Travis, this is T-Bone you’re talking to; of course I read that that short story!
But I see your point.
The only thing I have not read is Castigo Bay.
Really, the “Alas” story is about the end of my thinking on that matter. We could have a great cataclysm. I see a lot of global forces lining up like waves from all over an ocean set to meet in a very high supernode. Sort of like 1914, with so many national armies mobilized, it becomes a “use it or lose it” proposition. I expect a summer worse than 1968, sort of Ferguson X Baltimore constantly. Perhaps a random Sirhan Sirhan or Arthur Bremer. Very bad mojo is afoot and not only here, but Europe, the Middle East, you name it. Not only across geographical and demographic dimensions, but financial, with the bill at the end of the Keynesian “Long Run” finally coming due. Batten down the hatches. Needless to say, this general battening down will strangle a struggling market, due to nervous jitters about uncertain futures.