Outquisiting

[leahbobet]

Cory Doctorow and Alex Steffen coin The Outquisition, an alternate notion of the apocalypse:

I noticed that while there's a whole ton of stories -- and people who emulate them -- about heavily armed survivalists bravely holding off the twilight of civilization after the Big One, there are damned few stories about super-networked post-apocalyptic Peace Corps who respond to the Great Fall by figuring out how to put it all back together. I even came up with a name for it: the Outquisition; the opposite of the Inquisition -- missionaries who come to your town to remind you of how awesome it can all be, leave behind a bunch of rad, life-improving systems and tools, and generally get on with the business of being happy, well-fed and peaceful.

My first impression of this is that their catastrophic apocalypses clearly contain more power generation capacity and a stronger resource base than any of mine. Which is not to say people can't be nice at the apocalypse -- in fact, considering the nature of agriculture these days you'd sorta have to be nice, as you're not going to make it long-term in anything smaller than a small community -- but does this seem a bit pie-in-the-sky to anyone else?

Any ideas on making it practical?

Comments

[ringwoodcomics.livejournal.com]

Made me think, of all things, of the Templars in Deadlands: the Wasted West.

I'm honestly not sure what the point of an "outquisition" (ugh, ugly word) story would be. Where's the tension? Why invoke an apocalypse at all?

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

How so?

In fiction, I think it might not be very pointful -- although I think fiction's been done where postapocalyptic people discover said missionary types? My brain is telling me that Robert Charles Wilson's Julian: A Christmas Story is of that type?

In real life, putting that together could be more useful...