Tensions – in the rest of the world, and in US inner cities. Compare and contrast.

 

First, the rest of the world.  Michael Yon recently had a lengthy, in-depth video interview with Jordan Peterson.  It’s a remarkable exposition of what’s really going on in the rest of the world;  the sort of thing one simply doesn’t see in the news media, because they’re self-censoring on behalf of the government and the powers that be.  It’s almost an hour and a half long, but it’s filled with detail, and well worth your time to watch.  I highly recommend it.

Let’s bring that reality home.  How are tensions playing out in the most dangerous places in America today – our inner cities?

I know a visiting nurse in a very large American city.  I won’t identify it, and I’ve edited out some of the details she provides, because she might face retaliation if she could be identified.  Suffice it to say her work takes her into the most crime-ridden parts of that city, as well as nicer neighborhoods.  She has to remain on good terms with the community in order to function.  As a result, there are those who talk to her about what they’re experiencing day by day, just trying to keep body and soul together.

Two years ago, when you went to **** it was pretty normal to have random … neighbors hanging out at the patient’s house, even in the middle of the night. No one was really making any effort to hide the contents of their kitchens or cupboards, and it was not terribly unusual for the next door neighbor to go start a pot of coffee or something, obviously comfortable in the kitchen.

That is not happening now. People are pruning down into very small circles. They are not answering the door for anyone who doesn’t need to be in the house. Cupboards and cabinets are closed now, always. Foodstuffs aren’t being left out on counters or tables. There seems to be an unspoken social rule in which you don’t go in other people’s kitchens without them anymore.

There are also a lot of outsiders showing up, immigrants from various places. The people who were already there are taking note of who the new people are and where they are, even those who are not gang-aligned. We have more families asking us for help getting food for the patients, and we’re having to low-key check to make sure families in less food-secure areas actually have enough food and the social workers are developing relationships with food banks to refer people to.

Social cohesion was already questionable by outside standards, but people largely knew who they could trust to try to **** them over and act accordingly and who was fairly solid in their little areas. It’s much worse now.

Groups are smaller than they were a year ago.

So everything I’m seeing in the areas that are relatively poor indicates that things are already starting to fray around the edges here.

. . .

I don’t want them to be right, but those kind of things are why I said several months ago that I expect things to go pear shaped this winter.

It started during covid and it’s been slowly getting worse.

The truly poor areas are food deserts because of high crime and/or **** destroyed by several rounds of rioting not being rebuilt. When supply chain issues started making it hard to get various things, people started to fracture into increasingly small groups. Not super obvious at first, but it’s been building for a long while.

I will probably be fine if I can’t find a remote job, though I desperately want to. Enlightened self interest and all that. But I wouldn’t go into the very poor areas of **** in my regular clothes for any amount of money, even during the day now.

As I said, I know this nurse personally.  I believe her, and I trust the accuracy of her observations.  I can relate to it because two of my sisters were nurses in South Africa, during some of the worst crime and violence of the apartheid era.  They were able to go into some of the worst areas in relative safety, provided they wore their nurses’ uniforms.  The uniform conferred a degree of immunity, and helped engender a certain degree of community trust.  Without it, they’d have been raped and murdered almost faster than you can say it.

Take what the above nurse has to say, and translate that scenario onto an international stage, where we’re seeing tensions ratchet up between nations and regions, as Michael Yon describes.

All over the world, the ropes holding us together, the “ties that bind“, are fraying.  The knots are slipping.  The ties are getting weaker and weaker.  Sooner or later, they’re going to let go;  and when they do, we’re going to see what Michael Yon calls PanFaWar (Pandemic, Famine, War).  I no longer have any doubt about what’s happening.  It’s just a matter of time.

An overriding problem is that the unseen powers trying to manipulate nations and people, to force them to do what they want rather than what’s in their own interest, are ignoring a very fundamental realityVox Day put it well on Gab:

Almost all Western foreign policy is being decided and conducted by people who have not been punched in the face enough to understand that for every human action, there will eventually be an opposing reaction.

