Sticks and Stones

By Terry Lindsey

There is an old English children's rhyme first published in 1830 simply stated as, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me." In the future, our society has evolved to the point where words are considered harmful. Therefore, words are eliminated from a thought-controlled society of the future. Welcome to the Machine! Can one couple change the course of history and lead all into a joyful ending? This book is written to challenge us all on the path we are heading. The fear is real, but are we going along under the assumption that words actually do hurt us, so let's get rid of this form of communication? Can we live in peace and harmony without the word? Really? To view Terry Lindsey's blog, please click HERE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644242186

Book preview

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Sticks and Stones

Terry Lindsey

Copyright © 2019 Terry Lindsey

All rights reserved

First Edition

Page Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc 2019

ISBN 978-1-64424-217-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64424-218-6 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Prologue

What caused World War I? History reveals it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungry in 1914 by a Serbian who was part of a terrorist group called the Black Hand. The war continued from July 1914 to November 11, 1918, with over seventeen million people killed. It would be too simple to blame one event like an assassination for the whole world war, but alliances are made and humans are generally committed to protecting each other from bullies. Austria-Hungry declared war on Serbia. Russia came to Serbia’s defense while Germany mobilized against Russia. France aligned with Russia, then Britain was pulled in to help Belgium, then Japan entered the arena. Later, Italy and the United States entered on the side of the allies with Britain. The top five causes of World War I were mutual defense alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and the assassination that became the spark. This war was called the war that would end all wars. That of course did not happen (Google 2018).

What caused World War II? It began in September 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following its invasion of Poland. It is all about money and pride, in my opinion. The treaty of Versailles laid firmly the blame for World War I on Germany and, according to the treaty, had to first accept blame then pay back 6,600 million pounds for damages, was forced to disarm most of their military might, and finally required to give back land. This did not make the German people happy and, in the 1920s, they were depressed and dissatisfied with their government. Guess who came into power promising to rip up the treaty? You guess it. Adolf Hitler. I encourage you to learn more as history does tend to repeat itself (www.historyonthenet.com).

How do I begin? Perhaps the best way to begin is to consider the end. Do I know when the end is coming? No! This book is my imagination of the approaching end. Enjoy the fictitious story of Mada, his family, and how they searched for the word that had been eliminated from our society over time and the so-called progress. I chose the year 2130 to put my story at least a generation into the future.

The characters in this book may be awkward to pronounce at first, but please adapt, and soon you will understand why the names are the way they are. A person’s name is most important. We may not think our name has meaning, but after a little research, you may be surprised at its meaning.

I have tried not to get hung up on theology and interpretation since this is my story and it is not intended to authenticate any biblical, historical events. However, you may begin to imagine where I am leading you in my story. You may even be one of those readers who love to read the ending of a book to determine whether a complete read is worth the effort. Please refrain from short-circuiting your imagination. This book is all about how we humans are in a clear and present danger today of short-circuiting our whole life. Stop! Absorb the beauty of communication with the spoken and written word and enjoy the process of discovery.

Chapter One

What Happened?

The year is 2130. We have survived two more world wars. Number III was a brutal war using various weapons of mass destruction. How did it start? A small seemingly insignificant country declared war on another small country that happened to have some nuclear arsenal. The nuclear capabilities of that country were not proven, but that did not stop them from retaliating with their full force, devastating the smaller non-nuclear country. The reaction by the larger countries was swift and the result was over half of the world’s population destroyed in a very short world war. One of the results of this war was a greater dependency on artificial intelligence or AI, which the world came to embrace. Even in the later part of the twentieth century, AI was being advertised as a transformative power at the heart of technical innovation. World War III became its proving ground. Smart phones became obsolete, replaced by smart chips that were embedded into our human brains. No longer were we dependent on the communication via words. We became an integral part of the Machine. Pink Floyd wrote a song labeled Welcome to the Machine released in 1975 in their album Wish You Were Here. That reminds me of how dependent we were becoming. But as our media influence proved much more of an influence than our history, we just kept on moving into a world without words. We simply used our brains to communicate with the machine to do our daily tasks. The survivors of World War III learned a valuable lesson. In a much simpler time, it was the perception that violence could be overcome by friendly words. However, the reality was that words can indeed hurt us. An old English children’s rhyme was created to persuade the child victim of name-calling to ignore the ridiculous antics of a bully. The rhyme was first published in 1830. Variations of the rhyme include Golden sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me. In