How far are we from a sequel?
I wonder these days how far we are from a repeat of this scene. I don’t remember it vividly, just the feelings I had watching the violence on television. I was scared even though I lived states and hundreds of miles from the action, in a very calm place. I was sick to my stomach watching the riots and what people were doing to each other. It still gives me a twingy feeling inside to remember the images. I have never kept a diary but seeing the recall and detail it gives to Mr. Avrech’s story, I might start. If for no other reason than potential little future John Connor might be interested in how things came to pass.
“Please, step away from the doors,” they plead as more guests press forward trying to glimpse the fearful gathering outside.
I see it happening. A classic shot unwinding in slow motion: the mob swarms towards the DGA building, towards us: a thick wave of fury marching with a terrible velocity towards this cocoon of—there’s no way around this—Hollywood liberals.
Sheesh, talk about a target-rich environment.
I wonder what would/will happen when folks get so mad about being screwed over in the financial market and on their taxes and having to pay for bad decisions they didn’t make. Will they be the type of people who would riot? Will they be the type of people who would hold peaceful enough protests until one or two cranks throw it into mob mentality? It seems trivial to quote Men In Black, but it fits: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals.”
So what happens then? Suppose a peaceful protest tea party gets smacked up against one loud mouth who can’t stand any criticism of Obama? Suppose there is someone in in the ranks of the tea party protesters who has a tendency to get in peoples’ faces when confronted? What if blows are exchanged? What if the loud mouth and the confronted both have friends there? What if the races are different? So do we end up with another LA Riot only in more places? With the availability of video on the internet now, there will be a YouTube of it up before the networks can get on it in more than a local area. Especially since they don’t like to cover protests against the administration now. Police can very easily be unprepared to handle eruptions of violence when they come as a result of a viral video or an internet rumor.
Some cities are already sitting on powder and need only a match. Detroit comes to mind.
What would the government response be? Would they have one? They can’t act with precision, that’s not what the government is good at. They act with sweeping strokes. If martial law is declared, how long before other freedoms slip?
There is no mythical island to escape to. Where do you go when you go John Galt? Where do the new Romans go when Caesar goes nuts and starts fiddling?
