"William W Johnstone - Ashes 22 - Chaos in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

Because they're happy, stupid!

But the government of the former United States of America just couldn't
tolerate the contentment that was found in the Tri-States, and
eventually moved against the society, finally over-running the residents
of the Tri-States with sheer force of numbers. The main objective was to
kill Ben Raines.

But Ben Raines was as hard to kill as the Tri-States philosophy.

After the fall of the Tri-States, Ben rebuilt his army of Rebels and
moved against the government of the (once) United States; a government
that had begun to turn on its citizens again, becoming everything that
the old Tri-States was not; becoming exactly what it was before the
Great War that nearly destroyed the world.

Ben and his Rebels began claiming territory out of the ashes of defeat
and despair and destruction. First it was a small area called Base Camp
One. Then it grew, until finally thirteen states adopted the philosophy
of the old Tri-States.

The central government of what used to be known as the United States of
America finally capitulated and held out the hand of peace to Ben and
his Rebels.

Ben accepted the hand of friendship and cooperation and the two nations
within a nation began working together ... as much as liberal and
conservative can ever work together.

But for years before the Great War, many people in America had been
conditioned to expect the govern-

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ment to do nearly everything for them, including thinking.

All this freedom scared them.

What the hell do you mean, we control our own destinies'? What the hell
do you mean, tellin' me I have to work at a job I don't like? What is
this common sense crap? I got a right, man. What do you mean, turn down
my radio? I'll play my radio as loud as I want to. Screw you.

On the other side of the coin, there were those blue-lipped,
narrow-minded types who simply could not tolerate any type of open
society. If they didn't like it, you couldn't have it. Didn't matter if
they lived in New York and you lived in Montana, they knew best. Period.