Every day we’re all asking the same questions about the future. Amid rampant pessimism, what is the root of all our problems, and what happens next?
Will AI empty our bank accounts and spell our doom in its own impenetrable code? What madness is this? Are we spiraling ever further down a misinformation maelstrom that denies science, lies about reality, and defies logic? When is a war not a war? If humans are basically good, how is it that so many believe that might makes right? If the pendulum of politics swings back and forth, when’s the revolution, and what will our daily lives look like when the smoke clears? Are there better days ahead? Is that even possible now?
Here’s the ad break, but hey, it’s relevant!
New release! Better Days Ahead.
For years, we turned our technology off and on to reboot it. Now technology is rebooting us.
When a mysterious signal circles the globe, Deborah Goodwin’s Drone Life is over. Many results are lethal. Some are hopeful. What happens next depends on the survivors.
If you loved Station Eleven or you’re curious about artificial intelligence bringing about the end of the world as we know it, this short story is for you.
I’ve been reading a lot of shorter fiction lately. Better Days Ahead is a short story I had on the back burner. I recently revisited it, made some additions, tweaks, and edits and decided to publish it on Amazon. As I write this, it sits at #44 on the 30-minute Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads list. (At 99 cents, it would be cheap entertainment at twice the price, so enjoy!)
And now, back to the news/circus
In high school, my social studies teacher thought my worldview was too grim. When I pointed out my reasons, she said, “You have to have faith!” To which I replied, “Why?”
I’m still asking why. True, the privileged enjoy wonders once only dreamed of in science fiction. The cell phone in your hand is a miracle packed full of the world’s knowledge. Unfortunately, that same technology arrives with a dull thud in the thick skulls of hostile apes. Steven Pinker and Bill Maher can assert all they want that there is no better time to live than now. Sure, if you aren’t in Gaza. I’m not in love with how good we have it. My focus is on how much better we could be.
One of my favorite bits from This Plague of Days is, “You’re still fighting the wrong war.” Currently, the United States is waging three wars (four, if you count the economic war on Canada; more if you take into account piracy and other incursions.) But, you see, it’s incredibly expensive to stop Iran from having the nuclear program it didn’t have that Trump repeatedly asserts he’s already destroyed.
The president says the country is rich, rich, rich! But somehow, the US is the only industrialized nation that cannot guarantee healthcare for its citizens. Cancer and heart disease are Americans’ highest threats, but the budget is for bombs.
“But socialism and communism!” If those words make you think of totalitarianism and long bread lines instead of, say, Nordic countries with peaceful mixed economies where tax dollars are used to care for citizens, let’s save some time. Shut the fuck up.
How will it all end?
In 2018, I published a collection of short stories about several ways the world might go poof. Killer meteors, nukes, and pandemics, oh my! In those stories, I did not depict scenarios where big problems get solved. Instead, I focused on individuals facing the end. When you’re in a military bunker in Colorado and the pressure wave from a big meteor strike is rushing your way, how do you react? Or suppose the end of the world is lasting longer than that. How do you get along with your fellow would-be survivors in tight spaces underground? When do the murders begin?
Our three futures
Imagining the future in the abstract is interesting and fun. The timeline could have many branches, but let’s break it down to three basics:
1. Dystopian AKA The Star Wars Future. You can tell because many of the spaceships aren’t in great condition. Having Wars in the title is another hint.
2. Utopian AKA The Star Trek Future. There are still wars, but the main mission is exploration and expanding knowledge. Also note that the spaceships are super spiffy!
3. Apocalyptic. We follow the path that has been trod before: Extinction.
But how do we get to better days ahead?
We address the root of all our problems. What’s that? Our addiction to the circus. It’s not looking great on several fronts at the moment, but politics could be how problems get solved. Comedian Jimmy Carr once said that debate solves nothing. His answer is not debate, but deliberation.
That shift from Me to We flips the spirit of the work entirely. Actual good work might get accomplished if we don’t go at it as if we’re stepping into the ring. Of course, that’s not the current zeitgeist at all.
We suffer an infection of contrarians and sophists.
Sometimes I wonder if there is anything some people won’t say. RFK Jr. is still spouting conspiracy theories about chemtrails.
JD Vance muses about UAPs being demons, and paraphrasing, “I try to do God’s work, but if it leads to the End of Days, well, okay.”
Donald Trump insists prices are coming down, the war is won (more than 100 times), and everybody loves him, and everybody knows it. Ignore the polls, your lying eyeds, and anyone who criticizes him is a threat to national security and his massive insecurity.
Don’tcha miss when politics was boring? Instead, people who care less about other people treat politics, not as a way out, but as bloodsport. People who think they’re good and righteous practice casual cruelty and blatant racism. Children are suffering, but “well, okay.”
The root of all our problems is found in a Peanuts cartoon.
Lucy’s doing her underpaid and unlicensed psychologist bit on Charlie Brown.
“Do you know what your problem is?” she shouts.
“Your problem is you don’t want to hear what your problem is!”
And there it is: The first step out of addiction is admitting we have a problem.
We can’t begin to solve any problems if we can’t even agree on what the problems are. To veer away from disaster, we must acknowledge our addiction to the circus. Aggression gets clicks. Name-calling has replaced elucidation, deliberation, and problem-solving. To combat decay, regression, and extinction, we need sober and boring.
Or we could listen to the Ringmaster shrieking, “Eyes on the center ring! The world’s circus features monkeys with machine guns!”
Sure, there are great people pursuing solutions and working on the cure for terrible diseases. I just wish they weren’t so outnumbered. This is why I still don’t have faith. Reality as it now stands sucks, but at least there’s still fiction that knows it’s fiction.
Speaking of which:
I just released two new psychological thrillers. Where the Night Takes Us and When the Night Finds Us.
5 out of 5 stars
An excellent serial killer/psychological thriller
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2026
(reviewed on Amazon by Teresa Collins)
Where the Night Takes Us is an excellent serial killer/psychological thriller that lingers for days after you turn the last page. It will take up bandwidth in your brain and just make itself at home. The characters are so intriguing and realistic that they feel like real people. The story is engrossing, and I found myself reading much longer than I should have, but I couldn’t put it down.
Mr. Chute’s writing flows so smoothly and is so easy to read that I got completely lost in the story. I also found myself wiping away tears and, then, a few pages later, laughing out loud at Simon’s dry, sarcastic humor. This is the first of Mr. Chute’s work that I have read, but it won’t be the last. I can’t wait to read the next in this series. I highly recommend it to fans of serial killers and psychological thrillers. I received a review copy from the author via BookSirens, and this review reflects my honest and voluntary opinion.
~ I’m Robert Chazz Chute, the suspense novelist who writes apocalyptic epics with heart and crime thrillers with muscle. Please allow me to put visions in your brain box.
