Like
it or not, this is already in the works. The small fires are burning
just waiting to explode into a social inferno. Its here folks and there
is no going back.
This article has been generously contributed to Poor Richard's Almanac by Matt Bracken of Enemies Foreign and Domestic and was originally published at Western Rifle Shooters.
When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence
In response to recent articles in mainstream military journals discussing the use of the U.S. Army to quell insurrections on American soil,
I offer an alternate vision of the future. Instead of a small town in
the South as the flash point, picture instead a score of U.S. cities in
the thrall of riots greater than those experienced in Los Angeles in
1965 (Watts), multiple cities in 1968 (MLK assassination), and Los Angeles again in 1992 (Rodney King). New Yorkers can imagine the 1977 blackout looting or the 1991 Crown Heights disturbance.
In fact, the proximate spark of the next round of major riots in
America could be any from a long list cribbed from our history.
We
have seen them all before, and we shall see them all again as history
rhymes along regardless of the century or the generation of humankind
nominally in control of events. But the next time we are visited by
widespread, large-scale urban riots, a dangerous new escalation may be
triggered by a fresh vulnerability: It’s estimated that the average
American home has less than two weeks of food on hand. In poor minority
areas, it may be much less. What if a cascading economic crisis, even a temporary one, leads to millions of EBT (electronic benefit transfer)
cards flashing nothing but ERROR? This could also be the result of
deliberate sabotage by hackers, or other technical system failures.
Alternatively, the government might pump endless digits into the cards
in a hopeless attempt to outpace future hyperinflation. The government
can order the supermarkets to honor the cards, and it can even set price
controls, but history’s verdict is clear: If suppliers are paid only
with worthless scrip or blinking digits, the food will stop.
STEP ONE: FLASH MOB LOOTING
In my scenario, the initial riots begin spontaneously across affected urban areas, as SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program)
and other government welfare recipients learn that their EBT cards no
longer function. This sudden revelation will cause widespread anger,
which will quickly lead to the flash-mob looting of local supermarkets
and other businesses. The media will initially portray these “food
riots” as at least partly justifiable. Sadly, millions of Americans have
been made largely, or even entirely, dependent on government wealth
transfer payments to put food on their tables.
A
new social contract has been created, where bread and circuses buy a
measure of peace in our minority-populated urban zones. In the era of
ubiquitous big-screen cable television, the internet and smart phones,
the circus part of the equation is never in doubt as long as the
electricity flows. But the bread is highly problematic. Food must be
delivered the old-fashioned way: physically. Any disruption in the
normal functioning of the EBT system will lead to food riots with a
speed that is astonishing. This will inevitably happen when our
unsustainable, debt-fueled binge party finally stops, and the music is
over. Now that the delivery of free or heavily subsidized food is
perceived by tens of millions of Americans to be a basic human right,
the cutoff of “their” food money will cause an immediate explosion of
rage. When the hunger begins to bite, supermarkets, shops and
restaurants will be looted, and initially the media will not condemn the
looting. Unfortunately, this initial violence will only be the start of
a dangerous escalation.
The
ransacked supermarkets, convenience stores, ATMs and gas stations will
not be restocked during this period due to the precarious security
situation. A single truck loaded with food or gasoline would be
perceived to be a Fort Knox on wheels and subject to immediate attack
unless heavily protected by powerfully armed security forces, but such
forces will not be available during this chaotic period. Under those
conditions, resupply to the urban areas cannot and will not take place.
The downward spiral of social and economic dysfunction will therefore
both accelerate and spread from city to city. These delays, in turn,
will lead to more riots with the constant underlying demand that hungry
people be fed, one way or another.
Catch-22,
anyone? When these demands do not bring the desired outcome, the
participants will ratchet up the violence, hoping to force action by the
feckless state and national governments.
The
“food riots” will be a grass-roots movement of the moment born out of
hunger and desperation. It will not be dependent upon leaders or an
underlying organization, although they could certainly add to the sauce.
Existing cell phone technology provides all the organization a flash
mob needs. Most of the mobs will consist of minority urban youths,
termed MUYs in the rest of this essay. Which minority doesn’t matter;
each urban locale will come with its own unique multi-ethnic dynamic.
