An interesting opinion piece up at American Thinker today. While the article does some specific and general finger pointing, which like many generalities may not be true, I think that the article defines something that has been eluding me for a while now.
This is about the tenor of the times. At age 51, I have been around long enough to know the difference between unease and unrest. There are also levels of unrest. Right now, this is unrest that strongly threatens to grow into greater unrest.
I think that there has been a feeling of unease in the country since the attacks of 2001. During that time the levels of unease have ebbed and flowed, mostly as a result of the constant bombardment of the 24×7 news cycle, and the “need” of the producers to “produce” the news and not just report the facts.
I have been a news junkie since I was in my teens. The evolution of cable news programs, and the 24×7 news cycle has been interesting to watch but, we have gotten to the point where the bulk of the reporting is biased. Left, right it doesn’t matter… the point is journalists are no longer journalists, they are editorialists. This editorial based reporting enables extremists within our society that embrace polarized opinions, and we cycle back to the producers that are vying for audience. Polarizing figures, and groups are a great thing to attract an audience. Use the right camera angles and that group of 30 looks like a group of 500, and societies opinions are influenced. Do this repeatedly for 20 or 30 years, and generations of our society are influenced.
That brings us back to today, and the “seeds of unrest”. In the American Thinker opinion, it points out very clearly that the “Occupy” movement was mishandled. I would extend that position to say that just about all of the assemblies held in the US are mishandled. Each group must be treated equally under the laws, when laws are not enforced you further polarize the opinions of society at large.
These elements were emboldened by mostly liberal mayors who allowed that seed to be planted in a park in their town. Rather than immediately enforce laws that would apply to anyone else (like, say, at a Tea Party rally), those mayors played political footsie with the Obama administration and Democrat leadership and allowed this “grassroots movement” to ignite the hoodlums, thugs, gangs, Marxists, and general lowlifes that exists on the far left of our political spectrum. Occupy is made up of and attracted (still does) a violence-seeking mob that sought to exploit a political unwillingness in liberal bastions to forcibly tackle them head-on from the jump.
It is this polarization that leads us to a level of “unrest” in America today. It is a polarization of opinion, approach, urban vs. suburban vs. rural, those that advocate violence as a message delivery method, and those that know violence is the last resort. We are seeing civil disobedience transform into specific, focused, and (thankfully) short periods of civil unrest. This has been an emerging trend for several years now. In the past it has been easy to shrug them off as anomalies. With the increased European, and Middle Eastern unrest and the unequal treatment of the “the occupy” movement, people that may have shrugged this off previously are now thinking ahead.
Are we now setting ourselves up for the perfect storm? I am 85% certain that we will see events similar to the LA riots of ’92 in then next 2 years. The question becomes how widespread do these riots become? As a society, how do we head them off? As a society that is based on the rule of law how to do we instill the respect for the laws that are necessary to have an open Republic? As a governing body, how do we “combat” the “mob mentality” without inadvertently triggering an event?
While the point about “Occupy Cheyenne” is an interesting anecdote, “…There is a reason “Occupy Cheyenne” didn’t make any real noise. It’s not the cops with tear gas guns that would be the problem — it was the pickup trucks that drive the roads of very conservative southeast Wyoming every day with stickers that say “Hell ya’ that’s a real gun in that gun rack.”…”.
There is a storm brewing, I am not sure how widespread it will be but it maybe too late to prevent it. The only question is how can we minimize the damage? For that I am afraid I do not have an answer.
