Fallout.

The following isn't my writing, but taken from a story written in 1997. It's the standard setup for any story taking place in a post-nuclear-holocaust frame, but it resonates a bit more. When reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road I was left without any back story, the author forcing me to focus only on the present. My brain filled in the details with this backdrop.

War.

War never changes.

The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.

But war never changes.....

In the 21st Century war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium.

For these resources China would invade Alaska. The U.S. would annex Canada. And the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering, nation states bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

The end of the world occurred pretty much as we had predicted: too many humans, not enough space or resources to go around. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones.

In 2077, the earth was nearly wiped clean of human life; A great cleansing, an atomic spark struck by human hands, quickly raged out of control.

Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies. Continents were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth.

A quiet darkness fell across the planet, lasting many years...

The author recognizes both the Marxist concept of the economic nature of warfare throughout history and the Maoist idea where militarism and capitalism are leading humanity.  Does this portend our future or is it just an awesome narrative?