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Her childhood experiences taught her one thing above all: that the world was not filled with danger. Danger was there sometimes, but it wasn’t the norm.
to understand a people, you need to wade into their culture. It’s culture that tells their tale. And music is culture.”
“Which is why human society mostly works; people avoid trouble. But behind every law is the implicit threat of force, and behind every vote is the implicit threat of rebellion. That’s the bargain that holds a free society together. And no society with a wide power imbalance remains free for very long.” He motioned for them to keep moving, and in a moment they were bounding down a rocky slope. McKinney was still troubled by his premise. “I’m not convinced that violence is the glue that binds us, Sergeant.” “I didn’t say violence—I said the implicit threat of force. Think about it: Democracy
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Talking point.
awoke to a dramatic scene in the night sky. Pentagon officials have refused to provide details of the operation, but the shoot-down of an enemy drone marks the first successful interception of what—instead of terror bombings—now appears to have been a wave of drone attacks on America’s heartland. Attacks that have so far claimed one hundred and four lives and cost tens of millions of dollars in property damage. Attacks that likewise shed new light on the drone missile attack in Karbala, Iraq.”
Pair this with the comment earlier in the book that people still believe the media is lying to them.
“Actually, Pentagon officials stress that there’s always a human in the loop to make what they call the ‘kill decision’—whether
Book title.
“Molding public perceptions is what they’re doing. Creating a new reality. This is the real campaign. The actual bombings were just prep.”
It felt odd playing the role of park ranger. She had never worn a uniform in her life, and she now realized how they caused you to adopt a persona. You could almost “feel” the role you were supposed to play. She imagined that was something authority had always known.
Odin nodded. “He’s a legend down here. El Ratón—the Mouse. The cartels respect him. They found out the hard way that he’s an expert at insurgent warfare. He trained the locals to defend their land. To push the cartels out. Before that they were finding a dozen bodies in the street every morning. That’s over now.”
They could be coded to identify whatever they’re hunting by chemical signature—moving toward greater concentrations of the target scent and away from decreasing concentrations. That relatively simple algorithm is how my model works, and it manifests itself as complex hunting behavior when scaled up to a swarm of stigmergic agents.”
That’s the appeal of these machines. They seem like something that would save American lives, but once built, they can be quietly controlled by a small number of unaccountable people. No coffins coming home from their secret wars.”
“Because that man is a brother to me. I love him like my own flesh and blood. David projects an image of invulnerability—like nothing can hurt him—but we both know that’s not true.”
The aroma of a whole pig roasting over a fire pit came to her, along with that of vegetables and fruit being grilled. Tequila and beer flowed, along with wine. There were smiling faces and laughter all around her. She remembered this from war-torn areas of the world. No one treasured happy moments more than those going through dark times. Mouse was right about that. Community was what sustained people.
The hallway opened up to a modest cubicle farm with tinny Christian rock music playing on PC speakers somewhere. “. . . my savior! Savior! Say-vii-ooorrr!”
Uh-huh.
We rescued Azeem from a criminal gang. He’d lost a lot of his idealism. He stuck around to rescue other idealists from their clutches and send them back home. That wasn’t popular with my high command, but it opened up channels of communication.”
She could see just how hard these men worked, and she did not doubt that they supported families in distant villages. Life was a struggle.
The right setup and the struggle lessens.
