Posted on 02/04/2012 9:10:25 AM PST by Travis McGee
Over the last two weeks I've totally overhauled and revamped my website, especially the home page and author page.
The last step was adding this bit, which I hope you will find worthwhile reading.
What the books are about, and why I wrote them:
I began writing Enemies Foreign And Domestic in 2000, after too many years of watching our constitutional republic morphing into a police state. These novels, based upon nearly a half century of carefully studying historical patterns, are my attempt to shine a light forward in time. My goal is to warn my compatriots that we are inescapably losing our freedom, one step at a time.
The Muslim terror attacks on 9-11 kicked the process into high gear. But instead of new laws targeting our actual enemies--radical Islamists bent on the global spread of their Sharia Law nightmare--the new police powers were aimed equally at all Americans. Projecting forward, the inevitable outcome will be to turn the United States into a dictatorship--the USSA, if you will.
The federal government, under the rubric of fighting a generalized terror threat, has for many years been providing local police departments with high-grade military weapons, equipment and training. The quid-pro-quo for this federal largesse is unquestioning local cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies, turning thousands of local police SWAT teams into force multipliers for burgeoning federal police power. In the name of fighting a murky and undefined "war on terror," we have allowed the creation of a militarized national police force, something which our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against and tried their best to prevent.
During the same period, our debt-based economy has nearly reached the bitter end of the road. It is only a matter of time until America experiences an economic crisis on the level of what is currently taking place in Greece, or even far worse. If and when federal entitlements, food stamp payments, housing allotments and all the rest are curtailed, I believe our major urban areas will explode in riots beyond anything America experienced in the 1960s. This will cause a breakdown in the national distribution of food, fuel and other commodities necessary to sustain life. At that point, some form of martial law will be put into effect, and our newly-militarized national police forces, along with active-duty military units, will be called upon to "restore order." In so doing, the last nails will be hammered into the coffin containing our legacy of American freedom.
Obviously, I don't desire to see this happen, but if such an outcome is preordained, I want at least to provide a beacon into the future. My goal is to provide my readers with some alternatives that will be less horrible than the worst-case scenarios, which otherwise shall be arrived at by chance and happenstance.
This is why I prefer to write what I call semi-dystopian novels, set in the near future. The post-apocalyptic genre has been beaten to death, and life in the rubble at a bare survival level provides few practical lessons. To me, the slide is more instructive than the post-collapse period. The often-repeated historical process of economic collapse and the loss of freedom is what interests me the most, and that is why I am driven to write these novels. I hope that you enjoy them, and that you gain some insights which might prove of value during the tumultuous years ahead.
Conveniently circumventing that icky Posse Commitatus.
Exactly. So convenient how the “war on terror” becomes “the war on American freedom.”
Good stuff, Matt (as usual) :^)
Your books are certainly prescient Travis. May I add that they are suspenseful, and an excellent read.
PS: If anybody spots any typos or formatting glitches in my website, please let me know so I can correct them.
Travis, I appreciate the effort and dedication you have put into warning us about the possible, maybe even probable future of this once proud nation.
I just wish you wouldn’t use big words like semi-dystopia or whatever that was.
Fortunately the books are not only informative, they are good reading.
Sometimes when I am lying in bed trying to imagine what the future is for my Grandchildren, it really gets depressing. Maybe it still is not too late but it is looking more like it every day, especially as long as Obama and his minions are around.
Actually Obama might be one of the minions but if he is I have no idea who the guy in charge is right now.
Ever since reading about the French Revolution, it has become clear to me that these groups are far, far more organized than one would ever guess.
The website looks great! As you know, I have all 3 of your books, great read, have read all of them more than once. I don’t have Castigo Bay yet, need to get that one.
Have you been working on one that proposes what a country should do when the Commander in Chief is also Domestic Enemy number one?
I ordered Foreign Enemies and Traitors through interlibrary loan but the print was way too small for me to read, and I do not own a Kindle. If it ever comes out in large print, it will be the size of an unabridged dictionary. I guess that leaves me out. Maybe when there’s a Cliff Notes version. . .
Four excellent books to read and learn. I’ve often said ‘Domestic Enemies’ sends a chill down my back every time I think about it. It sets a perfectly plausible scenario, much of it already now having been played out since the books publishing, whereby illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico as they are, take over the legitimate roles of law enforcement, the courts, and other government functions in a pro-Hispanic, anti-EveryoneElse fashion. It already has been happening such as with hiring of foreigners on our police forces, the sitting of Sonia Sotomayor (a notoriously racist that is pro-Hispanic and anti-White and anti-Black), and through favorable laws to Hispanics that others cannot enjoy.
I think that location will be key. Some places will become unliveable, but others might succeed in “going Amish,” or finding other solutions. But anybody living in or near a major urban area should seriously consider relocating ASAP.
PS: If we have a “French Revolution” in our future, it will be extremely grim. They carried their mobile guillotines into every tiny village, nobody and nowhere was safe. It would be preferable to fight back violently, even if it meant CW2, rather than suffer another French (or Russian) Revolution.
That is the very plot of Foreign Enemies And Traitors.
I thought that's what "Foreign Enemies and Traitors" was about.
Oh, you have got to get a Kindle! The most basic versions cost under $100, and then you will be able to download thousands of free out-of-copyright titles. And you can make the print as large as you like. Kindles are terrific: once charged, they run for weeks without needing a recharge.
The first 115 pages of Castigo Cay are on the website, if you want to get a head start, or see if it appeals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.