“It’s like a swarm of wasps flying in random directions, seeking out targets, attacking, disappearing, then attacking again. Car bombs, one attempt at a dirty bomb, poisonings, shootings, attacks at malls and shopping centers. At first, it was the randomness that confused law enforcement and intelligence agencies. What was the point? And the terrorists who were captured, they were a mix: Teenage boys. Honorably discharged veterans. Even a few goddamn grandmothers. Angry wasps out there, each attacking for a separate reason.”

As General Grissom outlines the threat facing the United States to President Kent, he uses a comparison to angry wasps to explain the spiraling rage and hate he perceives in American politics and society. Grissom has tapped into the one thread that runs through all of the domestic terrorism incidents that have taken place by the novel’s opening: division. He paints a picture of Americans desperately fighting for worldviews at diametric opposites to their opponents. This strikes at the thematic heart of the novel, which is the perception among Americans that national exceptionalism has eclipsed.

“During the January Sixth riots, most of the protesters were initially peaceful, crazed though they might have been. It took only a small number of hard men goading the demonstrators to turn that crowd into a violent mob that threatened our institutions.”

General Grissom explains to President Kent that it does not take much prodding to convert a peaceful but discontent American into a tool for violence. This is demonstrated in a later chapter when a handful of insurrectionists amid protestors outside The Air and Space Museum spur the entire group to violence and blow the museum doors open then push into the museum. This tactic is utilized across the nation to create an overall impression of chaos and partisanship that is beyond repair.

“I say, ‘We’re trying to save the world.’ ‘Huh,’ she says. ‘You two fools ‘bout twenty years too late for that.’”

After asking what Cross and Sampson are up to and hearing their response, Nana Mama, who later references a hard upbringing during Jim Crow, responds with the sentiment that the world is beyond saving.