tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post549388427807778079..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Wastrels In High PlacesFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-58056775143891282162015-06-15T12:18:35.325-04:002015-06-15T12:18:35.325-04:00The country is already gone. All that remains is t...The country is already gone. All that remains is the grisly execution of its destruction. It is an airplane that has already lost stability beyond the point of no return. It cannot be righted again. But so long as there remains air above the ground, the plane remains in one piece. The ground is coming. I don't know if it's tomorrow or several decades away, but it is coming.<br /><br />My neighbor is what you would call a regular guy. Your average suburbanite, with average priorities, possessions, and wherewithal. He confided in me sometime back that he has several guns, ammo stores, a bug-out plan, and certain high-value trade goods. This is not your backwoods survivalist in the middle of Montana. He isn't like me in that you would never find him putzing around various online debate venues and intellectual blogs. This is a regular Joe in a typical white-collar suburban enclave.<br /><br />And he's loaded for bear. As he said it: "things can fall apart quickly. Been seeing a lot more of that lately. Just want to be ready if the rot comes here."<br /><br />I think a lot of Americans, of many different stripes, know deep-down that the collapse is coming. They don't trust the pilot when he says everything is just fine, and the plane will be righting again soon. The passengers are clutching their parachutes, sneaking what they can from others. The mad scramble hasn't quite started yet, but it's just under the surface, seething panic, a muted madness.<br /><br />Folks are taking sides. When our neighborhood had a little Memorial Day party, nobody bothered telling the HOA like we were supposed to. The one Black family on the block stayed inside, watching furtively from their windows. They don't like us, or want anything to do with us. They are reasonably educated and affluent Blacks, but don't like the idea of hanging out with Whitey. Ironically, most folks would be welcoming to them (again, they aren't the gang banger variety), supposing they were interested. They were invited to the party. But they showed little interest. We're not their people, and they aren't ours. And so there was a little awkwardness, and they declined to come out.<br /><br />This is interesting in the context of the recent unpleasantness at that Pool party. It's just a little microcosm of my own world, but the point is, I see it everywhere. In stores, neighborhoods, churches... Americans aren't coming together, they are growing apart.<br /><br />And they are arming themselves, either ideologically, physically or both.<br /><br />We all know where that leads.Manuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13082153758868357687noreply@blogger.com