Some
locales will divide upon religious or political lines, but they will
not be the dominant factors contributing to conflict. In the American
context, the divisions will primarily have an ethnic or racial context,
largely because that makes it easy to sort out the sides at a safe
distance. No need to check religious or political affiliation at a
hundred yards when The Other is of a different color.
We
Americans are all about doing things the easy way, so, sadly, visible
racial and ethnic features will form the predominant lines of division.
Would that it were not so, but reality is reality, even when it’s is a bitch.
Especially then.
NEXT STEP: FLASH MOB RIOTS
In
order to highlight their grievances and escalate their demands for an
immediate resumption of government benefits, the MUY flash mobs will
next move their activities to the borders of their ethnic enclaves. They
will concentrate on major intersections and highway interchanges where
non-MUY suburban commuters must make daily passage to and from what
forms of employment still exist. People making a living will still be
using those roads to get to where they earn their daily bread.
The
results of these clashes will frequently resemble the intersection of
Florence and Normandie during the Rodney King riots in 1992, where
Reginald Denny was pulled out of his truck’s cab and beaten nearly to
death with a cinder block. If you don’t remember it, watch it on Youtube.
Then imagine that scene with the mob-making accelerant of texting and
other social media technology added to stoke the fires. Instead of a few
dozen thugs terrorizing the ambushed intersections, in minutes there
will be hundreds.
Rioters
will throw debris such as shopping carts and trash cans into the
intersection, causing the more timid drivers to pause. The mobs will
swarm the lines of trapped cars once they have stopped. Traffic will be
forced into gridlock for blocks in all directions. Drivers and
passengers of the wrong ethnic persuasions will be pulled from their
vehicles to be beaten, robbed, and in some cases raped and/or killed. It
will be hyper-violent and overtly racial mob behavior, on a massive and
undeniable basis.
Some
of those trapped in their cars will try to drive out of the area,
inevitably knocking down MUY pedestrians and being trapped by even more
outraged MUYs. The commuters will be dragged out of their cars and
kicked or beaten to death. Other suburban commuters will try to shoot
their way out of the lines of stopped cars, and they will meet the same
grim fate once they run out of bullets and room to escape.
The
mob will be armed with everything from knives, clubs and pistols to
AK-47s. A bloodbath will result. These unlucky drivers and their
passengers will suffer horribly, and some of their deaths will be
captured on traffic web cameras. Later, these terrible scenes will be
released or leaked by sympathetic government insiders and shown by the
alternative media, which continue to expand as the traditional media
become increasingly irrelevant.
Implausible, you insist?
This
grim tableau is my analysis of age-old human behavior patterns, adding
flash mobs and 2012 levels of racial anger to the old recipe.
Early-teenage MUYs today are frequently playing “The Knockout Game”
on full bellies, just for kicks, and proudly uploading the videos. They
and their older peers can be expected to do far worse when hunger and
the fear of starvation enter their physical, mental, and emotional
equations. The blame for their hunger will be turned outward against the
greater society, and will be vented at first hand against any non-MUY
who falls into their grasp while they are in the thrall of mob hysteria.
These episodes of mass psychology we will refer to as “flash mob
riots”, “wilding”, or some other new name.
THE OFFICIAL POLICE RESPONSE TO FLASH MOB RIOTS
To
gear up for even a single “Florence and Normandie on steroids” flash
mob street riot, city police departments will require an hour or longer
to stage their SWAT teams and riot squads in position to react. Ordinary
patrol cars in small numbers will not venture anywhere near such
roiling masses of hysterical rioters, not even to perform rescues. Those
citizens trapped in their cars cannot expect timely assistance from
local or state authorities.
Even
in the first days of widespread riots, when the police forces are well
rested, it might take several hours to mount a response sufficient to
quell the disturbance and restore order to even one major street
intersection riot. In the meantime, scores of innocent commuters will
have been attacked, with many of them injured or killed and left at the
scene. It will be a law enforcement nightmare to quell the disturbance,
mop up lingering rioters, restore security, and bring medical attention
to the living and get medical examiners to the dead. And each
jurisdiction will face potentially dozens of such scenes, thanks to the
ability for MUYs to cross-communicate at will using their wireless
devices.
