It should go without saying that Americans have been wound pretty tight over the last five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from concerns over contracting the illness or infecting others (I know many health care providers who remain quite worried over the latter aspect), social distancing, quarantining and mask requirements have added heretofore unknown levels of stress to activities as mundane as going to the grocery store.
The outbreaks of protracted civil unrest that have plagued our urban areas since May have certainly compounded these stresses. While the pretext for widespread protests was the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, as we have seen, these demonstrations have been completely co-opted by radical leftists who have prolonged the protests and escalated the violence.
It would be one thing if some sort of leader or leaders among the protesters had emerged with clear objectives and an intent to sit down with government representatives to ameliorate the problem of police brutality against blacks, or racism amongst law enforcement personnel or whatever it is that's vexing them. All we've seen however, are more widespread protests and escalating violence, with inane, juvenile calls to dismantle police departments and end "systemic racism."
We've all been deeply disturbed by the video footage of riots that appear to have no objective other than fomenting destruction and chaos, and gangs of young blacks punching or kicking cowering white unfortunates into insensibility. Tangential to the so-called race protests, we've also seen several cases where very young children – in these instances, black children – have been killed by bullets fired by people supposedly engaging in "peaceful protests."
But there's also been an upswell of senseless violence that is occurring far away from the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests. Speaking to a general sense of societal breakdown, it appears that an increasing number of people perceive that they now have the latitude to engage in all manner of antisocial behavior.
Last Saturday at a recreation center in Memphis, Tennessee, 300 to 400 teenagers began destroying the establishment after management refused to issue refunds for arcade machines that had stopped working. One teenager reportedly set off fireworks inside the building, causing damage to the interior.
According to news reports, surveillance video of the establishment revealed that none of the teens engaging in the destruction were wearing masks.
And speaking of masks, it also appears that some people have decided they're well within their rights to assault or even kill others over their failure to wear a mask in public places. In just a few months, there have been innumerable instances of individuals who have chosen to act as all arms of the criminal justice system on a moment's notice regarding this particular offense. Finally, a nationwide spike in violent crime unrelated to the pandemic or BLM protests is currently being covered across many media venues.
A Christian might call all of this the work of the devil, while others would cite a proliferation of dark energies. Colloquially, some might say that folks are "losing their s--t." In any case, there's a great deal of dark whatever-it-is in the air these days.
At this juncture, there's no need for me to argue that the protracted rioting is being orchestrated by radical influencers, and that there's a very real element of Democratic politicians – you know, the ones who are doing nothing as their cities burn – hoping that the unrest can be extended long enough to have the desired effect upon the general election in November (i.e., a defeat of President Trump). I've articulated all of this before, and enough people are coming to these realizations that it isn't necessary to belabor the point.
What's more important now – particularly for those who aren't familiar with the political dynamic at hand – is understanding how we got here. Because while it's gratifying to see that a majority of Americans don't want their nation to burn, an understanding of the process will be integral to citizens keeping their wits about them as we seek solutions, rather than signing up for knee-jerk, imprudent remedies.
For decades, people such as myself have been pointing out that government, the press and our educational system have been infiltrated by radical leftists and that the twisted cultural sensibilities they espouse have been promulgated by those in the entertainment industry. This has given rise to a generation of young people who have been thoroughly indoctrinated into a culture of entitlement, narcissism, fear, anger, resentment and victimhood. In my view, it is in no way surprising that these young people, who have been alternately traumatized and coddled, passed along in school and showered with participation trophies are willing to violently rebel because they're not millionaires yet.
Similarly, people such as myself have been pointing out for decades that it probably wasn't such a good idea to welcome into our country millions of people who either have very little to contribute to our society or hate it outright; further, that granting these people citizenship was manifestly insane. Inasmuch as these entreaties were completely ignored, it should be in no way surprising that we now have first- and second-generation citizens who have risen to elected office and are now espousing policies that reflect their hatred of America, her culture and her people.
I could go on with related anecdotes ad nauseam, of course, but the bottom line is that we're reaping what we've sown in terms of allowing the political left to dictate the narrative in many areas, particularly as regards social issues and subverted free speech sensibilities.
Or, to use tech parlance, we're operating under the "garbage in, garbage out" paradigm. We've created an inferior, buggy program, and until it is re-written, we will continue to suffer with its miserable functionality.
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