Civil unrest, could it happen here ?

[camaraderie]

I believe that we are all 48 hours from anarchy should all the basic systems/dependencies we have fail. This to me is the real danger of our current economic crisis. It ain't just about money. It is about the danger to our personal safety and security if the economy collapses.

A year ago...reading the above statement...I would have classified the writer as a nut job. Maybe you still do.

[sailingdog]

Cam—

Would they have to declare Marshall Law???








Yes, I know it is Martial Law...but this is a reference to a very ignorant dictator...

[danjarch]

I doubt it Cam. Maybe a few spots in America, like New Orleans, but those spots are only barely this side of law and order anyway. My experience from living through 3 huricanes one summer is that you quickly see the best side of people. Mom had an old coffe pot that worked on a camp stove, you'd think she was delivering starbucks to the nieghbors not maxwell house. Guy down the street had four house refridgeraters running off his generator. We had our house and the nieghbors fridge running off ours.

The histories of Dresden in Germany during WW2 or Argintina in they're recent meltdown really points to a different reality. I read a study years ago that predicted this behavor to be the more common. For years it was assumed that people would quickly turn on each other in crisis. These theories were mostly based on studies of rats or mice. When higher primates were studied they found the reverse. When crowded together and they're food was decreased, bickering between apes went down rather then up. The current theories are that higher primates and humans intuitively sense that minor tift would blow up into nasty, and possibly fatal fights.

Same was seen in pow camps in WW2. In camps in Asia the allied forces had even created bankruptcy systems for men who had gambled away they're daily food. They would give one meal to the creditor and give one to the prisoner but supervise him while he ate to make sure he didn't gamble it away. So crime might go up a hair and civil unrest will make a come back in the sense of people disrupting public meetings or protesting either for or against changes in law, but all in all, we arn't likely to see a major uptick in crime since there is going to be a better chance of the victim putting up a deadlier defense when they think they might have trouble replacing property. Same for out of hand protests, don't want to see your wife and kids put out because your in jail for something stupid.

[lbdavis]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

I believe that we are all 48 hours from anarchy should all the basic systems/dependencies we have fail. This to me is the real danger of our current economic crisis. It ain't just about money. It is about the danger to our personal safety and security if the economy collapses.

A year ago...reading the above statement...I would have classified the writer as a nut job. Maybe you still do.

I couldn't agree with you more, Cam. Someone already mentioned Katrina in this post; to me the saddest thing about Katrina is what could be said about our society. Deprived of electricity and many basic needs, an entire city in a "western, post-industrial, first-world, democratic, and free" country devolved 1500 years in the matter of hours.

I do not believe, however, that the current economic climate is going to leave entire nations without, power, food, water and shelter overnight.

[erps]

I doubt it Cam. Maybe a few spots in America, like New Orleans, but those spots are only barely this side of law and order anyway. My experience from living through 3 huricanes one summer is that you quickly see the best side of people. Mom had an old coffe pot that worked on a camp stove, you'd think she was delivering starbucks to the nieghbors not maxwell house. Guy down the street had four house refridgeraters running off his generator. We had our house and the nieghbors fridge running off ours.

Great examples Dan. Each of those were temporary natural disasters with a light at the end of the tunnel. An extended depression when folks are starting to get hungry, especially city folks, things could start getting testy.

[CrazyRu]

Ethnic cleansing in South-west regions. Anybody willing to bet how much time we have before it starts?
I spent a year in Texas; I can say that I was not welcomed there, with my heavy accent. There is really serious tension growing.
Since most of the population is dumb, well, illiterate and brainwashed, they believe that Mexicans are stilling their job and hospitals – look at Sway, he believes it too. It is convenient belief. Many regimes used it for a gain; Hitler is coming to my mind first, there are many others.

Canada. You better start building that fence at south border.
You know, your hospitals may be overwhelmed by influx of patients, heavily armed, by the way.

[sck5]

high unemployment and a hot summer could be a bad mix ...

[danjarch]

Hey Erps, What I lived through was temperary, but Dresden, and Argintina were not. In Dresden was a horror never imagined before, more then half of the residents were killed in the fire bombing the majority left standing seriously injured, but the citizens rallied and rationed food and water, bandages, Started rebuilding basics like sewer and water.

Argintina went through a complete economic collapse. Factory and business owners fled locking the food prosessing plants and evething else behind them. After a couple of days standing idle, the local re-opened the factories, restarted the lines sometimes working be hand because they couldn't get electricity. They bartered between the different plants to get the nessecities flowing. In the years that followed the courts started sorting out who owned what and who got to keep the profits made during the owners absences.

With few acceptions, it's only when the government makes it simply unlivable that the people turn to anarcy. PLaces like New Orleans and Detriot fit a certain patern. Old industrial cities where the major industries have left. This creates a drastic over supply of cheap housing but few jobs. We're not talking a short term or universal issue. In New Orleans, a lot of the men and women who were hard working, honest and dependable, had left the city. starting in the fifties as the ship building industry stopped even trying to restart. This has increasingly left a population of less then honest or hard working people. With the abundence of cheap housing, the could continue this existence. Same could be said for Detroit and the part of Paris that the muslim youths rioted from.
The irony in all this is that these type of places usually argue for even cheaper housing rather then encouraging the detruction of the extra housing. They fight land owner who would rather raize a condemed building then fix it up.

[danjarch]

Crazy, have you ever heard the saying "You take the weather with you". I live in Texas right now, black family across the streat, I know two Mexican families alredy, only been here a year. I've met a couple of illegals. Lots of people around these parts respect the Mexicans. The anger is at the government that doen't enforce it's own laws.

Trying to compare southernors to the nazis is a strech. Not to go political but the dems have more in common, beliefs in gun control, organic foods, using the schools for political indoctrination instead of basic education. But bringing up the nazis is a good point. Only when the government is the source of the terror does it get to really high levels. Russia, under stalin. Cambodia under Pol Pot. With out centralized force then the population will turn to blackmarkets and other tricks to get by. Large populations of hardworking people don't just start commiting violent crimes because a bad couple of years. Even in Russia the violence was more or less from the state. The adverage man just worked a couple of side jobs to get by. Tried to keep his head down and make it through.

[southernwind]

Since most of the population is dumb, well, illiterate and brainwashed, they believe that Mexicans are stilling their job and hospitals – look at Sway, he believes it too. It is convenient belief. Many regimes used it for a gain; Hitler is coming to my mind first, there are many others.

I can name hospitals in Texas that are out of business because wetbacks don't pay the bills. you sir are illiterate in the fact that you help create and then believe the same old tired stereotype.

If you think they have a right to run across the border then give up your job to them, and let them get your social security number so they can wreck your credit before they go back to mexico. spend some time in this country around real people where the damage is done. Go to the Texas valley and see the caravans of wetbacks going home after they milked the country for their share. Take a look at the ammount of money Western Union sends accross the border every week. they are helping to destroy this economy and you wanna hug them. Is it any matter that the 4 largest foreclosure rate places just happen to also have the largest of illegal's. You have no idea what you are talking about and sound like the same crackheads that keep electing Ted Kennedy. you say they are

dumb, well, illiterate and brainwashed

but yet you are the one that cant open your eyes past your own wallet and see the facts in the world.