The
far more difficult challenge for the police is that by the time they
are suited in riot gear, armed and geared up to sweep the intersection,
it will probably be empty of rioters. The police, with their major riot
squad reaction times measured in hours, will be fighting flash mobs that
materialize, cause mayhem, and evaporate in only fractions of hours.
This rapid cycle time is a clear lesson taken from massive riots by immigrant French Muslim MUYs in their own religious enclaves and bordering areas.
The American flash mob riot will exist almost entirely inside the law enforcement OODA (observe, orient, decide, act)
loop. In other words, the rioters will have a much quicker reaction
time than the police. Until fairly recently, superior police
communications meant that they could use their radio networks as a force multiplier.
With their networking advantage and cohesive reactions both within a
department and among cooperating local agencies, police could act as
shepherds guiding or dispersing a wayward stampeding flock.
Today,
the mob has the greater advantage, immediately spreading word of every
police preparation by text and Tweet, even in advance of the police
movement. Attempts by the authorities to stop the flash mobs by blocking
and jamming wireless transmissions will have limited success.
It is at this point that the situation spirals out of control.
The
enraged mobs in urban America will soon recognize that their
spontaneous street riots cannot be stopped by the police, and then they
will grow truly fearsome. For the police, it will be a losing game of
Whack-a-Mole, with riots breaking out and dispersing at a speed they
cannot hope to match. The violence will spread to previously unaffected
cities as an awareness of law enforcement impotence is spread by
television and social media. After a few days, the police forces will be
exhausted and demoralized. As the violence intensifies and spreads, and
in the absence of any viable security arrangements, supermarkets and
other stores will not be restocked, leaving the MUYs even more desperate
and angry than before. The increasing desperation born of worsening
hunger will refuel the escalating spiral of violence.
Nor
will violent conflict be only between the inhabitants of the urban
areas and the suburbs. The international record of conflict in
tri-ethnic cities is grim, making the old bi-racial dichotomy formerly
seen in America seem stable by comparison. In tri-ethnic cities the
perceived balance of power is constantly shifting, with each side in
turn feeling outnumbered and outmuscled. Temporary truces, betrayals and
new alliances follow in rapid succession, removing any lingering sense
of social cohesion.
The former Yugoslavia, with its Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim divisions, comes starkly to mind.
The Lebanese Civil War between the Christians, Sunnis, Shiites and
Druze raged across Beirut (at one time known as “The Paris of the Middle
East”) for fifteen brutal years.
Once a city turns on itself and becomes a runaway engine of
self-destruction, it can be difficult to impossible to switch off the
process and return to normal pre-conflict life. It’s not inconceivable
that the United States could produce a dozen Sarajevos or Beiruts,
primarily across racial instead of religious divides.
Vehicle
traffic by non-minority suburban commuters through adjoining minority
areas will virtually halt, wrecking what is left of the local economy.
Businesses will not open because employees will not be able to travel to
work safely. Businesses in minority areas, needless to say, will be
looted. “Gentrified” enclaves of affluent suburbanites within or near
the urban zones will suffer repeated attacks, until their inhabitants
flee.
Radically
disaffected minorities will hold critical infrastructure corridors
through their areas hostage against the greater society. Highways,
railroad tracks, pipe and power lines will all be under constant threat,
or may be cut in planned or unplanned acts of raging against “the
system.” As long as security in the urban areas cannot be restored,
these corridors will be under threat. Even airports will not be immune.
Many of them have been absorbed into urban areas, and aircraft will come
under sporadic fire while taking off and landing.
In
the absence of fresh targets of value blundering into their areas, and
still out of food, MUYs will begin to forage beyond their desolated home
neighborhoods and into suburban borderlands. “Safe” supermarkets and
other stores will be robbed in brazen commando-like gang attacks.
