I have often been asked to outline by vision for the American future. By now regular readers will be aware of the broad outlines of the solution that I advocate to the present problems of the nation but, perhaps, not of the ultimate goal. What do I envision for the nation, a century hence?

Now, what I have written is not, in all ways, a utopia. A few things have, to make the world a describe, gone wrong. That is more a description of the inevitable reckoning that I see in the nation’s future than it is a reflection of my desire to see harm inflicted upon anyone.

Heinlein Naval Base, Mars Territory
January 1, 2104

The President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation, along with the British, Australian, Japanese, and Israeli Prime Ministers stood together on the deck of the USS Beijing, jointly observing the grand fleet review staged each year for five decades by the Alliance for Democracy. Named for the terrible battle in which nearly twenty-thousand Americans (and several million Chinese) had died, the Beijing was the most powerful space warship built by humanity to date. Her advanced drives allowed her to make the cruise from the Earth to Mars in just three days and she carried sufficient armament to wipe out entire nations, should the need ever arise. Her energy shields made her impervious to all but the most advanced weapons.

Some argued that the construction of ships such as the Beijing was a waste, seeing as there had not been a major war for more than sixty years. However, the 34th Amendment to the Constitution specified, in an effort to avoid the constant cycle by which America was always caught unprepared for war and paid a terrible price in blood as a result, that no less than 7.5% of the Gross Domestic Product be spent on defense. The resultant $41 trillion defense budget was viewed as wasteful by some and, in fact, the Congress regularly found ways of disguising wasteful social spending as being military in character- yet it seemed to work fairly well. After all, that $41 trillion left (in 2103, at least) $512 trillion for the rest of the country. While the per capita income of $792,857.14 enjoyed by the average American might have sounded excessive to those of earlier generations, when inflation was factored in, it really meant that the average American had purchasing power equal only to three times that of their counterparts a century earlier.

Of course, how the average American earned that income would have been mystifying to earlier generations. By 2104 barely 5% of all Americans worked in manufacturing and agriculture combined, with most of the rest working, in essence, to provide services to eachother. A typical “Industrial Worker” now had a Doctoral degree, and was generally a specialized engineer. Modern social scientists now looked back upon the industrial age, in which a majority of the people had been employed in production of some type or another, with the same contempt that their predecessors had viewed the days when the vast majority of humans were engaged in agriculture.

The education system had been totally reformed over the years. While public education now lasted for only four years- the First and Second Grades and the Eleventh and Twelfth Grades. The main purpose of public schools was to provide children with a proper respect for the nation’s institutions and ideals as well as through lessons as to her history: especially the mistakes of the 20th and 21st centuries. Non-denominational Religious instruction, while not compulsory, was almost universally attended. In the years between the second and eleventh grades children were educated in a variety of for-profit institutions which provided them with the tools for any sort of specialization. However, while education was generally a for-profit business (some institutions, mostly religious, political, or military in character were charities) no student was denied an education based on their parent’s inability to pay. However, the names of any parent forced to rely upon the public treasury to school their children were published in newspapers and online.

Naturally, many of those known to be living off of the taxpayers were prone to be challenged in duels. Dueling, a practice almost forgotten, was reintroduced in the third decade of the 21st Century, initially in inner-cities. This, of course, came not long after the Supreme Court managed to find a “right to die and choose one’s means of death” in the Constitution. After several violent attacks involving gangs which killed large numbers of innocents, the leader of the largest Hispanic gang (who, as it happened, had a PH.D in American History) decided that the only answer to safeguard the rights of innocents was a revival of the Code Duello. After all, he reasoned, gang members and other thugs had been killing eachother as long as anyone could remember and they were unlikely to ever stop, but there was little reason for others to have to die. The practice caught on like wildfire, being viewed as an ultimate test of manhood. Though as first various orders of government tried to stop it, they soon reversed course and embraced the practice, especially seeing that it actually reduced overall urban violence. Before long it spread to the rest of society. While early duels had been fought with knives and modern pistols, it was not long before dueling had become a celebrated and highly ritualized practice. Modern duels were typically fought with swords or single-shot black power pistols. One could be challenged to a duel for any reason- and could refuse a challenge. However, a general prejudice had developed that any man who refused a duel was a probable homosexual and, therefore, refusals were generally rare and those who refused often fled. As a result people in the 22nd Century had generally learned not to insult hot-headed individuals and, additionally, governments had developed a lamentable tendency to attempt to rid themselves of various problems by publishing the names of individuals involved in the hope that duels would swiftly dispose of said individuals.

