Monday, August 22, 2011

No Positive Societal Harbingers in Chicago

Man Threw Molotov Cocktail into Crowd: Report

No, not exactly a car, or suicide bombing, but also not something one would expect within the borders of the U.S. One can envision a version of the London riots in this country and that's deeply troubling, to say the least.

I heard a blurb on Fox that stated that one in ten retailers had experienced "flash mob" looting and an even larger percentage had experienced organized criminal action, utilizing "social media".

No, I don't want restrictions on our free speech paradise, but at some level, we must understand that rights have responsibilities. As an advanced civilization, we must be cognizant of the fact that it can all be lost in a generation. Technology won't stop a civilizational devolution; if current events tell us anything, they tell us that our technology can actually hasten our decline.

We take a great deal for granted, particularly in these United States; generations of prosperity and relative calm will have that deleterious effect. I oft wonder how we Americans would deal with major social upheaval. Barbarity is always at our gates; civilization is fragile. Events such as these should be instructional, they should be seen as a microcosm of the dark possibilities of chaos. After all, we're not immune.

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