Alas, Babylon

by Pat Frank

Nations are like people. When they grow old and rich and fat they get conservative. They exhaust their energy trying to keep things the way they are—and that’s against nature.

“Small nations, when treated as equals, become the firmest of allies.”

The struggle, for those who survived The Day, was to survive the next.

“I love you. I worry about you. I wonder whether I tell you enough how I love you and want you and need you and how I am diminished and afraid when you are not with me and how I am multiplied when you are here.”