Science, as it turned out, was both the greatest friend and greatest enemy of homosexuality. In 2021 a reliable AIDS vaccine was finally developed and a gene was discovered proving that, in more than 95% of cases, homosexuality was a genetic occurrence. In the short term this led to a great boon for the gay rights movement. However, towards the last decades of the century gay activists began to note an alarming trend: their shrinking ranks. Eventually it was determined that, as genetic modification, examination, and selection of human embryos became more common, a great many parents had quietly chosen not to have children who carried the “gay” gene. In the vast majority of cases the people who made these decisions fancied themselves to be supporters of gay rights- but they themselves had visions of grandchildren and traditional weddings. Most agreed that this was a great injustice, but no one did anything about it.

The effects of the ‘Genetic Revolution’ were (otherwise) not nearly as dramatic as anyone had expected. While the average lifespan continued to edge upwards (it presently stood at a whisker under a century) no method to stop or reverse aging had yet to be discovered. Certain forms of genetic engineering were quite popular by the 22nd Century: for example, methods had been discovered to raise the intelligence of a child by up to twenty points. However, beyond howls from some about the creation of a ‘genetic underclass’ few actual effects had yet to be seen.

After the completion of the Twelfth Grade, virtually all Americans were enrolled for a three-year term of national service which either consisted of military service or service in some sector of the civilian government. While enlistment was far from mandatory, a failure to serve limited employment opportunities and citizenship rights. For example, Americans who did not enroll could not, by law: vote, serve on juries, be President or Vice President, live off-planet, attend university, or hold any of a great number of ‘service-only’ jobs. Those who did military service were enrolled in Earth-based ground defense units. Only after initial enrollment could one enlist in the regular forces. Those who enlisted in the regular forces were entitled to an additional vote for every ten years of service. All of these reforms were instituted after the Chinese War and the Second Great Depression of the mid-21st Century, which were widely judged as being the result of a fat and complacent electorate unwilling to make hard choices such as slashing spending or confronting emerging threats, even at a terrible cost. After that war, which cost more than four million American lives and saw the nuclear destruction of the Cities of Seattle and Honolulu, China had been broken up into a dozen states and ‘pastoralized’.

After the terrible destruction of the Chinese War and the European Civil War, the victorious states- who had joined during the war as the ‘Alliance for Democracy’ had decided that the nations responsible for the war had shown such irresponsibility that they had to be disarmed for all time. If the Chinese, or the remnants of the European Unionists, ever attempted to threaten the peace of the world again, they would simply be bombed into nothingness by orbital weapons.

Criminal punishments were generally swift and harsh. Petty criminals, especially young offenders, were often penalized by a public lashing. The method of execution prescribed by law in nearly every state (and by the Federal Government) was public hanging. This came about as a result of a popular view that, while the state had the right to execute people, the people ought to understand the terrible power wielded by the state. Despite (or, perhaps, because of) this, executions of murderers were extremely common- as were those of serial child molesters and rapists.

Politics, of course, continued. There were three major parties in America: the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Christian Constitutionalist Party. The Republican Party was the majority party- typically holding a majority in both Houses of Congress, a majority of state Governorships, and the Presidency. However, about 20% of the time power would shift to the Libertarians with, even more rarely, (roughly once every two generations) it going to the Christian Constitutionalists (who were universally known as the ‘Christians’). As a general rule, the Republicans were the most ardently enthusiastic for massive projects and a broader, constructive role for government while the Libertarians favored further reductions in the size of Government. The majority of the Christian platform called for, “enacting the will of our LORD and SAVIOR Jesus Christ into the laws of the land.”

By the early 22nd Century the Environmentalist movement of a century before is viewed as being as silly as those of 1996 viewed those who called for 16:1 coinage of Silver in 1896. Technology has, over time, made the environment noticeably better than it was before. With the benefit of time, the people of the 22nd Century do not understand how the people of the late 20th Century were so foolish as to believe that the Earth was on the verge of destruction.

All things considered, the people of the 22nd Century are healthier, better-educated, better-defended, richer, and happier than their ancestors. While things are far from perfect- they’re going alright.