
A Goodreads user
asked
Roderick Vincent:
In the end of the Cause, those who describe themselves as true patriots behead arguably innocent men, same as "extremists muslims" behead arguably innocent men today. As a writer, did you create that juxtaposition for the reader intentionally?Were the actions of the "patriots" incidental to the reasoning behind their actions or did you add those specific actions in intentionally?
Roderick Vincent
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Thanks for your question, Melly. It's a great one. The short answer is yes, I did create the juxtaposition intentionally. I purposefully wanted to challenge the reader with the question of whether the Minutemen actions are terroristic or actions where "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." (Jefferson).
Extremist Muslims in most cases are killing people who are truly innocent. As individuals, their victims are only guilty of being affiliated with a country these extremists detest. Your use of "arguably innocent" is interesting. Seee actually spares one of the hostages. Why does he do this? The implication is that he has researched who has been complicit in the crony capitalism going on. As Bernie Madoff was prosecuted for running one of the biggest scams in the history of hedge funds, can we not ask the same question of the financial oligarchy who runs America, who manipulate markets and effect people's livelihoods? How are central banks any different than a massive hedge fund who enables dirty politics, bank bailouts, and too big to fail? A common misconception is that the Federal Reserve is part of the U.S. government, but that is another story, one worthy of pursuing for those who want to go farther.
So I hope the reader will question what is right and what is wrong, what is a terrorist/what is a revolutionary, what is patriot/what is traitor? When the vote no longer matters, are the Minutemen justified in their actions? My intention as an author was to start a debate and get people thinking about the root cause of the thinning middleclass and abortion of capitalism in the country while hopefully creating an entertaining read along the way. Thanks again for your question. Hopefully, I've answered it for you.
(hide spoiler)]
Extremist Muslims in most cases are killing people who are truly innocent. As individuals, their victims are only guilty of being affiliated with a country these extremists detest. Your use of "arguably innocent" is interesting. Seee actually spares one of the hostages. Why does he do this? The implication is that he has researched who has been complicit in the crony capitalism going on. As Bernie Madoff was prosecuted for running one of the biggest scams in the history of hedge funds, can we not ask the same question of the financial oligarchy who runs America, who manipulate markets and effect people's livelihoods? How are central banks any different than a massive hedge fund who enables dirty politics, bank bailouts, and too big to fail? A common misconception is that the Federal Reserve is part of the U.S. government, but that is another story, one worthy of pursuing for those who want to go farther.
So I hope the reader will question what is right and what is wrong, what is a terrorist/what is a revolutionary, what is patriot/what is traitor? When the vote no longer matters, are the Minutemen justified in their actions? My intention as an author was to start a debate and get people thinking about the root cause of the thinning middleclass and abortion of capitalism in the country while hopefully creating an entertaining read along the way. Thanks again for your question. Hopefully, I've answered it for you.
(hide spoiler)]
More Answered Questions

A Goodreads user
asked
Roderick Vincent:
I love your cover art for The Cause, it is very professional and right on target with the "heart" of the book. Yeah, that pun was intentional. Normally I am ambivalent about covers, but yours was particularly striking. Did you come up with the idea of the cover yourself, or was it the designer?

A Goodreads user
asked
Roderick Vincent:
Based on the research and thinking you did in preparation for writing 'The Cause', what do you consider the possibility of balkanization and breakup of the U.S. in our future, especially if there were the kind of economic collapse which you write about happening?
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