Even in the age of miracle drugs and ever-improving health-care programs, contamination and disease threaten on many fronts, from drug-resistant microbes to contaminated foods. Aside from being well-informed via health-care providers and wellness newsletters, we may also gain health knowledge through fact-based, well-told stories.
SITUATION 1: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria threatens to reach a pandemic level. An epidemiologist searches for a way to attack both the cause of the most recent proliferation and the flourishing black market of over-the-counter antibiotics that do not actually work but do give the public a false and dangerous sense of confidence.
SITUATION 2: So-called "mad cow" disease has become an epidemic. While the CDC struggles to isolate the source, the cattle industry is threatened. Many advocate the cattle industry’s demise (despite the blow to the economy) and promote lab-grown meat, but others insist the health threat can be eliminated.
SITUATION 3: A mutated virus mimics the common cold at first but eventually produces symptoms unlike any other known disease. Researchers scramble to “decode” the strain, but by the time they do, the virus mutates again.
SITUATION 4: When people contract this illness, the flu-like symptoms develop into heightened perceptions and vastly improve mental clarity and IQ, but doctors fear that the “positive” symptoms mask a sinister brain disease and they soon discover they are correct.
SITUATION 5: A newly discovered pathogen is brought to the United States for study, and despite the highest-level containment protocols, the pathogen gets into the hands of homegrown terrorists, who threaten to use it as a bioweapon to influence elections and maybe even begin a revolution.
SITUATION 6: An unknown organism has been detected in a town’s water supply, and tests on lab mice indicate it could cause serious illness in humans. But when efforts are made to eradicate the organism, it multiplies, as if sensing the threat.
SITUATION 7: Synthetic microbes escape quarantine and threaten animal and human life in surrounding areas. The microbes, created to better understand the dynamics of mutation, are dangerous because of their ability to mutate rapidly. After careful testing, biochemists fear that the microbes may cause incurable diseases.
SITUATION 8: After a rogue biologist illegally dumps genetically mutated fish into one of the Great Lakes, the mutated species spawns rapidly and starts devouring the native species in the lake, threatening a severe disruption of the food chain.
SITUATION 9: The CDC identifies a new and virulent pathogen. Those infected acquire (among other things) brain lesions that cause them to turn into zombies and go on mindless rampages.
SITUATION 10: Unbeknownst to the astronauts returning to Earth, an organism discovered on Mars passed through the spacecraft’s filtration system and threatens to proliferate. It appears that the only choice is to destroy the entire facility to prevent widespread contamination.
We live in dangerous times—a warning we hear repeatedly, even though violence in society, according to experts like Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature), has been in steady decline. Still, we are inundated by reports of shootings and assaults. Perhaps good stories that focus on the roots of aggression can accelerate the decline in violence.
SITUATION 1: A security guard and his family move into an apartment complex where rent is inexpensive and members of a group of thieves live. These thieves target residents of the complex repeatedly. After police fail to gather enough evidence for an arrest, the security guard works with the apartment manager to trap the thieves.
SITUATION 2: Street gangs proliferate in what has been a crime-free neighborhood. Even more ominously, the gangs appear to be targeting individuals of a particular ethnicity. A retired police officer living in the neighborhood sets out to rid the neighborhood of these gangs.
SITUATION 3: In this near-future scenario, most citizens carry firearms (and those who do not are considered unpatriotic). Firearm use has become a required course in middle school, and gun shows are major attractions. Legislators attempting to pass gun-control legislation are persecuted. One such legislator, however, refuses to be intimidated and has found a clever way to introduce his bill.
SITUATION 4: Disgusted with their young-adult neighbors’ deafeningly loud music, elderly residents in an apartment complex stage a counterassault with Gregorian chants. Not to be outdone, the youth’s friends threaten physical assault if the senior citizens do not relent. Some of the elderly residents, former combat veterans, do not take the threats lightly.
SITUATION 5: Having been bullied one time too many, a teenager decides to give the bully a taste of his own medicine, but her scheme backfires when he physically assaults her and threatens to assault her entire family.
SITUATION 6: An elderly janitor must walk through a dangerous part of town to get to and from his job. Repeatedly harassed, he decides to carry a butcher knife with him. One day he overreacts and stabs a panhandler who merely asked for a couple dollars. He runs, but doesn’t know what to do next.
