The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King ★★★★★ "The world needs heroic measures, man. I don't know about long-term effects, and there's no time to study them, because there's no long-term prospect. Maybe we can cure the whole mess. Or maybe—"
I read Nightmares & Dreamscapes when it first came out in the early 90s, and was ridiculously proud of myself (huge book); this was the story that stayed with me. It was my first apocalypse story, and it felt real because there were no zombies, no aliens, no Revelation. Just Yankees coming down to Texas and deciding they knew it all and had the right to “fix us.”
Decades later it’s still chilling. Somehow more so hearing Waco mentioned again and again as a place of peace and madness - known today for the Branch Dividian Rape Factory.