Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.
The Vulgar 20th Century will be a name given to the 20th century in the year 2032 to describe the pollution (cleaned up in 2025 through nanobots) and corruption caused by human civilization. The effects of the nanobots will be felt in North America first, the Western Hemisphere second and the rest of the world as a last resort.
While Christian conservatives blame crime and loosening of moral/sexual standards such as "hooking up" for making the 20th century vulgar, the liberals blamed it on economic inequality, poverty, homelessness, pollution, and disrespect towards the disabled people. Women were also depicted as second-class citizens during the vulgar 20th century; with the exception of Rosie the Rivetter, Lara Croft and Janice of the Muppets.
Summary[]
General summary[]
Things like indoor smoking, burning leaves instead of composting them, pesticides, cell phone usage while driving a vehicle, slaughtering livestock on farms for meat instead of growing meat in a bioreactor, sex outside of marriage, television programs, corporal punishment towards dependent children, advertisement of fast food to children to create obesity, tobacco and non-educational toys have all contributed to the vulgar attitudes of people who were born between the years 1901 and 2000. 1991, on the other hand, will be remembered as the good old days when life was simpler. Violent cartoons such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in addition to unfunny sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory have implied messages that the vulgarity of the 20th century is accepted in Western culture; when in fact it's not.
Dr. Marlene VanGoethem (the daughter of the creator of RyansWorld) will be born in a world where she will never have to experience the "Vulgar 20th Century" for herself as she grows up to become a scientist in a prosperous economy that is not based on fossil fuels. To her, the "Vulgar 20th Century" will be another 10th grade general-level history class to her at her local high school. That will be the case unless her father decides to homeschool her instead of exposing her to a crowded and underfunded public school system. The tobacco czars of the 20th century will be replaced by the captains of nanotechnology, robotics, and genetics as a way to promote health instead of sickness and moral decay.
Nanotechology, cloning, in vitro meat, and robotics will provide a way for humanity to have a limitless amount of food, water, natural resources, and fuel by recreating all the components atom-by-atom basis. This method would become similar to the Replicator used on the Star Trek television series. While conservative Christians would complain that replication and 3D printers would destroy the North American free market system, scientifically-aware liberals would embrace replication as a way to control the price of goods and services.
By the summer of 2025, replicating gold had lowered the price of gold from more than $1,500 per pound to less than $15 per pound. Two billion jobs were created worldwide as a result of this price drop; with the companies that run the open-source nanotechnology, robotics and genetic engineering facilities gaining the lion's share of new jobs.
After 2012[]
High gas prices are a sad and unfortunate fact of life as we go further into the 21st century. But high gas prices will get people walking and eating healthy local foods.
Starting on December 21, 2012, all traces of the "Vulgar 20th Century" will slowly disappear from Western civilization permanently. Society will eventually be become nano-centered as nanobots will tell us what to eat and how much to eat of it. The government will eventually force us to have nanobots in our body so we never get cancer or heart disease; the legal penalties of not complying will result in the loss of all social benefits. Bingo will garner more revenues than casino gambling and more people will walk, take mass transit, or carpool to work. The price of regular petroleum gasoline will ultimately exceed $7.50/gallon in most U.S. states; forcing governments to pass mandatory carpooling laws that prevent people from driving vehicles alone.
Rupert and Meaghan McGillicuddy, in their photo taken on September 14, 2008, fondly look back to the days that they could afford to eat the cheap and plentiful calories and carbohydrates found in American fast food.
The decadence led by the wealthy, the morbidly obese married couple who are dependent on scooters for transportation and the upper-middle class in the "Vulgar 20th Century" eventually led to the 2008-16 economic slowdown that fueled the Second Dark Ages and neo-communist revolutions in Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa. By 2018, calories from junk food will no longer be cheap and plentiful even in the low-income areas of North America. A happy meal from a McDonald's in Florida will cost the same as an equivalent Happy Meal in Norway unless the restaurant agrees to make a cheaper version with 90% fewer calories and carbohydrates.
Eventually, the world would smarten up and place strict regulations on economic growth, banking, and the giving out of home loans (mortgages). Our human society will become like a pure white pearl and our people will become a harmonious society of bees; always working and never thinking deviant thoughts which may re-ignite the conditions that created the Vulgar 20th Century. Literacy will be embraced by the masses and blue-collar culture (along with other forms of "popular culture") will give way to high culture. The republican Japanese government of the mid-21st century will make learning leadership skills mandatory in an attempt to create a more positive image for Japanese youth.
By 2050, people will eventually say that "the Vulgar 20th Century was good for only five things: cheaper rent, more secure/abundant food, better baseball players, better movies and a high school education allowed a man to support his family without his wife having to go to work."