When the Lights Go Out draws from the turbulent life and hard-earned wisdom of Winston Churchill to examine how nations lose their way—and how they might still find it again. Through the lens of Churchill’s choices, failures, and unflinching resolve, the book explores what happens when societies forget their history, leaders evade responsibility, and truth becomes negotiable.
This book confronts the erosion of moral clarity, the rise of authoritarian temptation, the failures of modern leadership, and the slow surrender of civic courage. But it also offers a path back, not through nostalgia or idols but through principles, preparation, and the quiet bravery of standing firm when the world prefers to drift.
Churchill’s lesson is not that he was always right. When the lights dimmed across Europe, he refused to go quiet. His example remains urgent because of what we risk forgetting.
This is not about returning to the past. It is about remembering what was once done to protect the future.
Reality is Negotiable examines how power works—not how it’s taught, idealized, or pretended to function, but how it’s wielded, hidden, and weaponized in plain sight. Through the rise, reign, and resurrection of political operator Roger Stone, this book dismantles the comforting myths people tell about truth, fairness, and morality.
Drawing from history, media, politics, and strategy, Reality is Negotiable exposes the mechanics of influence used by those who shape public perception while remaining outside the spotlight. It explores how narratives are manufactured, how reputations are destroyed, and how control is maintained not by ideology but by manipulation, timing, and relentless spectacle.
This is not an offense or defense against Stone—it’s an autopsy of the world he helped build. A world where lies can outlast facts, perception outweighs policy, and the rules are bent long before anyone realizes a game is being played. Readers are not asked to agree or oppose. They are asked to question the lens through which they’ve been looking at history, politics, and their sense of righteousness.
You don’t have to like the truth. You do have to stop mistaking your beliefs for it.
When Facades Crack is a blistering examination of how tyranny thrives not despite but through liberalism. It’s an account of how the language of freedom becomes a shield for power, how justice gets bent into legal obedience, and how democracies betray their ideals—not with fanfare but with silence, subtlety, and plausible deniability.
At its core, When Facades Crack argues that tyranny lives in our policies, politics, institutions, and daily moral evasions. It is sustained not by monsters but by ordinary people who excuse small compromises, prize comfort over courage, and mistake performance for principle.
But this is no manifesto of despair. It is not to condemn liberalism, but to rescue it from its distortions, opportunists, and the comforting lies we tell ourselves. To be liberal, properly understood, is to resist tyranny in all its forms—especially the ones that hide behind our own beliefs.
We don’t ridicule a first grader for failing a math problem — we teach them. Yet in public discourse, cultural conflict, and political debate, we often treat adults who “get it wrong” not as students, but as enemies.
Why We Don't Mock First Graders (And Shouldn't Expel Adults Either) confronts this contradiction at the heart of modern intolerance.
Spanning racial bias and religious difference to online outrage and political polarization, this is not a demand to agree with everyone. It’s a call to stop giving up on people. Because just as we give children the chance to learn what they haven’t yet been taught, adults — in all our stubbornness, missteps, and untapped potential — deserve the same grace.
At its heart, this book is about the long, unfinished lesson of being humans.
How can we challenge without condemning? How do we teach without shaming? And how can we disagree without erasing one another?
Curiosity should be contagious, not confined. If you’re interested in reading any of my books, I’ll gladly send you a free digital copy—just ask. Reading, learning, and open conversations are, to me, the foundation of stronger individuals and healthier communities.
- Michael Rhiness