Carjackings and home invasions will proliferate madly. As I have
discussed in my essay “The Civil War Two Cube,”
so-called “transitional” and mixed-ethnic areas will suffer the worst
violence. These neighborhoods will become utterly chaotic killing zones,
with little or no help coming from the overstretched police, who will
be trying to rest up for their next shift on riot squad duty, if they
have not already deserted their posts to take care of their own
families.
THE SUBURBAN ARMED VIGILANTE RESPONSE
In
the absence of an effective official police response to the exploding
levels of violence, suburbanites will first hastily form self-defense
forces to guard their neighborhoods—especially ones located near ethnic
borders. These ubiquitous neighborhood armed defense teams will often
have a deep and talented bench from which to select members, and they
will not lack for volunteers.
Since
9-11, hundreds of thousands of young men (and more than a few women)
have acquired graduate-level educations in various aspects of urban
warfare. In the Middle East these troops were frequently tasked with
restoring order to urban areas exploding in internecine strife. Today
these former military men and women understand better than anyone the
life-or-death difference between being armed and organized versus
unarmed and disorganized.
Hundreds
of thousands if not millions of veterans currently own rifles
strikingly similar to those they carried in the armed forces, lacking
only the full-automatic selector switch. Their brothers, sisters,
parents, friends, and neighbors who did not serve in the military are
often just as familiar with the weapons, if not the tactics. Today the
AR-pattern rifle (the semi-automatic civilian version of the familiar
full-auto-capable M-16 or M-4) is the most popular model of rifle in
America, with millions sold in the past decade. Virtually all of them
produced in the past decade have abandoned the old M-16′s signature
“carrying handle” rear iron sight for a standardized sight mounting
rail, meaning that virtually every AR sold today can be easily equipped
with an efficient optical sight. Firing the high-velocity 5.56×45 mm
cartridge and mounted with a four-power tactical sight, a typical AR
rifle can shoot two-inch groups at one hundred yards when fired from a
steady bench rest. That translates to shooting eight- to ten-inch groups
at four hundred yards.
Four
hundred yards is a long walk. Pace it off on a straight road, and
observe how tiny somebody appears at that distance. Yet a typical AR
rifle, like those currently owned by millions of American citizens, can
hit a man-sized target at that range very easily, given a stable firing
platform and a moderate level of shooting ability.
And
there are a far greater number of scoped bolt-action hunting rifles in
private hands in the United States. Keep this number in mind: based on
deer stamps sold, approximately twenty million Americans venture into
the woods every fall armed with such rifles, fully intending to shoot
and kill a two-hundred-pound mammal. Millions of these scoped
bolt-action deer rifles are quite capable of hitting a man-sized target
at ranges out to and even beyond a thousand yards, or nearly
three-fifths of a mile. In that context, the 500-yard effective range of
the average semi-auto AR-pattern rifle is not at all remarkable.
So,
we have millions of men and women with military training, owning rifles
similar to the ones they used in combat operations overseas from
Vietnam to Afghanistan. Many of these Soldiers and Marines have special
operations training. They are former warriors with experience at
conducting irregular warfare and counter-terrorism operations in
dangerous urban environments. They are the opposite of unthinking
robots: their greatest military talent is looking outside the box for
new solutions. They always seek to “over-match” their enemies, using
their own advantages as force multipliers while diminishing or
concealing their weaknesses. These military veterans are also ready,
willing and able to pass on their experience and training to interested
students in their civilian circles.
Let’s
return to our hypothetical Florence and Normandie intersection, but
this time with hundreds of rioters per city block, instead of mere
dozens. Among the mobs are thugs armed with pistols and perhaps even
AK-47s equipped with standard iron sights, and except in rare cases,
these rifles have never been “zeroed in” on a target range. In other
words, past a medium distance of fifty to a hundred yards, these MUY
shooters will have little idea where their fired bullets will strike—nor
will they care. Typically, most of the rioters armed with a pistol,
shotgun or an iron-sighted rifle could not hit a mailbox at a hundred
yards unless by luck. Inside that distance, any non-MUY could be at
immediate risk of brutal death at the hands of an enraged mob, but
beyond that range, the mob will pose much less danger.
