’s commitment. Are you prepared to sign away your whole life on this one project?” asked Julia, keeping to the spirit of the interchange.

 

   Janus nodded. “I would consider it a great honour to dedicate the rest of my life towards this goal, which is so important to all our lives and the progress of the whole human race.”

 

    “Good. And are you prepared to retrain in tunnel engineering or geology – very complex and difficult subjects I believe?

”

    Janus was about to answer in the affirmative when Jairis stepped in. “You’re too old Janus. They won’t let you start as an engineer or a geologist. There are plenty of them out there who they could entice onto the payroll. In fact they wouldn’t need to entice. They could pick and choose.”

 

    “You’re spoiling it Jairis. You’re ruining his fantasy. It’s all he’s ever wanted to do with his life. And now you’re telling him he can’t do it,” Julia snapped back, with humour, at Jairis, to keep him quiet, enjoying this theatrical flirtation. “Now Janus, don’t listen to him. He just wants to stop you building the tunnel. He doesn’t know what’s best for you and the whole human race. We’ll just have to assume you are an engineer or a geologist. You’ll still need some retraining perhaps. But that should be good for your career. Are you prepared to work long hours on this project and make it your whole life until the job’s done. Of course we will reward you handsomely for your efforts. We’ll give you enough money to buy an even bigger apartment, but you won’t have much time to spend in it while the job is on. Are you prepared for that?”

 

   “Yes,” said Janus enthusiastically, “as long as my career progresses and I can buy a bigger flat I’ll be happy.”

 

   “And we might have to move you to Seaward or even one of the islands. Would you mind that, but it will still be a bigger flat.”

 

   “Oh I don’t mind that. I never see my parents and I don’t get on with my sister, and I haven’t got any friends anyway. I won’t miss anybody and nobody will miss me,” said Janus, with his tongue in his cheek. “I might even make some new friends on the project.”

 

    “I don’t think you will Janus. We expect you to work very hard. In return for that we pay you a lot of money. But you won’t have time to make any friends.”

 

    “I have to say it will give me great pleasure to say, when I look back on my life, in my old age, that I was one small part of that huge team which built this tunnel. I will be able to die happy in the sure knowledge that I really did something with my life. I actually helped to build something that future generations will be able to use and enjoy forever.”

 

    “Are you sure you won’t wish you had stayed in Marta City with us, your real friends, and done something which actually relieved the suffering of mankind,” said Julia. Evidently the

game was up. She had reverted to her normal state of mind. She despised projects such as these, as they all did, unnecessary, but created by the interest groups who had to see money working to expand the economy, growth wherever possible, even if it seemed unlikely. Money should be used. It could never sit idle, to be sure. Economic growth theories had been very useful in history, raising standards of technology and material wellbeing, as well as creating employment and generating economic development in underdeveloped sectors. The lessons of economics had been hard but also very beneficial to the human race. But all in this group wondered just how much longer the ‘economics game’ could continue. For decades now, if not centuries, every new advance in technology, space infrastructure, or products had been unnecessary. None of them had provided real advances for the average real person. They had served to keep the economy hot and growing, to create and unmake jobs, a wonderfully creative multiplicity of new models and strange gadgets which were never entirely necessary. Little of it had brought real physical or spiritual improvement to the lives of people. People had instead been obliged to work harder, longer, and spend more years in training and retraining. The group wanted to change economics, to set it on projects and paths which would help people to improve the real quality of their lives, make them feel what they were doing was worthwhile and had real benefits.

 

    “Can we do something about this? It’s just awful – the waste of human time and energy, for no real reason,” said Julia, deeply repulsed by the madness she saw in the economic system.

 

    “They don’t see it like that,” said Jairis. “They see it as new jobs, higher wages, economic stimulation. Most people watching that news broadcast will think it good news.”

 

    “Who do you mean by ‘they’?” asked Vera.

 

    “Most ordinary people as well as the people who make the decisions,” said Jairis. “They’re not educated towards questioning the economic system. Growth and investment is taken for granted as a good thing. It’s a basic assumption of our education. It takes innovative thinking or a deep resentment of our wasted lives before we start to criticise it. It is strange that private investments like this are never seriously questioned by the population. Private investments must, in the long term, be profitable. The market therefore determines that they are worthwhile and therefore logical. Government spending would be questioned, but if it is on anything which could be construed as infrastructural it is conceived as beneficial to the wider private economy. Only if the attention of the electorate is brought to the question of raising taxes does the public begin to criticise government spending. We might think the government should raise spending on social work, or employing more people in the hospitals, whatever we believe is useful, socially beneficial work. The public would not be impressed by that because they would perceive no growth effect. They would consider that their taxes were funding activities which were carried out efficiently before. Extra funding would therefore be inefficient and wasteful, even if it was improving the quality of the service or the quality of life by the workers who now had a lighter workload. The investments in those areas would not be generating surplus wealth or profits from any markets. There would be no possibility therefore of profits being reinvested elsewhere, which is perceived as growth. The tunnel, on the other hand produces growth in the public’s estimation. One – it makes a profit in the long term, which can then be reinvested elsewhere. Two – it is perceived that it will cut the cost of travel to, through, and between the islands, and the speed of travel, enabling goods and services to travel more cheaply and more quickly, thus reducing economic costs of all these goods and services, and enabling the demand for goods and services to rise. These are both growth effects.”

 

    “That is a very illuminating observation of economics and the public perception of it. We know that economics works, but we also know that it does not necessarily work to the advantage of human beings,” said Janus. “Our task is to attempt to get across to the public why economics is not working to the advantage of human beings. We must try to educate about the human effects of economics. This tunnel is an opportunity to campaign about a specific issue as an illustration of what is wrong with our economy. If we can convince some people that this economic growth is pointless and unnecessary, and that it has human and environmental costs, they might begin to follow our arguments in other areas.”