How To Cause the Collapse of Modern Society 101

So I was watching the Discovery Channel, and got really into a show on what would happen if a giant solar storm hit the Earth. This may actually be the missing link I was looking for. I had to have a way for most of the world's systems to collapse, and I couldn't well blame that on the fundamentalists, as they're bumbling bureaucrats who bide their time waiting. How I'm going to write a poem about a solar storm, I have no idea.

This had been an issue mostly because I needed something that would knock out technology, not people. I had contemplated a meteor strike, but, for one, it would take millions of years for the planet to recover. Two, it would wipe out the human race, and we can't have that. Who am I supposed to torture without anyone around!? A solar storm is perfect because, if no steps were taken, it would knock out the transformers for a good few years, giving the fundies time to conspire the eventual destruction of our government infrastructure. We'd be so wrapped up in providing aid and emergency services, and pretty much preventing chaos, that they could do it pretty easily.

There still is the problem of how I get Manhattan to go back to rolling hills in less than a thousand years. Having also seen After People I know this is going to be tricky. It would be helpful if there was something that could level the skyscrapers.

I'll be pondering it. For now, another snippet.

It started so long ago
Nobody knows for sure
The Church keeps it hidden
They’ve always been good at lying.

It is said that the sky rained fire
Shining objects falling from the heavens
That carriages without horses
Once charged over the fields we sow

Don't worry - I'll soon be introducing the characters that I'll be following through the story. What, you thought I was going to write purely on vague theory?

-Com