I hope that you will read it and pass it along.
Good luck. I enjoy your work.
How can you download to Kindle?
On the off chance that no one has pinged Alas Babylon! to this thread...
Ping for later read. I love Matthew Bracken fiction.
Hopefully it will stay fiction and not become reality in the near future. But I wouldn’t bet on Bracken’s stories not becoming true.
That was incredible. I can always count on you to tell it like it is in a mesmerizing fashion. Thank you for the story. Thank you for the truth. MWM
Interesting. Although I saw mention of AM radio, I think it would have been neat to have an amateur radio character in the story with a shortwave radio and police scanner. Being a ham myself, when something happens, first thing I reach for is my police scanner and/or shortwave radio. I noticed your main character has a problem with keeping his batteries charged, one idea is if he is technically inclined and/or knows someone who is, you can make a basic crystal radio for AM reception. If you have a long enough antenna you can pick up far away signals at night. I talked to someone in the UK that made one and at night he can pick up Israel, Syria and Egypt. BTW, crystal radios can be made to receive longwave (good if you live in Europe and some parts of Asia) and even shortwave. A side note, I’d be scanning everything I can think of from the public safety radio bands to VHF/UHF air to even government bands. Some is encrypted for the latter but you’d be surprised how much is in the clear too.
Another good read. Thanks.
Within the following statement you make a chilling observation about the transistion in the general character of law enforcement.
Even more so because we can see it taking place in real time before our eyes:
"Big-government socialists, including most law enforcement, battled the libertarians and conservatives."
Back two generations or so most people would never have believed that law enforcement and other "first responnders" would be unionized, let alone engage in extortion via union strike tactics to the detriment of their job responsibilities.
But now it is no surprise to see law enforcement follow the same pattern that corrupted other public service sectors, especially within the nations schools.
And now the conversion of the military to an agency for socialism is well underway.
God help us all.
Come to think of it, it is like a story of a modern version of the Tower of Babel. I thought that idea up with the NSA spying system where it depends on the use of computers, the internet, the phone system and the power grid. Kick out something in the latter and it will all fall down like the Tower of Babel. Interesting spot about the radio tower, the amateur radio operator in me would have loved to hook up a receiver to the antennae to see if I can pick up anything or if I had the equipment in working order, load up my transceiver to the antenna and try to make contact with Europe, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, The International Space Station, the next State over, anybody.
On the other hand, there are whole swaths of the globe where people are not reliant on the latest technology, and not part of the normal money economy. For them, good times is getting enough for your cash crop to afford a new chain saw; bad times you keep using the old chain saw. Good times you trade for a newer shotgun; bad times you fix the old one.
I was on a job in the jungle when the country was in an economic collapse (not infrequent in third world countries). The city folk had it tough; government employees hadn’t been paid in a while. The folks living out in the jungle lived like homesteaders always do. They didn’t notice one way or the other.
5.56mm
I'm a church going guy and I think if society where to break down to that point we would see the Second Coming of Christ.
I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again. I have this bookmarked and refer myself and others to it often.
When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence
Western Rifle Shooters Association ^ | September 4, 2012 | Matt Bracken
Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2012 7:37:03 AM by Travis McGee
I reviewed Matt’s first book and could tell his action thrillers with a conservative viewpoint were going to appeal to a lot of us on FR as well as horrify the gun=hating libs.
His username of Travis McGee is taken from a highly popular book series by John D. McDonald that celebrated an iconoclastic hero.
Good stuff!
Great job Matt, as always. I'll do my best to push it out.
Regards,
TS
My familiarity with the region you have based this story in caught my attention, and wouldn’t let it go. Still shaking off the goosebumps...will have my wife read this when she gets home.
Civilizations have fallen this hard before, naturally, including Babylon itself a couple of times. One of the reasons entire populations are put to the sword is that there isn't anything else to do with them. Assyria collapsed into its two principal cities which themselves fell and what was left was a bunch of Mesopotamian farmers looking over their shoulders for raiders and starving when the crops failed. Knossos never did bounce back.
But the tower of Babel was a nearly perfect metaphor for a society dedicated to a utopian aim that collapsed under its own weight when that aim proved to be illusory. Our own progressive aims are grander, taller, and their fall is likely to be even more catastrophic. You captured this nicely. Well done.
Many thanks, Travis. Outstanding, as usual. :^)
Thanks TM!
What I skimmed is excellent. Bump for a whole read tonight. Thanks for sharing this!