Speechless

Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.

 

 

What does the world sound like when it can no longer speak? Can it live without the spoken word?  

 Can we not just tap messages and text our loved ones sitting next to us; we do this all the time. I hear that some have been texting between rooms, and floors for years; it saves time on shouting and yelling up stairwells.

The world is about to be silenced. There is a gas, not enough to kill but one that attacks the vocal chords. No one knows exactly where it came from. There are various theories but no one can pinpoint exactly how it came, and perhaps more importantly, no one knows how to reverse its effects. The world is transfixed by its own muteness.

People aren’t affected all at once; its effects are piecemeal and gradual. Some towns and cities are affected quicker than others depending on how clear the air is. The countries who have made determined efforts to control and eliminate pollution suffer the most. It is easier for the gas to travel and permeate the air like a poison. In others, where pollution is more widespread, where governments have paid little notice to control their gas emissions, are slower to be hit. How ironic. The gas travels slower through the already noxious air; an invisible invader that finds its way into the human body. An irritant that cannot be expelled, the left and right bronchi allows the trespasser in with a whisper; the bronchiole tubes pave the way for its conqueror.

The gas does not affect the lungs however, its only function is to deaden the vocal chords to a rasp of silence, and this it does with great effect. No one is immune except animals, insects, and birds.  Governments, scientists and the experts are at a loss as to what to do, no one really even knows what the gas is made of, and how it does what it does, least of all how to undo what it has done.

It is the epoch of a new dawn where man communicates only by electronic means, and is no longer reliant on speech.  It is a battle to create more sophisticated technology to deal with this new form of communication, to develop more sophisticated technology than what already exists. Technology needs to go beyond the IPhone, the IPad, and the Blackberry, and to create something for which man can make eye contact with fellow man. The government feels this is important, and is concerned at the lack of “feeling” between fellow humans, that could lead to misunderstandings, savage internecine warfare between groups of people which could escalate into something far more serious. A “feelings” zsar is appointed to encourage more eye contact, and to emphasise the importance of hand signals, and gestures. There is a certain degree of irony to this, and rude jokes are exchanged between those of a certain humour.

In the meantime however man struggles on, coming to terms with his new predicament. Facing the world mute and speechless and hoping for a miracle.

 

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Man will evolve to fit this new and unique habitat in which he now finds himself. The mutation will be become the norm as it is passed down through the generations, that is if, of course, no cure is found. This would be considered improbable, this evolutionary novelty, but it may well come to pass. Humans will have to learn to live with this new state of being.

With advanced technology, human intellect may well improve and this in turn will have a positive effect on the economy, but how this will impact on society is not yet known. It is for the intellectuals and philosophers to discuss, if there are any left. Forums and discussion groups are created and ideas circulated in silence via IPads, and IPhones, and Blackberrys.

Like a billion demented cicadas the humans tap their way through each day, the littlest ones – those little cicada nymphs crawl off to school each day to tap out the 5 hour stretch till home time.

Eyes are the windows to the soul, but they are empty and barren of light as they stare into their screens. Eyesight deteriorates over time, the stress of too much close vision work. It is not uncommon to see people walking around in magnified spectacles, like large fly eyes magnified to the power of ten. It is a strange state of being.

 

But people find a unique way of communicating with each other regardless of the situation they have found themselves in. They return to cave art, graffiti, and painting as well as their computer screens to tell their loved ones how much they are loved. It is not the disaster that some foresaw, and the strongest always survive the weak. The most original among us think up the most unique ways of communicating and interacting with fellow man. It has become a much more rich and tactile environment in which to live, and in some ways more pleasant. Man is tired of his technology although they serve a purpose it is his ingenuity, and originality that holds sway.