SITUATION 7: A congresswoman excels at her job, but she cannot control her temper when an opponent speaks unkindly of her. She must find a way to manage her emotions under these circumstances—but one opponent knows her weakness and uses it against her whenever he can.
SITUATION 8: As missionaries try to convert those whom they provide with food and clothing, they are being threatened with assault by militant rebels. Although some of the needy are grateful for the missionaries’ efforts, a few of them actually side with the rebels—especially after the rebels empower the needy with weapons and promise them jobs if they join their cause.
SITUATION 9: Tour buses in New York City are taken over by terrorists who hold their passengers hostage, threatening to blow up the buses (with the passengers inside) unless the government meets their demands.
SITUATION 10: A grocer has been doing business in this neighborhood for thirty years, and the threat of assault from robbers does not intimidate him. Even after being robbed and beaten severely, he refuses to close his store—on the contrary, he purchases the adjoining store after the owner quits; he also takes self-defense lessons from a combat veteran.
Wild market speculation, unethical investment practices, deregulation—the list of potential causes of economic crises is long. Avarice is the principal culprit, and there seems to be plenty of loopholes that crafty investors can use to skirt around the law. Good stories that raise consciousness about such practices spread public awareness.
SITUATION 1: Cyberterrorists have found insidious new ways of hacking into the accounts of financial institutions and threatening complete destruction of data unless their demands are met. Ironically, the FBI hires a convicted felon to isolate the terrorists.
SITUATION 2: A nation stages a false inflation in the hopes of destabilizing the currency of its enemies. An economist, savvy to such manipulation, tries to convince authorities that it’s just a scam—still, the scam is working.
SITUATION 3: Some group is attempting to devalue the dollar, and before preventive measures can be taken, the stock market crashes. Meanwhile investigators try to identify the group responsible and determine their motive.
SITUATION 4: When the new president takes office and radically downsizes the food-stamp program, an economic crisis is triggered—but the new administration blames the other party for the crisis. A reporter penetrates the inner circle to isolate the hard facts and report them.
SITUATION 5: A bank buys up homes in a region deemed a high risk for flooding (including the home of the protagonist, who is so poor he has no choice but to accept their meager offer), but after drainage systems are improved (financed in part by the bank), the bank resells the properties at much higher prices, outraging the original mortgage holders.
SITUATION 6: In the near future, widespread droughts wreak havoc on the economy as well as the food supply. Proposed emergency measures, however, are attacked as big-government operations attempt to muscle in on private enterprise.
SITUATION 7: Maverick gold speculators threaten a gold-market tailspin when they sell off their portfolios after the price of gold reaches the hoped-for peak. Now they plan to launch a similar scheme with other investments. In the meantime, a Securities and Exchange Commission officer is investigating.
SITUATION 8: Attacks on the overcommercialization of the holidays are threatening major losses in revenue during the November through December shopping period. One retailer decides she is going to collaborate with advertisers to counter the negative publicity.
SITUATION 9: An antitrust lawsuit and a hacked website threaten to bring down the biggest online retailer during the holiday season, thereby triggering an economic crisis. The company’s execs struggle to keep their ship afloat, but they must address the charges brought upon them.
SITUATION 10: Hyperinflation has rendered this country’s currency virtually worthless, and total economic collapse is imminent. The government recruits an expert to find some way to revalue their monetary system. She has an idea, but it is highly unconventional.
Everyone’s life is a book of secrets which in the wrong hands, can be used to extort money or other favors. Because blackmail and extortion form the basis of so many engaging stories, they are very popular with writers in all genres.
SITUATION 1: In this military state, whose top university operates an advanced-weaponry program, a secret group of university peaceniks has been sponsoring projects that defy the government’s hawkish agenda. But then the leader of the dissident group is captured and tortured.
SITUATION 2: Convinced that a successful actor’s promise to get her a film role is just a bribe for sexual favors, a struggling artist refuses to date him further. The actor’s intentions are honorable, but he cannot find a way to convince her of that. When he loses his starring role, it becomes even more difficult.
SITUATION 3: When the Mob demands a percentage of a small business’s profits, the owner refuses—and hires bodyguards in preparation for their attack. Problem: One of his bodyguards actually works for the Mob.
