This Perfect Day

Agreed; this is a great book. I read it years ago, and it still sticks with me (I read probably 100-200 books/year, so I'm saying that it was one of the more memorable out of the last several thousand).

I read this in high school and a few times since. It should be required reading, and it's a shame it's not in print any longer. (last I checked)

At first blush it's a standard communism vs. capitalism / freedom vs. security hero story.

What I'll never forget about reading it in high school is that after we were finished reading it, the professor tried to get us to consider the story from the "evil" perspective, and that the society really was much better off with a lack of freedom. "Read it again, it does NOT end happily..." my professor said.

And it's true. If you haven't read it and considered that the author perhaps sided with Wei and the programmers, give it another read.

" At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide"

- Abraham Lincoln