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Although man adapts to his new environment there are certain things he does struggle with. Face to face arguing is not without its problems. It is farcical to attempt arguing with someone directly in front of you without the power of speech. It is much like a comedy mime act as couples arguing in the street struggling to communicate their anxieties and distress with arm movement and mimed insults. Arguing by Ipad is futile, it neither serves the purpose nor is it quick enough as angry responses are slow to arrive. Now everyone is reliant on electronic media most of the time, signals are slower than they once were. Arguing is done with speed interspersed with breaks to storm off and re-enter the room. The dramatic entrance after a bout of fitful arguing with one’s partner is rendered obsolete when one is reliant on a keyboard to restart the argument again. Mobile phones and electronic tablets have been smashed in frustration during a lover’s tiff.

There is in increase in accidents; garden accidents, car accidents, all sorts of accidents because we cannot hear a voice behind us warning us of impending disaster.

 There is talk of using electronic text to speech voice generators, and prices would be modest keeping mind those who cannot afford high tech equipment so that there is equality of communication for all. No one is keen on this, after all it will still mean being heavily reliant on the use of keyboards, and for the most part, people are done with this now.

 The theatre perhaps is left in less of a quandary than the rest of us mere mortals as they return to mime; to illustrate the ills of mankind and how we have arrived at this current situation. They attempt to show us the scientific and underlying environmental forces the world man now faces, and what will happen if we continue as we are. Many scenarios are presented to the audience and they leave with a sense of fatalistic acceptance – for what can they do?

 Television is almost redundant. The world is faced with endless repeats, repetition of a world gone by when man could speak. A million scenes that we’ve seen played out a million times before, music videos and dance become a popular source of entertainment, but people would rather see this live than from a TV set or from their Ipads and laptops, films are endlessly on repeat.. Radio is obsolete bar repeat shows. News is now only in print and from the laptop screen. Live performances hold sway now as we remind ourselves what it is to feel alive.

 People become quite adept at lip-reading and they also learn a great deal from the use of sign language. Those who are both deaf and mute are in demand for their skills in lip reading and sign, as these are needed far and wide for those without this new form of communication.

 Sign language is not without its beauty and those balletic hand movements and elegant dancing of fingers make for a moving scene as women and children, men and boys all use their new found skill to communicate messages to each other. Once the deaf were unimportant, now there is new found respect. How did they manage to communicate in this way?

 Hospitals have no cures until the scientists have made their discoveries – they therefore continue to cope with the usual maladies and injuries that come their way, and all those silly accidents that come from the new speechless world. However, they are hampered more by the fact that their patients cannot communicate with them in the conventional way. They rely on electronic text to speech voice generators which have been issued to all hospital areas or sign language. This is difficult as not all doctors have picked up these new skills yet, and it is even more complicated as some of their patients don’t even speak the same language. This can be frustrating to say the least, and translators, also trained in sign language skills, are drafted in. This is quite expensive and people are expected to bear the brunt of this expense through their taxes.

Needless to say man goes on, and there are some small groups within society who have found new and novel ways of communicating – oh and the art work! Man’s interpretations of his predicament are novel. A triptych of the world’s fate adorns the walls of a building just 3km from here. Written and drawn upon it are people’s messages of hope, love and anger, a  far more interesting and promising interpretation of their muteness than crude imploring hands gesturing in cheap lurid colours, which seem to have been the trend of late. Mystical card drawings are intricately detailed in muted autumnal colours, but capture the mood perfectly. A man leans over an oval table knarled with age, whilst a young girl’s left arm gestures towards the spread to illustrate her message. Knowing little of these cards or their meaning is lost on many, as to the message the overall painting gives, but it is beautiful nonetheless.

They do say that it is possible for humans to lose their ability to speak temporarily or permanently after shock or extreme emotional experiences, although in this instance, that is not the case, or at least this is what we have been led to believe. Perhaps it is what we want to believe, rather than what has actually occurred, in that our muteness had been caused by some external force greater than ourselves. Man has always needed to believe that there are greater forces than himself. Nature is powerful it’s true, but man may have caused his own demise, his own muteness, his own helplessness. Perhaps we have become speechless for a reason that we do not yet understand. We may never speak again, but man will evolve and adapt.