From “Our Island, Our Home” (high school history & civics text)

Ancient History

Grundoonland (pronounced “Grund’en”) was not always the pleasant, comfortable island it is today. Much of its more sordid background has been lost in the mists of time, but it is important to preserve what history we can, so we don’t become the very thing we escaped.

In the beginning, the great continents of the planet were far, far larger than they are now. Even with so much space, the land became so crowded with humans that great numbers of them were locked up in concrete and steel cages to make room for more people out in the streets and countryside. Why the species kept reproducing simply to fill these cages is one of the great mysteries of biology.

When they ran out of concrete and land to build more cages, the ancient Americans created the first floating prison off the coast of what used to be Virginia. Preserved in our national museum is electronic footage of the grand opening of America’s first floating prison colony. Among the curiosities in the film are performances by a now-extinct subspecies called Elvis Impersonators in a primitive cell block.

Because all records were lost in the climatic upheavals of the late 21st century, how this first floating prison functioned is unknown except as oral history. Legends tell us that the island was for male prisoners only, and was staffed by male employees. Supplies of food, clothing, fuel, and other goods were apparently provided from the mainland, with the inevitable corruption that such a system generates.

The first floating prison was evidently a success for policy makers, however, because a sister colony was soon established in the Pacific Ocean, exclusively for female prisoners and staff. Apparently the idea was to prevent any opportunity for physical contact between the two islands. From this primitive, brutal beginning, the female colony evolved over eons into Grundoonland, our home island today. The origin of our name is still a controversial, unresolved historical question.

Even before water wars, plagues, and unknown other disasters wiped out most humans on the shrinking continents, Grundoons were already well advanced in self-sufficiency and had become increasingly independent of land-based supplies. During the fierce global storms that effectively isolated Grundoonland in the latter part of the 21st century, the distinction between guard and inmate classes on the island rapidly dissolved as survival depended upon mutual effort and cooperation.

In those early days of independence, it is thought that those who could not or would not cooperate rapidly died off, by drowning, starvation, or suicide. This was a brutal time in Grundoonland history, but the long-term effect has been the survival of those most able to cooperate, share resources and labor, and resolve problems without force or violence.

Building a Nation

From the outset, Grundoonland was intended ultimately to be self-sufficient, though not on the scale eventually needed. The initial framework for the island was a patchwork structure of interlocked, superfluous aircraft carriers. For the first few years as a prison colony, food, building materials, and other necessities were provided in monthly supply ships, while inmates literally built their own shelters and learned to grow various crops. After numerous mistakes, some of them fatal, the early inmates came up with the basic design that expanded into the Grundoonland of today.

In the center of the island, a fresh water lake both traps rain water and recycles colony water; the lake is the primary ballast for the island, and can be drained or dispersed rapidly in case of emergency or grounding. Surrounding the lake is the familiar circular skyline of the Grundoon Alps, synthetic mountains containing offices, schools, theaters, lodging, factories, and sporting centers, all supporting extensive terraced and suspended gardens, which produce the island’s fruits, vegetables, and grains. The mountains are topped by an ingenious web of windmills and organic solar collectors, beneath which small, strictly managed herds of dairy and meat animals browse among ducks and chickens that provide an abundance of eggs. Manure from the livestock is composted and liquified to fertilize the gardens and orchards below through a network of drip irrigation channels.

On the seaward side of the synthetic mountains, the periphery of the island is indented by a series of marinas, some for fishing boats, some for pleasure, sport, and research vessels. Each marina includes two or three masts and sails, operated by well-trained, centrally coordinated sailors in six-hour, round-the-clock shifts. The sails are the sole means of guiding the island, which can be anchored only in extremely calm seas. The marinas themselves are linked to the mountains by boardwalks over marshes and estuaries that began as artificial constructs but are now self-sustaining.

One Ocean, Two Sexes

Established as a female prison colony, in its early days Grundoonland’s only male residents were occasional mainlanders smuggled aboard. These were usually caught and expelled, but not before impregnating some staff or inmates, whose male children became the first male Grundoonland natives. Tracing one’s lineage to these pioneering males is even today a status symbol for some. The genetic diversity necessary for a healthy population, however, was only introduced after rising sea levels submerged Central America, creating the globe-spanning Pan Pacific Ocean. With only open ocean separating them, inevitably, or so it seems in hindsight, the female and male colonies crossed paths. This historic event occurred somewhere between the 25th and 30th parallels in the vicinity of the submerged Bahamas. The meeting of Grundoonland with the sinking male colony from Virginia is celebrated in our week-long Fertility Fest every spring, but at the time there was some doubt whether any of the emaciated, disease-ridden males could be revived enough to procreate. Their slow recovery of health and libido allowed our revered First Inmates to establish the practices of sexual freedom and strict birth control that have prevented the island from succumbing to the ills of overpopulation.

Trade & Culture

Because of plagues and interbred violence in remaining mainland populations, Grundoonland has generally avoided contact with continental people. Other thriving floating civilizations, however, are a rich source of trade in both goods and ideas. Just how many of these other islands exist is not known precisely. Despite the great distances between them, cultural fads in music, clothing, and food tend to spread with remarkable speed from one island to another. In what has become a rite of passage, young people often set sail to other colonies for a year or two before coming home to settle down and entertain us with their adventures.

While our museums preserve the shackles, shock prods, and other artifacts used to torture and humiliate our ancestors, we also recognize our debt to the mainland culture that produced them. The society that brutalized our ancestors is gone, and rightly so, but we honor it for providing us the knowledge, technology, and initial materials to build our own civilization. And we must never forget that from those primitive, violent societies came also the tools of maintaining a culture – the arts, sciences, music, and literature that define who we are and where we are heading.

Emerging Society

Attempting to avoid the corruption that destroyed previous civilizations, early Grundoonland devised a government based on parliamentary principles, with a major difference from historical models. All of our parliamentary representatives are selected exclusively by lottery; all residents from age 12 upward are eligible for public office, and serve three years on a rotating basis. During their terms, representatives and their families are provided with modern housing and all necessities, as well as an option for future contract and consulting work for their successors.

Because humans need pomp and ceremony in their government, every third year a special lottery is held to select a King and Queen, who are not required to mate for the purpose. The Royals’ function is to preside over all government functions, to dress and behave regally, and to engage when possible in scandalous behavior, satisfying any prurient and lurid tastes of the population.

The system is far from infallible. With only 350 years under its belt, our government and society are still evolving, living up admirably so far to our national motto: “Nobody’s perfect.”

1 thought on “From “Our Island, Our Home” (high school history & civics text)”

  1. Written in the great tradition of eco-visionary thinking (Starhawk, Callenbach, Piercy, LeGuin, Lessing, Butler, Bryant, and many more) with just the right amount of wicked humor – just sad to think about all the misery and suffering that precedes this vision of eco-justice, sustainability and imperfection. Yet how can we avoid it, given the road we’re traveling…more education, more organizing, more miracles…..

    Thanks for your writing!

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