The first techno-thriller

The first techno-thriller was not penned by Tom Clancy, but by Craig Thomas. It was called Firefox and it’s a great read. It’s not cheesy or poorly written like many of the genre and actually presents a plausible aircraft of then-Soviet design: The Mig-31. NATO Codename: Firefox.

The book spawed a movie, starring Clint Eastwood and is pretty good in itself. The novel is now out of print, having been written in 1979, so you’ll have to grab it on Amazon.com.

Reading List: The Suicide of the West

While I have the time, I guess I can continue on with a preferred reading list.

This book, The Suicide of the West, did not so much change my view of what’s happening here in America, and to a larger degree to withering Europe, but it certainly did define the reasons as to why it’s happening, why cynicism, self-hate and loss of public virtue and values will in the end result in the West becoming decidedly Un-Western.

Authored by Chris Smith–former culture minister to Tony Blair– and Richard Koch–consultant and business man, the book is small, but excellently organized. Written clearly, and inspiringly, The Suicide of the West examines the building blocks of the West, hewn from perhaps our greatest age: The Enlightenment. They are: Christianity, Optimism, Science, Growth, Liberalism, and Individualism. The West can only fall from the inside. When the inside is hollow, when our identity and motivation disappear, then the barbarians can have at tearing down our gates and sacking the temples. We’ve seen the start of that too…

I think I’ll be reading this book for the rest of my life, actually. Once a year, to remind me that the depressing media and casual nihilists hanging out in the coffee shops, complaining about the evils of America are nothing but haters contributing to the decline of their own world.