"Not with a bang but a whimper"

Several years ago - I think it was during the seventh grade, but I'm not completely sure - I read a fascinating book called Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.  The book was written in 1959 and tells the story of how a group of survivors from the fictional town of Fort Repose, Florida lived in the aftermath of a nuclear war.  The title of the book comes from a biblical verse in the Book of Revelation, "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."  I remember being absolutely mesmerized (and frightened) by the book, even though it took place in a much earlier time in history.

I was just as mesmerized while recently reading a novel with similar themes called On the Beach by Nevil Shute.    Shute's book was published a little earlier than Alas, Babylon and has been made into a movie of the same name twice.  The first version was released in 1959 and starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire, while the second was a made-for-television movie in 2000 that starred Armand Assante, Rachel Ward, and Bryan Brown.  The title comes from a line in T.S. Eliot's poem, The Hollow Men:

In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And avoid speech

Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.

The last line of Eliot's poem appears on the title page below the author's name:

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

The story takes place in Melbourne, Australia following a nuclear war that was largely restricted to the Northern Hemisphere.  Unfortunately, the atmosphere is polluted with nuclear fallout, and the radiation has slowly drifted south with the prevailing winds.  The end of the world is near, and the main characters are dealing with this in their own way.  *SPOILER ALERT* Interestingly, at one point the characters actually visit a few cities in the Northern Hemisphere and find a number of areas surprisingly intact, but no one is there.  It's almost as if so-called neutron bombs were used in the war.

The story was captivating for sure, but what I really found interesting was the contrast of how different characters responded to their coming demise.  Most avoided expressing strong emotions, which would be more than appropriate, given the circumstances.  And most did not indulge in self-pity.  I found that most characters accepted their fate and tried to live out their lives as best they could.

While we may never have to confront the end of times like the characters in On the Beach had to do, there is no question that we as leaders will have to confront a crisis at some point in time.  Indeed, most of us have already experienced leadership in a time of crisis during the last two plus years with the COVID-19 pandemic.  I think what I liked about this book, and what I have witnessed the past two years, is that crisis often bring out the best in all of us.  

I'm going to add this book to my growing number of post-apocalyptical and dystopian novels that I've read during the pandemic.  While the story is entirely fictional (of course, and most importantly, thankfully), like many works of fiction, there's still a lot that stories can teach us about human nature and, for that matter, leadership.  Check the book out!