Coming Anarchy?

I am just getting old or is the world becoming a scarier place?

There was an ad hoc meeting in my neighbourhood last night. Rumour has it that the new person in the house with the flag is a sex offender interested in little girls My neighbours are plotting to drive him out. Or beat him up. Or kill him.

The news is always full of scary things, anymore. War, hate, refugees- it’s a surprise to me that our species has survived at all. In Libya and Iraq the removal of brutal dictators have left chaos.

Do people not know how to behave? You’d think with a nasty dictator gone people could organize the kind of society they wanted.. A fair just one. But what if having never lived in one they don’t know exactly what it is?

Or is it a case of guys with guns and personal agendas take the opportunity to do whatever they want because there is no one around to stop them? Small groups can “get more stuff”. Why not just take the things you want? Perhaps you don’t consider that someone has to work for them or build them and now that you’ve taken it they won’t build it again.

I have friends from Colombia and El Salvador who lived through much of those countries’ nasty unrests, and they both have similar sad stories. Both involve high school teachers- but not just normal boring teachers- the inspiring, rare gem ones. They made people think, gave them hope, made them think that anything was possible, that all people had value and that it was possible to build a beautiful life.

In both cases the teachers were murdered. In one case my friend saw it happen. The teacher was walking down the street and a car pulled up and gunmen got out and shot him. Let me clarify – these were not teachers preaching revolution, or politics. They were stressing the value of the individual, of hard work, and the importance of setting goals and working towards them. Being true to yourself. Hope. Bang Bang.

Guys with guns don’t have important goals beyond “getting stuff”. They might pretend they do and they might even think they do but all they ever do is take stuff.

Back to my neighbourhood, where violence is in the air. The ringleader is the guy across the street. He’s in his twenties, rather fat, covered in tattoos, has a one year old daughter. No job. He drinks and smokes a lot. He’s after the guy with the flag on his house in the name of protecting his daughter. We don’t know if anything this guy says is true, but he plays on our fears.

He started reasonably, saying, look out, be careful. And then he talked about getting a petition together to get the suspect to move- but there was never a petition. Now it’s late night, beer in hand “we should do something.” If this was Libya or Syria or Iraq or Colombia or Somalia or insert name of country, guy with flag on his house would just be shot. And then we’d take his stuff.

I have read much about the Salem Witch Trials. Lots of people were killed to prove their innocence or to prove they were witches. Lots of the people involved took their stuff.

I don’t want a pedophile in the neighbourhood. I don’t know if the guy with the flag on his house is what he’s rumoured to be. But there is danger brewing in my neighbourhood- danger for flag house guy and danger from my unemployed overweight conspiring neighbour.
As recently seen in Ferguson events can quickly lead into all sorts of unpleasantness. Along with genuine issues and complex confusing problems are troublemakers who want to take other people’s stuff.

I have an acquaintance – can’t quite call him a friend- who is in with a group that has assault rifles and train for the impending breakdown of society. They are going to protect themselves and survive. Their philosophy seems not to be based on team work but on shooting people who impede them. They started out planning to protect themselves from people who would take their stuff and now they have become people who will take other people’s stuff.

I always thought that when people got old they lost touch with the world and obsessed about negative things. Maybe they finally understand reality?