Taking
this imbalance in effective ranges of the firearms most likely to be
available to both sides, certain tactical responses are sure to arise,
and ranking near the top will be the one described next.
THE SNIPER AMBUSH: THE NEW TACTIC OF CHOICE
The
sniper ambush will predictably be used as a counter to rampaging mobs
armed only with short- to medium-range weapons. This extremely deadly
trick was developed by our war fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking
advantage of the significant effective range and firepower of our scoped
5.56mm rifles. Tactics such as the sniper ambush may not be seen early
in the civil disorder, but they will surely arise after a steady
progression of atrocities attributed to rampaging MUYs.
Street
intersection flash mob riots will not be the only type of violence
exploding during periods of civil disorder. As mentioned earlier, the
number and ferocity of home invasions will skyrocket, and they will be
very hard to defend against. Neighborhood self-defense forces will be
able to protect a group of homes if they are located on cul-de-sacs or
in defensible subdivisions with limited entrances, turning them
overnight into fortified gated communities. Individual homes and
apartment buildings located in open grid-pattern neighborhoods with
outside access from many directions will be much more difficult to
defend, and the home invasions will continue.
Carjacking
and other forms of armed robbery will proliferate to previously
unimagined levels, leading to a total loss of confidence in the
government’s ability to provide security across all social lines. Stray
bullets striking pedestrians or penetrating houses will take a
frightening toll, even in areas previously considered to be safe. The
police will be exhausted by constant riot-squad duty, and will not even
respond to reports of mere individual acts of violent criminality. They
will simply be overwhelmed, and will be forced to triage their
responses. The wealthy, powerful and politically well-connected will
demand the lion’s share of remaining police resources, further
diminishing the safety of average Americans.
In
that context, neighborhood self-defense forces will form the nucleus of
the armed vigilante direct action groups which will spring up next in
the progression. Suburban anger will continue to build against the MUYs,
who are perceived to be the originators of the home invasions and
gang-level armed looting raids. Survivors of street ambushes,
carjackings and home invasions will tell blood-curdling tales and show
horrific scars.
The
neighborhood defense teams will evolve into proactive suburban armed
vigilante groups (SAVs) out of a desire to preemptively take the
violence to their perceived enemies, instead of passively waiting for
the next home invasion or carjacking. The SAV teams will consist of the
more aggressive and gung-ho members of the self-defense forces, who met
and compared notes. Often they will be young men with recent combat
experience in the armed forces, who will apply their military training
to the new situation. Major intersections and highway interchanges where
ambush riots have previously occurred will be among the SAV targets.
The SAV reaction times will be measured in minutes, compared to the
hours required by major police department SWAT teams and riot squads.
A SAMPLE SNIPER AMBUSH SCENARIO
When
word is received that a flash mob is forming at one of their
pre-reconnoitered intersections or highway interchanges, the SAV team
will assemble. Sometimes cooperating police will pass tactical intel to
their civilian friends on the outside. Some clever individuals will have
exploited their technical know-how and military experience to build
real-time intel collection tools, such as private UAVs.
Police will have access to urban security camera footage showing MUYs
moving barricade materials into position—a normal prerequisite to a
flash mob riot intended to stop traffic. Tip-offs to the vigilantes will
be common, and where the networks are still functioning, citizens may
still be able to access some video feeds. Sometimes, police will even
join the SAV teams, incognito and off-duty, blurring the teams into
so-called “death squads.”
The
operation I will describe (and it’s only one of dozens that will be
tried) uses two ordinary pickup trucks and eight fighters. Two riflemen
are lying prone in the back of each truck, facing rearward, with
removable canvas covers concealing their presence. Their semi-automatic,
scoped rifles are supported at their front ends on bipods for very
accurate shooting. A row of protective sandbags a foot high is between
them and the raised tailgate.
In
the cab are a driver and a spotter in the passenger seat who also
serves as the vehicle’s 360-degree security. The two trucks don’t ever
appear on the same stretch of road, but coordinate their movements using
one-word brevity codes over small FRS walkie-talkie radios.