SITUATION 4: One of the school bullies threatens a shy classmate with beatings unless he pays five dollars a day. The classmate complies, but then the bully demands twice as much—the bully also says that if he tells anyone, he’ll really regret it. Forced to choose between stealing to pay the bully or facing a beating, the classmate devises a way to trap the bully.
SITUATION 5: A mayoral candidate blackmails a potential benefactor into supporting him, or else he will publicly disclose their affair, thereby threatening her marriage. She calls his bluff, however, when she discovers that her husband is in on the scheme.
SITUATION 6: An unemployed mechanic blackmails his former boss: He says, “Re-hire me or I will release documents proving your illegal activities to the authorities.” But the boss has some dirt on the mechanic as well.
SITUATION 7: When his ex-girlfriend spreads false rumors that he is gay, an anti-gay activist is threatened with violence by his fellow activists. He is offered a role on the opposing side of the argument helping a pro-gay rights group, but is uncomfortable with either position now and is conflicted over whether to get even with his ex-girlfriend or remove himself from public life as he settles his own internal conflicts.
SITUATION 8: After her professor gives her a low grade, a student threatens to blackmail him. Although she went to dinner with him to discuss her future, the student threatens to accuse him of seducing her. The professor, fearing that even a false accusation could ruin his reputation, is determined to silence her one way or another.
SITUATION 9: Offered an astonishing sum of money to stop his campaign for governor, a candidate refuses the bribe and seriously considers reporting the group who bribed him, but then the group offers him something more than cash that gives him pause.
SITUATION 10: A successful singer has a run-in with members of the Mob who claim that he owes them a percentage of his income to repay the publicity they financed years back. The singer had never requested their help. Still, they threaten to harm him and his family if he doesn’t pay up.
Ours is an age of anxiety, and nowhere do we more clearly see this anxiety played out than in the home. Family conflicts—conjugal, economic, parental—are the source of continual pressure. Good stories that focus on how to cope with, if not resolve, these issues are always appreciated.
SITUATION 1: A talented executive is suspended from his job because of alleged misconduct. Although the allegations prove false and he returns to his job, the effects of the rumor have taken its toll on his family.
SITUATION 2: Despite her unemployed husband’s growing disdain for his role as househusband, a physician is committed to saving her marriage. She wants her husband to get involved in health care, but he is unwilling to undertake the two years’ training required.
SITUATION 3: Although he is an outrageous flirt, the middle-aged narrator nonetheless is faithful to his wife, but his wife has been growing increasingly intolerant of his behavior. The ire begins to rub off on their daughter, who threatens to leave home if they do not resolve the matter.
SITUATION 4: A teenager steals his friend’s father’s revolver, intending to use it to scare his parents, in the hope that they’ll stop fighting. It scares his father, all right—so much that he attacks the boy, and discharges the weapon.
SITUATION 5: In an effort to preserve traditional family values, a church-based organization contacts their notion of those they believe to be model families and features them on their TV show. But most of the model families have suppressed dark secrets that threaten their ideal images.
SITUATION 6: When a lesbian asks her conservative parents to meet her lover (whom she wants to marry), they argue that accepting her relationship would destroy their family. But instead of threatening to move out, the daughter arranges her betrothed to meet her parents in a festive holiday atmosphere.
SITUATION 7: Suddenly paranoid about home security after someone tried to burglarize her home, the wife of a pilot (away from home for long periods) arms herself with a gun, begins working out excessively, and improves home security. Her teenage daughters consider her actions excessive, and, as a result, family harmony is undermined.
SITUATION 8: A deeply religious man is convinced that family stability can be ensured only by strictest adherence to Scripture and church doctrine. Since his son and daughter have gone away to college they have become dissenters. Well, he will find a way to reverse that trend fast.
SITUATION 9: The son of a family of bankers, accountants, and other finance-oriented professionals fears that his son, who is preparing to become a comedian, will ruin their family image and undermine family stability. The boy’s father’s’ influence is strong enough for him to seriously consider abandoning his dream.
SITUATION 10: Following a religious epiphany, a teenager strives to convert her family to her newfound religion, assuring them of greater happiness and family stability, but her persistence has the opposite effect.
Many political or military thrillers focus on clashes between nations or empires during which invasion or uprising is imminent and is usually carried out. Such stories are made memorable when they depict the momentous changes that take place under such circumstances.
