It feels like Philip K. Dick's style, but I can't find it in his bibliography.
It's set in a near-future where America is a shadow of its former self, and India (I think) is the premier power.
The protagonist (I'll call him John) lives in a city (NYC I think). As he walks the streets, he sees masses of ill-dressed, downcast Americans standing in line at shabby food stands, and small groups of well-dressed Indian businessmen walking into high-end restaurants. Any products made in America are shoddy--cars lurch and smoke, subway/trolley cars squeal and clash over rails, etc. John's internal monologue comments that "the only thing America makes that the world still wants is blondes," and there are several hints that the only hope an American girl has of a good future is to marry a foreigner and emigrate.
John is a student/thinker on sociological and political history. His research/work started out as a regular job, but he starts uncovering banned/lost information about the America that was and starts asking himself "what happened?" He half-jokes that "it's like America just...ran down, like a watch that hasn't been wound." He discloses his initial findings to his boss, who helps him locate more info.
John starts to suspect he's being watched, but can't figure out by-whom. Simultaneously, his research using these lost info sources show instances of "tipping points" in America's history where decisions were made that were either ineffective, or blatantly counter-productive, in ways that should have been obvious. He decides that, at some point, America stopped being master of her own fate, and somebody started making decisions to guarantee her economic power would fade and her people would accept second-class status.
John's boss falls ill and is taken to a hospital. John goes to see him, and the doctor tells him "we have no idea what's wrong with him. His body is just...shutting down." John speaks to his boss briefly, and decides that something sinister is going on. The boss dies, and John flees the hospital out of fear that the same fate will befall him.
John discovers that what he suspected is real...and goes far, far beyond America. There is a group of people (they may have been aliens) who, throughout human history, deliberately first raise, then collapse, civilizations, in order to improve humanity, and unite them together. They're looking for a society that is "worthy" of the power that humanity COULD have.
(at this point, my memory is really, really hazy, and I can't remember the conclusion. It's either
John destroys the conspiracy and creates a world where humans are, for the first time in eons, fully in control.
OR, John realizes that what they are doing is right, and he must choose between exposing them in order to let humanity be its own master, or letting them continue their work despite the knowledge that, until they succeed, humanity is locked into a cycle of rise/fall.
DjB
It's set in a near-future where America is a shadow of its former self, and India (I think) is the premier power.
The protagonist (I'll call him John) lives in a city (NYC I think). As he walks the streets, he sees masses of ill-dressed, downcast Americans standing in line at shabby food stands, and small groups of well-dressed Indian businessmen walking into high-end restaurants. Any products made in America are shoddy--cars lurch and smoke, subway/trolley cars squeal and clash over rails, etc. John's internal monologue comments that "the only thing America makes that the world still wants is blondes," and there are several hints that the only hope an American girl has of a good future is to marry a foreigner and emigrate.
John is a student/thinker on sociological and political history. His research/work started out as a regular job, but he starts uncovering banned/lost information about the America that was and starts asking himself "what happened?" He half-jokes that "it's like America just...ran down, like a watch that hasn't been wound." He discloses his initial findings to his boss, who helps him locate more info.
John starts to suspect he's being watched, but can't figure out by-whom. Simultaneously, his research using these lost info sources show instances of "tipping points" in America's history where decisions were made that were either ineffective, or blatantly counter-productive, in ways that should have been obvious. He decides that, at some point, America stopped being master of her own fate, and somebody started making decisions to guarantee her economic power would fade and her people would accept second-class status.
John's boss falls ill and is taken to a hospital. John goes to see him, and the doctor tells him "we have no idea what's wrong with him. His body is just...shutting down." John speaks to his boss briefly, and decides that something sinister is going on. The boss dies, and John flees the hospital out of fear that the same fate will befall him.
John discovers that what he suspected is real...and goes far, far beyond America. There is a group of people (they may have been aliens) who, throughout human history, deliberately first raise, then collapse, civilizations, in order to improve humanity, and unite them together. They're looking for a society that is "worthy" of the power that humanity COULD have.
(at this point, my memory is really, really hazy, and I can't remember the conclusion. It's either
John destroys the conspiracy and creates a world where humans are, for the first time in eons, fully in control.
OR, John realizes that what they are doing is right, and he must choose between exposing them in order to let humanity be its own master, or letting them continue their work despite the knowledge that, until they succeed, humanity is locked into a cycle of rise/fall.
DjB
