For so many years, people had tried to encourage him to play nicely with others; to form many meaningful relationships, contribute to society. This is society’s mantra: Connect and Contribute or be Outcaste. Something always held him back; a trigger in someone’s actions that gave the warning sign. Sometimes it was something significant like being double crossed, thrown under a bus, made an example of by a teacher for something insignificant, or going out to play with some friends who never intended to play with him, only to make sport of him. Other times it was something more subtle that gave him the warning sign that somebody was capable of one of these betrayals; he casual use of the wrong word at the wrong time, or expression of a preference for selfishness, or the opinion that humans are better than animals or trees. Very few people managed to stay off of his blacklist, or prove themselves otherwise worthy of forgiveness of such minor transgressions in other ways. No one is perfect after all, least of all him. But imperfection is a sliding scale.

Even society itself had proven to be an unworthy suitor for his approval. The benefits were clear… Support networks, healthcare, what else? Insurance, and other dull necessities? But the drawbacks were far greater in number. The insatiable greed, the sustained need for uncontrollable growth, the failure to recognise when enough is enough. War, death, money, property, CO2 in the atmosphere, people. There will never be enough of these things until they bring an end to the naturalworld. And even then, they will find a way to continue the destruction and consumption. Humanity’s only hope is that from the impending self-cull, there will be a small contingent of survivors strong enough and smart enough to cope with the new environment they have created without completely annihilating each other. Hopefully they will also be wise enough to not be so greedy next time.