The same can be said of most foreign policy around the world, not just Western, of course.  Our leaders assume that people will do as they’re told.  They will, to a certain point.  Probably up to 90%, maybe even 95%, will shrink from acting in their own interest and their own defense, because it’s easier to be a sheep than a sheep-dog.  However, there is a minority whose eyes are open, and who are increasingly determined to protect and defend and keep what’s theirs.  When they act, they’ll have an impact out of all proportion to their numbers.  That’ll be true in an inner-city suburb, or a state, or a nation, or a region.

The powers that be will, of course, use all the force at their disposal to squash them like bugs.  However, they may find that a whole lot more difficult than they currently expect.  Britain learned that the hard way in 1776.  The time for Lexington Green, Round 2, may be drawing near.

That’s what Michael Yon anticipates.  I wish I could believe that he’s wrong;  but all the evidence I’ve provided above, and in many other articles on this blog, says otherwise.

Peter

9 comments

  1. One example of a small group having an outsized effect was the Provo IRA. Though I hate terrorists, and that Soviet-supported group never effectively acted towards their stated goals, over a 30 year period, the 2,500 or so active terrorists tied down far greater numbers of British troops, including the SAS, in a population about the size of Los Angeles.
    I don't want to see this here, as I believe that open conflict would break the American social, political, and economic system, which would break such systems worldwide, as I believe that America is one of the keystones of world stability.
    John in Indy

  2. It use to be hard to believe but with each day over the last few years it has become easier to steel my resolve.

  3. I live very rural and people here still help each other and sometimes strangers. It is sad to see that the cities are going the other way. I understand that ethnic neighborhoods in the cities helped many to get through the Great Depression and eventually become Americans. I often add a prayers of the faithful at mass for the grace for us to recognize those in need and respond!

  4. The actual number of active IRA members was estimated to have been no more than 150 at any time with some 5 to 10 times that in sympathisers who could be counted on to provide keys for a car, leave a door open or 'hold on to things for a while'.
    The number number of troops in Ulster peaked at some 23,000. All in all, a great investment by the Soviets as the majority of troops were pulled out of west Germany.

  5. Welcome to the Great Unraveling. Crime in general and shoplifting in particular has become so widespread that many stores have many items under lock and key. You need to be escorted by an employee who will unlock the item and hand it to you. I recently had to go in for an unwanted but required colonoscopy preparation treatment and when I went to Walmart the generic Miralax was under lock and key. Who would steal that stuff? Today I heard that stores are locking up cans of spam. The entire world is being turned upside down.

    We already live under total tyranny, but still somehow believe that we are free and have “constitutional” rights. So called “insurrectionists” from January 6th are set up by feds using antifa thugs in MAGA hats and other provocateurs and they still sit in prison without due process while people who attack police and perpetrate crimes up to and including murder are never even charged or are out on bail walking “free” among us. How many BLM or Antifa rioters from the Summer of Love are sitting in prison?

    “No justice, no peace.” Tell that to Ashli Babbitt’s husband and surviving family.

    Plandemic, supply chain breakdown, food shortages, recession or depression, border crisis, coming famine, multiple wars are all just one manufactured crisis after another. The general population is being slowly conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs. In the end, increase the level of pain and fear and most will line up and climb on that bus to go to a settlement camp where the globo government promises food and safety.

    But, what about the Constitution! Sorry but it died long ago. “What form of government do we have?” Benjamin Franklin was asked. He replies, “A republic, if you can keep it.” We failed.

    The SHTF quite some time ago. The collapse is here. Remember it isn’t the fall that kills you, it’s the landing and we just haven’t hit bottom yet. But it’s coming.Soon.

    "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper."

    Never, ever give up your guns and never, ever get on the bus. Oh yeah and never,ever become Canadian Bacon either. "We have met the enemy and he is us." Get right with the Lord…

    https://michaelyon.locals.com/post/2505018/marching-toward-cannibalism-don-t-become-canadian-bacon

  6. at this point, im ok with the cities all self destructing. Anybody who read history,, this is what happens when decivilization happens and we are getting it in spades.

  7. Just starting to watch it, I know I will leave the video more informed and hopefully not absolutely fearful of the future.

    But, 2 men I respect having an important discussion.

  8. "People are pruning down into very small circles."

    I've seen this advice circulating for a while now, and I've given it out myself. Knowing who you can trust, either with your goods or your life, will be of critical importance if things get as bad as many think they will.

    I hope they don't, but that's what I'm planning on.

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