Each truck has a series of predetermined elevated locations where the
intersection in question will lie between 200 and 500 yards away. Each
truck is totally nondescript and forgettable, the only detail perhaps
being the non-MUY ethnicity of the suburbanite driver and spotter
driving relatively near to a riot in progress.
By
the time the two SAV pickup trucks arrive at their firing positions on
different streets and oriented ninety degrees to one another, the flash
mob riot is in full swing. A hundred or more of the rampaging youths are
posturing and throwing debris into traffic in order to intimidate some
cars into stopping. The riflemen in the backs of the pickups are waiting
for this moment and know what to expect, trusting their spotters and
drivers to give them a good firing lane. The spotters in each truck
issue a code word on their radios when they are in final position. The
tailgates are swung down, and the leader among the riflemen initiates
the firing. All-around security is provided by the driver and spotter.
Lying
prone and using their bipods for support, the shooters have five to ten
degrees of pan or traverse across the entire intersection. Individual
rioters are clearly visible in the shooters’ magnified optical scopes.
Each of the four snipers has a plan to shoot from the outside of the mob
toward the middle, driving participants into a panicked mass. The
left-side shooters start on the left side and work to the middle,
engaging targets with rapid fire, about one aimed shot per two seconds.
Since the two trucks are set at ninety degrees to one another, very
complete coverage will be obtained, even among and between the stopped
vehicles.
The
result is a turkey shoot. One magazine of thirty aimed shots per rifle
is expended in under a minute, a coded cease-fire is called on the
walkie-talkies, and the trucks drive away at the speed limit. The canvas
covering the truck beds contains the shooters’ spent brass. If the
trucks are attacked from medium or close range, the canvas can be thrown
back and the two snipers with their semi-automatic rifles or carbines
will add their firepower to that of the driver and spotter.
Back
at the intersection, complete panic breaks out among the rioters as a
great number of bullets have landed in human flesh. Over a score have
been killed outright, and many more scream in pain for medical attention
they will not receive in time. The sniper ambush stops the flash mob
cold in its tracks as the uninjured flee in terror, leaving their
erstwhile comrades back on the ground bleeding. The commuters trapped in
their vehicles may have an opportunity to escape.
This
type of sniper ambush and a hundred variations on the theme will
finally accomplish what the police could not: put an end to mobs of
violent rioters making the cities through-streets and highways
impassible killing zones. Would-be rioters will soon understand it to be
suicidal to cluster in easily visible groups and engage in mob
violence, as the immediate response could come at any time in the form
of aimed fire from hundreds of yards away. Even one rifleman with a
scoped semi-auto can break up a medium-sized riot.
Many
citizens will take to carrying rifles and carbines in their vehicles,
along with their pistols, so that if their cars are trapped in an ambush
they will have a chance to fight their way out. If their vehicle is
stopped outside the immediate area of the flash mob, they will be able
to direct accurate fire at the rioters from a few hundred yards away.
Inside the fatal hundred-yard radius, unlucky suburbanite drivers and
passengers pulled from their cars will still be brutally violated, but
the occurrences of large mob-driven street ambushes will be much less
frequent once long-range retaliation becomes a frequent expectation.
THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO VIGILANTISM
Where
they will be unable to respond swiftly or effectively to the outbreaks
of street riots by MUY flash mobs, the police and federal agents will
respond vigorously to the deadly but smaller vigilante attacks. These
sniper ambushes and other SAV attacks will be called acts of domestic
terrorism and mass murder by government officials and the mainstream
media. A nearly seamless web of urban and suburban street cameras will
reveal some of the SAV teams by their vehicles, facial recognition
programs, and other technical means. Some early arrests will be made,
but the vigilantes will adapt to increasing law enforcement pressure
against them by becoming cleverer about their camouflage, most often
using stolen cars and false uniforms and masks during their
direct-action missions. Observe Mexico today for ideas on how this type
of dirty war is fought.
Eventually,
the U.S. Army itself might be called upon to put out all the social
firestorms in our cities, restore order and security, pacify the angry
masses, feed the starving millions, get vital infrastructure operating
again, and do it all at once in a dozen American Beiruts, Sarajevos and
Mogadishus.
Good luck to them, I say.
