The Headlong Rush of Modern Society

Joliko, our little red panda companion, had finally freed himself from several addictions that he had chained together, one to escape another.

Since then, he had regained what many individuals in modern society had lost: time.

Time for himself, to reflect, and to try to understand the world in which he lived, as well as the very nature of the dominant species on the planet, the Espers.

After thousands upon thousands of hours of reflection, he sometimes wore a bitter smile when those around him considered him strange, while from his point of view, those same people were simply being swept along, like everyone else, by the current of modern society.

A civilization that increasingly prevented individuals from thinking, in a headlong rush toward technologies that had become a cure-all in everyone’s eyes.

These technologies promised the earth while the civilization of the Espers itself was increasingly losing touch with the physical reality of the world in which they nevertheless lived.

Pointing out these flaws naturally sounded negative.

But to Joliko, it had become essential, in his eyes, to do so.

On the one hand, quite simply because the destruction of the nature that nourished all the Espers on the planet was an absurdity that should have been obvious to everyone, yet somehow went unnoticed.

On the other hand, he thought, perhaps a little too much at times, admittedly, about the future that awaited the next generations.

While the Espers now had the knowledge and means to change course and allow for a less painful future for their descendants, exposing this problem was a source of isolation in a society that believed itself to be magnificent.