SITUATION 1: At first it seems like just another disorganized rebellion against big business, but then a charismatic leader appears and changes the uprisings from mob chaos to cleverly orchestrated demonstrations that threaten to bring down their particular targets.
SITUATION 2: Locusts have been breeding in frightening numbers in this farming region, threatening to wipe out crops. The farmers fight the plague on their own (disdainful of government assistance), but it seems hopeless. A local agricultural chemist, however, has a plan.
SITUATION 3: An experiment to eradicate mosquitoes has gone terribly wrong. Now, not only are they breeding in far greater numbers than ever before, they have grown in size and demand more blood, threatening to cause a major health crisis.
SITUATION 4: Darling little ladybugs ... except that this mutant form is anything but darling. They look the same but burrow into human flesh and cause emotional disorders. Children are especially at risk because they find the bugs so appealing.
SITUATION 5: Neo-Nazis pretending to be Good Samaritans infiltrate a community, win the community’s trust, and only then begin their insidious project incriminating minorities of horrendous acts, giving the Nazis an excuse to persecute them.
SITUATION 6: Paramedics flying into the interior of a country besieged by insurgents are warned to stay away or they will be shot down. The pilot thinks he can evade attack, but the other paramedics aboard are not convinced. The pilot proceeds and the plane is forced to crash-land when an engine is crippled by gunfire, but the paramedics survive.
SITUATION 7: In this future scenario, militant youths organize political rallies targeting colleges and universities, demanding better career preparation programs and abandonment of “irrelevant” liberal-arts prerequisites. But when the colleges insist that liberal-arts programs must not only survive, but also flourish, the militants stage a takeover.
SITUATION 8: Animal-rights activists threaten the poultry industry with boycotts and sabotage unless they improve the treatment of the birds. When the industry ignores them, the activists sneak onto some of their farms and release the birds. The farmers retaliate by raising their market prices to exorbitant levels.
SITUATION 9: The Ku Klux Klan gains a surprisingly strong foothold in a northern city, threatening disorder and violence, especially after the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) step in. One anti-Klan activist pretends to be a supporter in order to infiltrate the group.
SITUATION 10: When a politically unstable country seems on the brink of collapse, their next-door neighbor threatens to invade. Many actually welcome the invasion, seeing it as a stabilizer, but opponents fear complete loss of national identity, as well as freedom.
Along with the advantages of living in a high-tech wired world comes the increased likelihood of major disruptions of daily life when the juice stops flowing or the machines break down. Social chaos can ensue—and plenty of ideas for stories materialize as well.
SITUATION 1: Astronomers studying the sun report that giant solar flares may erupt soon, and if they do, they will knock out communication satellites and throw much of the world into chaos. When the astronomers propose preventive measures, they are rejected due to their high cost and disruption of day-to-day life.
SITUATION 2: One morning, people wake up to discover that all of their phones are malfunctioning: Calls and messages do not go to their intended receivers. While experts race to fix the problem, messages from an unknown source start arriving in all phones and computers, warning that all portable electronic devices will cease functioning unless certain demands are met.
SITUATION 3: In this alternate reality, appliances are sentient and sometimes talk back in helpful, jovial ways. A toaster will disagree about whether the setting for bagels is high enough, etc. One day, some of the appliances begin making threats: “Treat me with more respect or else.”
SITUATION 4: A blackout threatens chaos for a major metropolitan area, but when an engineer experienced with resolving blackout issues tackles the problem, she is perplexed by the cause of the failure. It seems as if terrorists have rigged a device that would cause even greater problems if any repairs are attempted.
SITUATION 5: When terrorists order the train’s engineer to increase speed, threatening derailment, the engineer refuses and is incapacitated. Now others must find a way to overpower the terrorists before the train reaches a dangerous curve.
SITUATION 6: Two adventurers struggle to repair their malfunctioning transmitter in light of their predicament: They are lost in the wilderness, ill, and nearly out of food and water.
SITUATION 7: Nearly finished with her mission, a spy realizes that the wire she is wearing is not transmitting properly during a crucial interview. If the problem becomes noticeable, the entire mission could be jeopardized and her life endangered.
SITUATION 8: In the middle of a land-mine-detecting operation, a soldier’s mine-detecting equipment malfunctions, threatening to ruin the one chance his platoon has to secure a path to safety. Despite the high risk, he proceeds.