A
few hundred “Active IRA” tied down thousands of British troops in one
corner of a small island for decades. The same ratios have served the
Taliban well over the past decade while fighting against the combined
might of NATO. Set aside for a moment the angry starving millions
trapped in the urban areas, and the dire security issues arising
thereof. Just to consider the official reaction to vigilantism
separately, it’s unlikely that any conceivable combinations of local and
state police, federal law enforcement, National Guard or active-duty
Army actions could neutralize or eliminate tens of thousands of former
special operations troops intent on providing their own form of
security. Millions of Americans are already far better armed and trained
than a few hundred IRA or Taliban ever were. And the police and Army
would not be operating from secure fire bases, their families living in
total safety thousands of miles away in a secure rear area. In this
scenario, there is no rear area, and every family member, anywhere,
would be at perpetual risk of reprisal actions by any of the warring
sides.
In
this hyper-dangerous environment, new laws forbidding the carrying of
firearms in vehicles would be ignored as the illegitimate diktat of
dictatorship, just when the Second Amendment is needed more than ever.
Police or military conducting searches for firearms at checkpoints would
themselves become targets of vigilante snipers. Serving on
anti-firearms duty would be seen as nothing but pure treason by millions
of Americans who took the oath to defend the Constitution, including
the Bill of Rights. Politicians who did not act in the security interest
of their local constituents as a result of political correctness or
other reasons would also be targeted.
A
festering race war with police and the military in the middle taking
fire from both sides could last for many years, turning many American
cities into a living hell. Remember history: when the British Army
landed in Northern Ireland in 1969, they were greeted with flowers and applause from the Catholics.
The Tommys were welcomed as peacekeepers who would protect them from
Protestant violence. That soon changed. Likewise with our tragic misadventure in Lebanon back in 1982 and 1983.
Well-intended referees often find themselves taking fire from all
sides. It’s as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise. Why would it be any
different when the U.S. Army is sent to Los Angeles, Chicago or
Philadelphia to break apart warring ethnic factions?
For
a long time after these events, it will be impossible for the warring
ethnic groups to live together or even to mingle peacefully. Too much
rage and hatred will have been built up on all sides of our many
American multi-ethnic fault lines. The new wounds will be raw and
painful for many years to come, as they were in the South for long after
the Civil War. The fracturing of the urban areas, divided by
no-man’s-lands, will also hinder economic redevelopment for many years
because the critical infrastructure corridors will remain insecure.
Eventually,
high concrete “Peace Walls” like those in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
will be installed where the different ethnic groups live in close
proximity. That is, if recovery to sane and civilized norms of behavior
are ever regained in our lifetimes and we don’t slide into a new Dark
Age, a stern and permanent tyranny, warlordism, anarchy, or any other
dire outcome.
Dark
Ages can last for centuries, after sinking civilizations in a vicious,
downward vortex. “When the music’s over, turn out the lights,” to quote
Jim Morrison of The Doors. Sometimes the lights stay out for a long
time. Sometimes civilization itself is lost. Millions of EBT cards
flashing zeroes might be the signal event of a terrible transformation.
It
is a frightening thing to crystallize the possible outbreak of mass
starvation and racial warfare into words, so that the mind is forced to
confront agonizingly painful scenarios. It is much easier to avert one’s
eyes and mind from the ugliness with politically correct Kumbaya
bromides. In this grim essay, I am describing a brutal situation of
ethnic civil war not differing much from the worst scenes from recent
history in Rwanda, South Africa, Mexico, Bosnia, Iraq, and many other
places that have experienced varying types and degrees of societal
collapse. We all deplore the conditions that might drive us toward such a
hellish outcome, and we should work unceasingly to return America to
the path of true brotherhood, peace and prosperity. Race hustlers of
every stripe should be condemned.
Most
of us wish we could turn back the calendar to Norman Rockwell’s
America. But we cannot, for that America is water long over the dam and
gone from our sight, if not from our memories. John Adams said, “Our
Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” If that is true,
judging by current and even accelerating cultural shifts, we might
already have passed the point of no return.
The prudent American will trim his sails accordingly.
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