The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    America Is In A Civil War

    By Orion on Thu, 08/27/2015 - 9:22am |

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    Everything that we have seen in recent years, since the market crash of 2007, seems terrifying, chaotic and crazy because of the frame of reference most Americans have.

    This is a country that was physically removed from most of the wars fought all over the world. We sent troops there and often were the liberators or the ones who bore the most burden but it wasn't on our shore. We had a system of government that was remarkably uninterrupted and could allow for freedoms most countries not wouldn't but couldn't - gun ownership, a limited government, unregulated markets and freedom of speech.

    Given the right incentives civil war occurs whenever people's social and economic foundations are shattered or rocked. That has clearly happened. If you ever have played Jenga, you'll know how just one alteration can cause an entire foundation. A world of alterations have occurred in this country very fast - most countries end up in civil war when this occurs.

    As disturbing as the reality is, I think that accepting that the country is in a civil war may make dealing with it more easy to swallow. Wars have rational causes and rational ends - it's easier to deal with than just thinking everyone has gone insane. Nearly all these mass shootings have clear political motivations - racial and sexual often times, driven by the loss of status in an altering society. It's not random at all. It was our natural inclination, especially with this writer, to see it as crazy people or criminality since that's usually what drives violence in a stable society.

    There's more than quite a bit of literature written about conditions like the United States has now because it has happened before - most Americans had no reason to read it because it was out of their experience.

    And so in a civil war our politics changes. Wal-Mart has voluntarily stopped selling assault weapons, something that is hard not to see as a political choice. We have no free market stalwarts like we've been used to for over fifty years running for office - we have a democratic socialist and a proto-fascist as front runners. Jeffrey Tucker said that environments like this is how strongmen usually develop.

    Scary times but not new to the human experience. One only needs to look up "WWII' in any of its many theaters to see what has gone before. Most other countries took steps, even steps that made them uncomfortable, to protect against the fatal flaw of human nature in its collective form. It's time America does the same.

    Comments

    Walmart has stressed the fact that their decision is based on poor sales, not politics. They're going to focus on hunting and recreation firearms as part of their move to fall merchandise.


    by barefooted on Thu, 08/27/2015 - 2:39pm

    The only thing even resembling a Civil War in the Homeland is the uncivil conflict in the Republican Party and it's purely rhetorical.

    Using fear inducing terms such as Civil War, proto-fascist and to some people even democratic socialist almost seems to be incitement or someone's fevered dreams of violence. Should we run quickly to Wal Mart and get our AR15 before they are gone?


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 08/27/2015 - 3:34pm

    America is not engaged in a civil war. This is exactly the type of hyperbole I hate in the news media. In the news hyperbole is driven by a focus on sensationalism to get clicks for advertising dollars. I have no idea why you tend to engage in hyperbole, perhaps you're just fooled by the sensationalism in the media.

    Mass shootings are a minor problem. It's sensational when one individual publicly kills several people and it gets lots of coverage. But more people are killed each year from ordinary crime in Los Angeles than mass shootings. Most large cities each have more homicides each year than all the people killed in America in mass shootings. Most states have more homicides than all of the mass shootings yearly in all of America. More people are killed in ordinary criminal events in most states in spite of the fact that the numbers of all violent crime has been drastically decreasing over the last few decades.

    Neither Sanders nor Trump are front runners. Sanders is losing to Hillary in nearly every poll. Trump only appears to be a front runner due to the fragmented republican field. In the 2008 election Guiliani and Perry were both polling better than Trump is today. Polling requires intelligence to interpret. For example the most telling polls I've seen after the debate shows about 20% saying Trump won the debate.  But if you ask the opposite question about 30% say Trump lost the debate.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 08/27/2015 - 4:10pm

    We may not have been exposed to the ravages of modern war experienced by many other people but our country has had its share of good old fashioned killing each other by whatever means happened to be at hand. I think we are up to speed on that metric.

    I do not recognize the place you are describing. I see a population hoping the means of production keeps giving places for producers. If I was a committed Marxist, I would be drowning on the shore of the vast sea of petit bourgeoisie, waiting for the non televised revolution. 

    Fortunately for all of us, I was committed for other reasons.


    by moat on Thu, 08/27/2015 - 8:43pm

    I think the influences of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam are nearly the opposite of what you present. Those wars virtually defined our culture from 1940 through the 70's. Following which our culture was changed by stagnant wages, a contrived war and near capitulation to the forces of globalism and economic concentration at the top.

    Donald Trump hasn't created ,much of anything but a media circus. And in the context of his ego-centric politics he has simply exposed the pre-existing underbelly of the Republican Party. Yes, there's a civil war---the losers who have continually been duped by the Republican party establishment want something more for their allegiance.  

    Viewing the politics of today as representing a civil war plays into the manufactured fears which are the meat and potatoes of Republican strategy.

      


    by Oxy Mora on Sat, 08/29/2015 - 12:24am