State of Affairs

Gee, what a surprise!  One group hates another and is willing to abuse, discriminate and if necessary massacre them to ensure their own self interests. Interesting angle is that this is usually driven by a perceived economic disadvantage/advantage couched in religious  or racial/ethnic terms.  It's not only OK to have a Crusade/Jihad; it's seen as  doing God's will.  Mix in racial/ethnic identity and all stops are open.  It's not only seen as acceptable to violate the Constitution and target a whole race and generation in New York, or Florida, or anywhere really; it's essential to do so; and for those with short memories, been going on everywhere from the very beginning.  "It's in their own best interests", whites proclaim.  "Look how many lives it saves and crime is down".  Am I hearing echoes of the justifications for slavery?  Before being enslaved, they were naked savages you know.  In fact: elimination of indigenous peoples was a fundamental principle of the conquest of the "New World".  "New"  to the European invaders.  Too bad the "old" inhabitants didn't have gun powder and canons, horses and chicken pox.  Oh, well, that's progress.

Interesting though how the world is rapidly deteriorating into waring camps.  It's nothing new.  It has been going on forever, but there does seem to be an acceleration taking place around the globe.  People are much more willing to blow each other up in the name of their own particular tribe.  Everybody now has access to the tools of mass destruction and they seem more than willing, if not anxious to use them.  Vehicles of all sorts being used as bombs targeting the general public is rampant.  We already are hearing reports of the use of chemical/biological weapons, how long will it be before the unthinkable becomes doable?  After all the people in Egypt are at war with their own military.  The military doesn't seem to have any compunctions against slaughtering crowds with machine-gun fire or "suffocating" prisoners with tear gas while incarcerated.  Insurgents, seem to have a penchant for blowing up churches, occupied or not and I'd be careful about gathering too many police or soldiers together without securing the perimeter in the future.

So what am I driving at?  Simply that this is nothing new, but something that seems to be gaining momentum everywhere.  I'm not sure what is driving it, but as I said at the beginning: economic self interests always seems to be playing a significant role.  Unless governments learn how to spread the wealth, it seems to me we are headed  in the direction of greater polarization and that seems to lead to either violent turmoil or heavy handed oppression.  We can see an extended period of both that only seems to lead to more of the same.  Maybe, Mayor Bloomberg and other apologists for fascism, the reason crime went down in the neighborhoods is because there were more jobs available to young people who were otherwise left hanging out on the streets?