The Fall Of: The United States of America. Pt. 3: Behold The Gates of Heaven Opened.
The First Flood was among the deadliest single catastrophes in human history. Within a span of a few years global sea levels rose over 75 centimeters globally and even when the pace of the rise slowed it remained above pre-flood levels. Incalculable damage was done to the ecology and human civilization.
The trigger of the flood was muddled by conflicting reports and attempts at ideological invectives over the next few decades but modern historians believe the few surviving early reports in a small number of remaining scientific magazines published in paper form were accurate. A glacier called the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica underwent a rather sudden and catastrophic collapse after decades of gradual erosion in late-2057 leading into 2058. The exact mechanism of the violence of the collapse is unknown. What is known is that over a few months an area of ice the size of Florida slid into the size, not only the Thwaites Glacier, but several large nearby areas. Exacerbating matters was the increasing pace of the melt in the glaciers of southern Greenland over the previous decade which was already accelerating sea level rise.
The Oceans have a great deal of thermal inertia but the upward surge was still dramatic as its effects rippled across the planet. Storm surges destroyed the defenses of cities like New Orleans, Miami, London, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Karachi, Alexandria, Lagos, and more over the Summer of 2058. Within two years sea level had risen an average of 65 centimeters.
Catastrophic economic collapse hit the United States with millions of refugees fleeing areas like Florida, New Jersey, Louisiana, North Carolina, Delaware, ect. Millions more were displaced by waves of economic collapse across the Sun Belt, where much of America's industry was relocated in the previous century. The economies of the Rust Belt could not handle the surge as refugees moved to more climatically stable regions like the eastern Great Plains, the Upper South, the Great Lakes, inland New England, and the Pacific Northwest. Ethnic tensions soared in some areas, mainly between the climate refugees that had arrived in the previous three decades and other newer waves of immigrants, and the descendants of the older waves of migration.
There was an apocalyptic mood in the air. In the definitive text on the Romantic Revolution Lionel the Patient recalls in the Cormacite, "everything was thrown into confusion as God almighty sent his deluge upon us No one knew truth from lies and rumor It was said a cat gave birth to a litter of snakes in Vermont It was said stinking meats fell from the sky in Detroit It was said bees stung hundreds in Las Angeles and killed each of them instantly while women were unharmed It was said deer were seen in the woods with four eyes on their heads up and down It was said beasts were spotted in the woods and wanderers disappeared torn apart and left scattered It was said computers displayed images that killed viewers instantly," it is then no surprise religion surged across the lands.
Any man could propose a solution to the nation's woes and gain a following. Canadian resistance flourished, as did resistance in Baja as Mexico launched a counteroffensive against the Americans. Cults abounded. Men went mad, going on sprees of meaningless slaughter in public. Food prices rose, riots broke out in cities like rashes, cholera raged in Missouri, cultists declaring reality itself would soon dissolve and create a paradise in which all would be reborn with perfect forms of their own choosing, killed hundreds by destroying a dam in Arkansas. The regime responded with massive crackdowns that were increasingly random.
Key components of the Romantic Revolution and our current American Civilization began to emerge at this time. Like seeds in some of the refugee slums, people grew gardens from beaten earth, engaging in mixed-cropping and advanced composting. Where and how these skills spread is not exactly known. Democratic self-management emerged among some refugees, or rather reemerged. These organized democratically self-managed camps were outnumbered by slums in total chaos or dominated by gangs, but they were more resilient to attacks from the regime. Fertile compost was cultivated for change but some force needed to throw seeds on the black soil.
That force was Francisco Olivera Magnon.
His name is now legend, with cultures across the continent having turned Magnon into a mythic being who will return at a time of great trouble and restore an age of peace. Legends exist of Magnon healing with his touch, slaying dogmen with a pair of blessed silver pistols, hiding great treasures, banishing devils, and more. But Magnon was a man. A man who stood up in 2059 before the 2060 election and gave the first real challenge to the oligarch control of the two major factions in politics in nearly a hundred years.
Magnon was a veteran of the failed Angola War, captured by Angolan special forces in Cabinda in a failed raid. Magnon went on to become a famous bare-knuckles boxer and created audio entertainment. His swing to the political was sudden and violent, launching a campaign demanding reform, one particular reform most of all, a total debt jubilee for the American people. Magnon had hit a live wire, in the deracinated American economy one of the few sources of value for capitalists was debt, trading debt, owning debt, speculating on debt, while Americans were hopelessly indebted just to survive. A form of corporate indentured servitude to punish debtors was spreading across the country, hitting natives and immigrants alike and enslaving them on land bought up by massive corporations to seize the food market.
The regime immediately launched a war against Magnon, slandering him and having the media declare him every possible insult, even contradictory slanders. Magnon was called a Chinese stooge, a communist, a fascist, a nazi, an anti-Semite, a buffoon, a scam artist, a Mexican agent, anything to drive even a few people from him. Magnon's message was simple however, and like fire it spread to a hopeless people and his political campaign was funded by the ordinary workers across the country in defiance against the regime in DC. Magnon was blocked from the increasingly fragmentary internet and TV but took to a public speaking tour across the nation and to the radio and print. His movement was grassroots, but it was diffuse and many groups and characters attached themselves to such a large movement merely hoping to catch crumbs in their mouths. Magnon grew a legend as he survived multiple assassination attempts. What polls that were collected showed him surging ahead of the 2060 election.
The election came and state after state refused to collect votes for Magnon, only New Mexico did and in that state he won. Riots ripped across the country spurred by Magnon himself who spoke of leading a march on DC and watering the Tree of Liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. There was only one solution for the desperate regime.
Magnon was killed by a tactical bomber, along with dozens or hundreds (according to the accounts one uses) of rally goers in St. Louis in a show of force.
The Romantic Revolution had begun.
