If you’ve followed alternative media for some time, you’ll invariably come across the theme of an impending civil war. But it’s not just Infowars’ Alex Jones that’s raising the alarm bells. Instead, several mainstream outlets have expressed concerns of an internal conflict going hot.
For instance, The New Yorker noted two years ago that we’re potentially headed toward a “new kind” of civil war. This op-ed came off the heels of the Charlottesville, Virginia rally which devolved into tragically fatal violence. As such, the piece focuses on the growing racial divide in America.
And certainly, racial tensions have heightened over the years. While many on the left blame the Trump administration, Trump is only the symptom of this tension, not the cause. Instead, in my opinion, excessively liberal policies that strip meritocracy from the economic system is the catalyst for racism.
While race has divided segments of the U.S. population, I don’t think it’s enough to trigger a nationwide civil war. However, what will is the destruction of the middle class.
As we’re seeing right now in Los Angeles, the middle class doesn’t exist. Rather, we have two categories: the elite rich and the desperately poor. Fueled with ever-increasing despair and outrage, I believe we’re rapidly heading toward a tipping point.
Civil War Could End the “System”
For decades, elites within this country have survived on the “system.” From the military industrial complex to codified education, everything has turned into an institutionalized framework.
And from that, we have inane sayings like “word hard and you’ll succeed.” Perhaps early on in the manifestations of the system, that was the case. But now, there’s just no correlation between effort and financial success. Some of the hardest-working people I know are among the poorest.
Actually, this contradiction has been brewing for a while. We just haven’t realized it until recently, when the dichotomy is so glaringly obvious. Yet people plod along because they feel they have no other choice.
But at some point, people break down. In the moving Falling Down, Michael Douglas played a character who had simply had enough. As you might guess, he took his mounting frustrations out through violence.
But I wonder collectively, how many people are also feeling the same way? Unbeknownst to us, there are folks out there that are ticking time bombs. All it could take is one additional trigger or frustration to set them off.
If enough people rise up, that could end the system. It could also spell the end of our country as we know it.