The 3 Rs: Rebellion, Revolution & Writing
This was originally a Twitter thread, posted on 22 APR 02019.
Changes from the Twitter version: Lightly edited or re-expanded from the original text, linked to sources, and notes.
Addendum, October 2022, after the release of Black Widow filled in significant aspects about Natasha, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier filled in some details about Sam and Bucky. I have also updated links that experienced bit rot to their archive.org instance.
Rien’s world exists because of a vague idea I once had. When Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it only destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. But Mt Vesuvius has the potential to be a much worse eruption, then and now. It’s 150 miles/242km from Pompeii to Rome. Ash fell from Mount St Helens over 7 states. What if, instead of destroying two cities, Vesuvius destroyed Rome as an empire? What if Vesuvius went worst case scenario – a Mt Tambora or a Yellowstone caldera? When Yellowstone goes, there’s a good chance that Salt Lake City, Boise and Spokane will cease to exist, and Seattle, Denver and Portland may not be far behind. It’s 500 miles/800km from Denver to Yellowstone.
This was originally a Twitter thread, but with the death of Twitter and its slow zombification into an Ayn Rand Hellscape, the thread no longer exists. I wrote it in July of 2018 (and have lightly edited it for clarity in 2024).
Usually when people write connections like that, we’re talking conspiracy theories. But nope, this is just corporate evil and exploitation in the name of profit.
Archive: Originally posted on 09/01/2010 at mac.com
Nine years ago [23 years as of 2024], I was thinking about the fall of the Roman Empire. (Yes, I do this.) Rome didn’t fall so much as contract and stop interfering in the world, but it still served as a center of communication, cultural movement and authority.
