Preparing for civil unrest

Posted on 08. Jul, 2009 by Nathaniel Bacon in Economy, Free Speech, Health, Nathaniel Bacon, Politics, Race, Tradition

The most remarkable thing about civil unrest is that there hasn’t been more of it.

Politicians are making a hash of this country—-and much of the rest of the civilized world. We know it. They know it. They know we know it. But we don’t feel we can do anything much to stop them.

That right there is the pre-condition for civil unrest—-when people are frustrated and politicians are nervous.

Now every body’s talking about the ongoing catastrophe (even if we are in a momentarily sunny mood). But almost no one is talking about the logical—-maybe even inevitable—-consequences of cynical or desperate politicians abusing an already fed-up populace: civil unrest.

I mean people taking to the streets. Or mass resistance. Or crackdowns because the government fears we might do something to upset the apple cart. It’s going to happen. Somewhere. At some time. It’s going to happen.

Worse, that was how things stood before last fall’s crash. Before pols on both left and right launched the biggest mass transfer of wealth in history—-transferring our wealth (What we had left of it!) to their friends on Wall Street and in the banking industry. In other words, that’s how things were before things got bad!

So far, we’ve talked mostly as if civil unrest is something apart from us—-something we might have to be wary of, something we might stumble accidentally into. But the fact is that as our country becomes less free, we might of course be the civil unrest.

We might resist having our premises tagged for NAIS or having our herds slaughtered for real and bogus health reasons. We might end up fighting evictions (as farmers and many rural dwellers have for centuries during hard times). We might be the ones who say “Hell no, we won’t go!” when the mobile vaccination van comes to town, or the ones who try to keep our neighbors from being rounded up and sent to camps. Times are uncertain. We simply do not know.

But in every case, preparedness, foreknowledge, and a cool head will come in handy.

Some of us already have lines in the sand that would inspire us to resist the abuses of authority. And that, right there, is something our would-be masters fear—-our disobedience. What will happen? And when?

Nobody has a crystal ball. But the combination of public frustration and government apprehension is an explosive one. Someday, somebody will light the match.  ARTICLE