SITUATION 9: The hero of this story is an assembly-line worker who aspires to become an engineer, but he has no karma with machines: appliances break down; electronic devices refuse to work; computers crash. Threatened with unemployment because of his mechanical ineptness, he beseeches the Higher Powers to enlighten him—but the gods tells him something he doesn’t want to hear.
SITUATION 10: This city of the twenty-third century is controlled by an artificial intelligence that is showing signs of malfunctioning: Many of its maintenance programs have stopped working and the safety protocols on its transportation systems have become unreliable. When the citizens protest, it threatens to “upgrade” the citizens with versions of itself.
The boundary between mental stability and instability is tenuous, even under normal circumstances—any unexpected events can trigger a cascade of emotions, especially when calamity strikes. Readers enjoy stories that dramatize incidents in which the protagonist’s greatest challenge is overcoming panic, especially when survival is at stake.
SITUATION 1: A CEO fears that her paranoia over the company’s losses is threatening her sanity. Her VP recommends that she let him take over temporarily, but during a meeting with him, she is convinced that he is the one most responsible for the company’s losses. Now she must struggle to hold on to her sanity and her job.
SITUATION 2: Trapped in a condemned building, injured after a fall, his cell phone lost, the narrator faces his biggest obstacle: panic, as he is claustrophobic. His only hope seems to be a dog that has sniffed him out.
SITUATION 3: Pressure to maintain her sales record is mounting for an automobile-sales representative, doubly so, because her manager cannot believe she can push cars as aggressively as her male counterparts. Although she is highly persuasive, she suffers from a form of psychosis that can trigger violence.
SITUATION 4: Taking inspiration from the 2010 Chilean mine disaster, miners trapped by a cave-in struggle to maintain their sanity during the several days required for rescuers to reach them. The crisis is worsened when one of the miners begins hallucinating.
SITUATION 5: Although considered a prodigy on the violin, a young girl worries that her emotional stability is deteriorating because of her teacher’s intense methods—yet the girl is grateful to her teacher for bringing her to a higher level of competence.
SITUATION 6: On the brink of a nervous breakdown because of her husband’s insistence on micromanaging her, a middle-aged woman decides to break away with the help of a therapist she has been visiting on the sly. But when her husband finds out, she faces physical abuse.
SITUATION 7: When a precocious girl disobeys her abusive parents, they lock her in a closet. Not surprisingly, she develops claustrophobia; just the thought of entering a confined space could trigger a mental breakdown. A school counselor searches for a way to help her overcome her phobia.
SITUATION 8: A close encounter with a shark threatens a swimming enthusiast’s ability to compete in the Olympics. Now every time she enters the water, flashes from that nightmare encounter interfere with her performance. A swimming coach trained to help athletes overcome psychological issues tries to help vanquish her fear.
SITUATION 9: To qualify for a dangerous undersea mission, candidates must undergo grueling psychological testing and demonstrate that they can avoid a mental breakdown in death-trap simulations. The protagonist passes these tests, only to realize that the actual mission is more dangerous than even the test designers anticipated.
SITUATION 10: Thrown unjustly into solitary confinement, a prisoner resorts to extreme forms of mental discipline to remain sane. One of his techniques includes out-of-body experiences. He becomes so adept at these techniques that he no longer wants to return to his physical body.
Mother Nature, we have learned, can prove to be rather un-maternal when it comes to earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, typhoons, droughts, and other natural disasters that wreak havoc on society. Good stories will remind us that it is foolish not to respect the powerful and unpredictable forces of nature.
SITUATION 1: Bizarre electrical storms are wreaking havoc on power grids, threatening to cause blackouts across the country. Engineers and meteorologists collaborate to figure out a way to prevent electronic Armageddon.
SITUATION 2: Tornados in San Diego? Unexpected shifts in climate bring tornado-alley conditions to Southern California during the summer, threatening disruption of tourism and the culture of sun worshippers in general.
SITUATION 3: An earthquake has severely compromised the structural integrity of a major dam. The collapse and flash-flooding of a nearby town are imminent. With time running out, townspeople are recruited to help engineers avert a disaster.
