Incoming: Round Two
The Left is beginning to hyperventilate about the possibility
of another American civil war:
Since
1972, the General Social Survey has collected data on how many Americans think
"most people can be trusted." A guy named Josh Morgan graphed it, and
while the south has always taken a more "we don't like your kind 'round
here" position, most of America started the 70s in a pretty good place:
Now fast-forward to 2012:
"Trust" isn't just an intangible concept when we're talking about the potential for civil warfare. Sinisa Malesevic is a professor who studies the sociology of civil wars and a survivor of the Yugoslavian civil war. He's someone Marvel really should've reached out to for script advice, and he noted the breakdown of trust was one of the first traumatizing steps to war, "... in a very short period of time, there is a complete sense of fear, you do not know who is who, who is supporting which side ... that fear spreads."
Sinisa also pointed out that most civil wars start after a loss of trust in the government, particularly law enforcement: "One of the defining features of any state is a legitimate monopoly on the use of violence." In other words, if we trust the police to handle bad guys better than armed groups of vigilantes, we'll probably trust the government more than armed groups of insurgents.
"And if police are not seen as doing their job ... I think that certainly has an impact."
Now fast-forward to 2012:
"Trust" isn't just an intangible concept when we're talking about the potential for civil warfare. Sinisa Malesevic is a professor who studies the sociology of civil wars and a survivor of the Yugoslavian civil war. He's someone Marvel really should've reached out to for script advice, and he noted the breakdown of trust was one of the first traumatizing steps to war, "... in a very short period of time, there is a complete sense of fear, you do not know who is who, who is supporting which side ... that fear spreads."
Sinisa also pointed out that most civil wars start after a loss of trust in the government, particularly law enforcement: "One of the defining features of any state is a legitimate monopoly on the use of violence." In other words, if we trust the police to handle bad guys better than armed groups of vigilantes, we'll probably trust the government more than armed groups of insurgents.
"And if police are not seen as doing their job ... I think that certainly has an impact."
Now, what could possibly have changed since 1972? What could possibly
have reduced the sense of community, and trust, and unity to the point that the
average percentage of people who believe "most people can be trusted"
has fallen from 46.2 percent to 32.4 percent.
Could it, perhaps, be the alteration of the country's population demographic by the largest invasion in human history?
It might make Cracked feel better to know that their reasons for a possible civil war are largely irrelevant. It probably won't make them feel better to be informed that there are much better reasons for a civil war to be almost inevitable at this point.
As I noted previously, Peter Turchin and his team have calculated that the Population Stress Index is already at 1856 levels. While there is no definite trigger point, the USA is already well within the range that civil wars happen. And since the USA is not even a reasonable approximation of a genuine nation anymore, Round Two promises to be considerably less civil than its predecessor.
Donald Trump and the Alt-Right are very likely the last hope for avoiding the balkanization and break-up of the USA. Regardless of what you think of either, you would be wise to support both if you wish there to be domestic peace on the North American continent.
Could it, perhaps, be the alteration of the country's population demographic by the largest invasion in human history?
It might make Cracked feel better to know that their reasons for a possible civil war are largely irrelevant. It probably won't make them feel better to be informed that there are much better reasons for a civil war to be almost inevitable at this point.
As I noted previously, Peter Turchin and his team have calculated that the Population Stress Index is already at 1856 levels. While there is no definite trigger point, the USA is already well within the range that civil wars happen. And since the USA is not even a reasonable approximation of a genuine nation anymore, Round Two promises to be considerably less civil than its predecessor.
Donald Trump and the Alt-Right are very likely the last hope for avoiding the balkanization and break-up of the USA. Regardless of what you think of either, you would be wise to support both if you wish there to be domestic peace on the North American continent.
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/12/incoming-round-two.html?m=1
