Book review: Condition Black

There's quite a selection of books I've enjoyed over the years, but few I can relate to on a personal level, being autistic. This time, I can relate. When a man's wife gets back from Africa with a new and deadly disease, only he can figure out how to help her, but he will have obstacles in his way besides environmental elements that have plagued him all his life. Sections deal with tough questions of if authority overreaches, how biomechanics works, toying with near future technology, and throws you in to a story with impossible stakes with enough people that you want to root for, but know it will be impossible to root for all of them to win. It was both incredibly clever to see how it worked and heartbreaking at the same time. Not often a story pulls this many layers together effectively, but this one does.

Rating: 4.75/5

The Breaking Down

I first noticed it in 2011. It was through a video game trailer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It started as usual. Gunfights in closed spaces, barked orders, then a shocking visual. Manhattan in flames as a warzone. Then the lead went into the frontline. I realized video games were about to toy with a concept that Americans hated the idea of but may eventually have to face since it does happen every few years or couple decades: what if America were attacked? Again? But worse, ravaged? That was in the beginning of the decade. Before the decade was done, there would be pockets of riots and anarchy coast to coast, broadcast live. Inept journalism would even call them "mostly peaceful" despite raging fires behind them.

Asymmetrical warfare committed by people born on the soil.

Now, in 2021, things are ramping up. A couple years ago, I was tired of almost daily hearing about mass shootings and hate crimes against religious gatherings the world over. Now, this year alone has seen the Capitol be stormed, car crashes in NY into businesses, and more mass shootings.

It were as though the joke about 2020 being written by Stephen King extended into the next year as well.

After 9/11, there was the common saying "If you see something, say something," until it became too inconvenient for everyone's personal safety and well-being, but also using the surface reasoning of "get out of business," even when there was more than enough reason to warrant caution. Nowadays, people are starting to use Twitter as the ultimate think tank and prefer Tik Tok over textbooks to learn how things work. In other words, the social collective IQ has dropped drastically and it shows, every single day, how far we've regressed. I'm used to hearing "We're advanced, just look at our technology!" The tech has advanced while we're at a standstill and stumbling backwards. This past January, I accidentally broke my glasses and had to get a replacement. I knew I couldn't afford a full eye exam and new lenses, just frames, but decided to look into investing smart glasses. I knew they were around, but didn't know much about the industry. Shockingly, West Virginia doesn't have much of a presence of smart glasses technology, despite being a couple states from New York, where the biggest manufacturer in America, Vuzix, is. That being said, I keep hearing people in my area tell me they've never heard of smart glasses. Not surprising. All this to say our tech has advanced beyond what some are aware of at all. Our humanity should be as or more advanced than our tech, but we've been showing ourselves how deep our depravity truly is. This is something we tend to turn away from, telling ourselves that it cannot be true, we refuse to accept it. Literally anything to say "I'm good enough as I am, no flaws," even as this year is showing how addicted to our depravity we are. Mass shootings, sudden public beatings, violent riots, shocking anti-(insert anything) outbursts. The sheer amount of displays of anti-decency and lack of common sense in the last few months have shown another drop of a couple points in the collective IQ. Yeah, not good.

This year, we're showing ourselves the exact reasons why we're in desperate need of salvation, ironic of anyone who claims they either don't need or don't want God's help in life. Far more ironic is God's reckless love to say "I know you don't care, I'm reaching out anyway."