The riots, the burning, the looting, the screeching, the assault, the murder. The fires burning around this country are a cause for concern, if not outright fear. What we’re seeing is a normalization of violence against our political opponents alongside the desensitization of very combative terms such as enemy, criminal, German National Socialist.
And yet, we hear that this sort of violence and the destruction that it causes, is not only acceptable, but to be praised. And the people who are praising the looting of stores and the burning of businesses, vehicles, and public property also claim to be people of compassion and empathy. The most common refrain that I have heard is that the victims of this destruction have insurance and will be fine, that they can replace their property, that the value of their property doesn’t outweigh the value of human lives.
To some extent that is true. Recently, I had to deal with some wildfires closer to my home than I would have liked. It forced me to reconcile just how much is really vital to me, and if the time were to come and I had to load everything of importance in the space of my car, what would that be? Truth is, I don’t need much. My cats, my personal documents, some family pictures, my computer, my backup hard drive, and a few other things. If life were to end as I knew it, at least I have a vague idea of what matters most. Certainly there are things like every picture, yearbook, trophy, piece of furniture, that has some sort of sentimental attachment to me that I would grieve.
But not everyone could do that, to make the cold calculus of what is important and what you’re willing to see utterly destroyed. For some, the places that they opened or invested in are as important to them as a child or a family member. It represents their time, energy, sweat, effort, tears, and the culmination of their motivation, hopes and dreams. And to some, watching that go up in flames is a wound so vicious that they could not recover.
Using violence to achieve a goal undercuts the effectiveness of the movement, and ultimately sows the seeds of its own destruction. As righteous as a cause may be, as good as the advocates, resorting to violence ends up creating victims, and no matter how noble the reason for it, nobody truly wins.
Even the large targets like Target, or some other big box store, victims are still created, lives disrupted, damage done, time once dedicated to other things now forced to deal with the new reality, the list goes on and on. And for many businesses, already struggling to make ends meet, it becomes one problem too many. Yes, they can spend hours, days, or even longer picking up the pieces from this man made disaster. We have in our society, come to hope that the carnage of war and violence would be isolated incidents, not commonplace things. And yes, I understand that crimes happen everyday and in many parts of this country, but seldom do we actively plan for our livelihoods to be destroyed, or envision a future where our dreams are crushed. They are considered traumatic events for a reason.
So where do we go from here? I don’t know. I honestly think that things must get worse before they get better, and that this may spell the end of life in this country as we know it. Articles regarding war games and potential secession from the Union have been thrown around in the media, and the reality is that no one will know for certain what has happened, or worse yet, no one will trust what happened this election.
I write this knowing full well that it may one day be read by people who will attempt to use it against me, and in the event that liberty dies, then I will stand by my words and warnings. I echo the old words, better to die on one’s feet than live on one’s knees.
A Place 4Politics 