Novel Worried about people not liking the controversial side to my novels

There is a period of the learning curve and some abuses.

My dad was an engineer. One of their bigggest contracts was making security hardware for the Navy.

He used to say that when mankind found a new technology, the first thing they did with it was make a weapon or a toy.

Years later I found an article about the scientists who were making nuclear weapons. They had this game of "chicken" were they used to try to push little amounts of radioactive material together to see who could get theirs the closest without creating an "reaction." I think we refer to this reaction as a "nuclear pile," and it's never a good thing when not controlled.

But it did meet my dad's criteria. It was a weapon and a toy all at the same time.

Last night I was bored, so I took a random knife and polished the dickens out of it. Using methods that are 800 years old, I recreated actions that conquered vast stretches of Japan and killed untold thousands.

Everything old is new again. We'll never learn.

 

I think there is a lot of truth here.

 

I am an engineer, and your dad was right. For most people, the internet is a toy. But it's also a weapon against tyranny, as I said.

I seriously doubt, though, that the knife you polished last night using 800-year-old methods would conquer vast stretches of Japan today. We have machine guns and nerve gas and flame throwers now. Everything old is pretty damned old.

Maybe we'll never learn, but we have to or face oblivion.

 

When you publish makes sure not to put "White Supremacy Enthusiast" in your author's bio

 

Thank you for the response.

My position was that just because something is old doesn't mean that it is bad. For example, some elite branches of our current armed forces and domestic SWAT teams use an automatic pistol invented in 1905. As for my knife, it is just as lethal now as any katana.

But the overall idea is that when better steel alloys, modern metal heat treatment, better firearms, etc., became commonplace we didn't first build better hunting rifles. All of the common ammunition calibers (.45 Colt, .45 ACP, .45 Schofield, 45-70-500, 9x19, 30-06, 5.56 NATO [.223], 7.62x39, 7.62x51 [.308]) all served in the military first and foremost. And while no longer cutting edge, they all still exist on sporting goods store shelves.

For me it's not the metal, but the mindset of the people who use the tools.

 

hmm....i may not entirely ban religion, but i could make it forbidden for people to speak about it unless in a religious building

 

Frankly, that would be a great plot twist. You know, everybody wants something forbidden. The draconian state might be faced with a cavalcade of secret baptizings.

And before you laugh at that premise for your story, just remember that over the last two months President Obama has sold more firearms that Smith & Wesson.

I don't know what there is about the human mind, but anything in denied is then desired. For example, diamonds are not rare, you can buy drill bits covered in them. They are tightly controlled to drive up the price.

Caviar is just sturgeon eggs still stuffed in utero. In fact, one manufacturer found a way to dye droplets of congealed oil the correct degree of black and then heavily salted them. Connoisseurs could not tell the difference.

Make something illegal and the useage will grow exponentially.

 

In fact propaganda is very easy to achieve today, even easier than in Hitler's time because experience of both the propagandists as well as the audience to lap it up without questioning, has increased. I see it often, a well practiced dance between the media and public opinion, so much so that propaganda campaigns ("PR campaigns" would be the orvellianism) change the response of the people within days or even hours. Propaganda techniques are very sophisticated and yet simple. They rely on one fact - A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. I've seen it done in the news again and again. All it takes is someone with money paying a PR firm to think up a way to achieve a certain outcome for their client. Repeating the lies and putting spin on things systematically, and flooding the media with it, and sometimes even getting politicians behind such campaigns. No matter how obvious they are in the beginning, three months down the line, people will go "hang on, maybe they were telling the truth all along!". It's an easy ride from there.

Despite internet giving information free for all, and everyone with access to it can educate themselves properly on any subject, most people don't want to be educated, they want to know what to think about all these things they normally know nothing about. This is why most people get their information from the TV and the newspapers. Perhaps with time, as these more archaic media modalities lose influence, what you say will be true. I am looking forward to that time.

 

There's an old saying, "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king."

I have a four year degree, but from the 1960s. I can repair things, customize things, cast my own bullets. In the event of an uprising, or just the power going off, I won't have to panic a bit.

My wife and I have found that we have digested more knowledge, and that includes the depth beyond just facts, in our bachelor degrees than most get from advanced degrees now.

And Jazzabel, the reason for that is just what you pointed out. If folks cannot download something instantly, find an 'app' for it, copy and paste it, or master the skills required in a weekend, then they walk away from it.

I'm convinced that the terrible storms and the panic they created stemmed from people simply not being educated. In 1960 and 1961 we have horrid snow and ice storms. Sections of the Milwaukee were without power. In fact, the suburban area where my dad built our home was cut-off from everything and everybody. We couldn't get out for food, news or to check on anyone.

But no one panicked. It was thrilling, like a grand adventure. And this is when there was no FEMA, no medflight helicopters or even 9-1-1.

Knowing what to think? You nailed it. Shut off the lights and power, and you cannot google survivability. You're stuck with what you know--which is little--and virtually no skills.