SITUATION 4: Several earthquakes occur near the site of the Diablo Canyon (CA) nuclear power plant, threatening a reactor catastrophe to rival Fukushima. A seismologist recommends evacuation, but nuclear engineers argue that the reactor can withstand even a major quake.
SITUATION 5: If a nearby river were to overflow its banks, the adjacent neighborhood would be submerged. The scenario would mean disaster for one homeowner who owns a valuable furniture and art collection. The homeowner must figure out how to protect these valuables in the few hours remaining before the flood.
SITUATION 6: Sinkholes are opening with increasing frequency, swallowing cars and houses and threatening social disruption. Geologists strive to increase their understanding of the process so that they can better predict where the next sinkholes will occur.
SITUATION 7: It is the not-so-distant future and a series of mega-volcanic eruptions has obscured sunlight globally, threatening to trigger another ice age. Winter does not end in March; instead, below-freezing temperatures and snowstorms continue into the spring and summer months.
SITUATION 8: A hurricane is heading straight for a hospital, threatening to flood the area and cause widespread devastation. City officials must decide how to evacuate ill and frail people, many of whom are dependent on facilities only a hospital can provide.
SITUATION 9: Engineers in Venice have long struggled to protect the city from sinking, but in this future scenario, rising water levels are threatening to engulf the city for good. Engineers from around the world convene to figure out a way to keep that from happening.
SITUATION 10: Residents of a village in the shadow of an active volcano put their trust in the local geologists, who will give them ample warning of the next eruption. When the volcano begins acting strangely, however, the geologists cannot figure out whether or not it will erupt.
Society has always been a dynamic organism, ever changing, ever increasing in complexity; in our own time that dynamism and complexity is augmented by the interaction of ethnicities and cultures. Change is never smooth, however. People continue to feel as threatened by it as ever—and out of this conflict, story ideas are born.
SITUATION 1: Inspired by the Dadaists and Surrealists of the early twentieth century, a new group of avant-garde artists creates outrageous sculptures that incite rioting and vandalism, on grounds that the sculptures are obscene. But these reactions only inspire the artists to create even more outrageous works.
SITUATION 2: Disturbed by the growing violence of high-school students toward their teachers (and toward mandatory schooling in general), a group of teachers enforce disciplinary measures, but the students organize a revolt and hold several teachers hostage.
SITUATION 3: A new youth movement, inspired by the “occupy” movements, threatens to revolutionize business practices by insisting on total transparency. The protagonist is a young executive who inherited a major corporation from her father and wants to revamp the entire corporate structure, even at the risk of losing revenue.
SITUATION 4: Scholars examining a cache of ancient scrolls excavated near the Dead Sea urge secrecy, arguing that the contents of the scrolls could threaten social stability worldwide. Other experts disagree, arguing that publicizing them would have the opposite effect.
SITUATION 5: Anarchist rockers develop a new kind of “music” that inspires their listeners to engage in violent acts, punching and smashing anything within reach. The anarchist craze spreads rapidly, threatening social upheaval. Anyone attempting to curtail it is accused of violating First-Amendment rights.
SITUATION 6: Convinced that he saw the image of Jesus in a cloud, an ex-minister regards the vision as a call to converting or re-converting as many people to Christianity as possible. Despite being ridiculed, he gains enough of a following to threaten social stability in his community.
SITUATION 7: A message from the stars is intercepted: “We now know you exist and will arrive soon.” Astronomers and others are not sure what to make of the message. Should it be regarded as a threat or as the dawn of a new age for humanity? Word leaks to the public, and panic ensues. In any case, social upheaval seems inevitable.
SITUATION 8: Emulating Aldous Huxley’s “feelies” in Brave New World, high-tech filmmakers create movies that enable the audience to experience the exact emotions of the heroes (or villains)—a fad that threatens social upheaval. A psychologist is determined to stop the fad before it’s too late.
SITUATION 9: Pro-gun activists lobby successfully in one western state to form an official militia that is sanctioned but not funded by the state. When an economic and power crisis triggers massive social upheaval, the militia activates and comes face-to-face with federal authorities and the national guard, who do not see the militia as a peace-keeping force but a rogue group. The citizens are divided over who to trust.
SITUATION 10: In this society, libraries and bookstores are equipped with hidden cameras, ostensibly to discourage theft or vandalism but secretly to inform government spy organizations what books patrons consult. The practice is leaked, threatening social upheaval.