It appears that many of you have been noticing some of the same disturbing societal trends that we’ve been covering here for some time now. This negative impetus is being felt around the world, not just in the United States. Disfavorable economic conditions are being combined with rising crime rates of many types. Rampant illegal immigration adds to an already endemic problem of homelessness, now compounded by open-air drug usage. Increasingly violent protests flood the streets, shutting down the normal flow of travel and commerce. Doesn’t it feel as if things are simply coming apart at the seams? At Townhall, Mark Lewis sees all of this as a “descent into barbarism,” and he argues that what we’re seeing should have been predictable and may be, at least in some ways, a sadly natural state of humanity.
A descent into barbarism is easy and fast; you only need to let yourself go. The animal part of all of us is just below the surface and constantly has to be controlled, or it will bubble to the top, and we will sink into savagery. Rising into civilization is difficult and slow because the masses must know the difference between right and wrong, constantly be sober and vigilant about it, urged by universally acknowledged societal mores and virtues to pursue the excellent and reject the decadent, and, above all, individually conquer themselves, something few people are ever capable of consistently doing, and rarely when fulfilling the pleasures of the flesh.
When it becomes socially acceptable to be a barbarian, as is increasingly the case in America, there will be more and more barbaric activity. When national, state, and community “leaders” encourage such conduct—which they are wont to do because there is power for political tyrants in social chaos—and when one’s peers and associates actively engage in such animal behavior, this promotes such pursuits. There is a reason why Hollywood and America’s inner cities are full of darkness and not light—few are shining the light and leading the way out of darkness. The Democratic Party and American media certainly aren’t doing it, nor do they intend or even want to.
The linked editorial is a fascinating if depressing read, and it is unfortunately difficult to argue with many of the points that Mark makes. While we might like to think of people – particularly Americans – as noble creatures mutually striving for a better world, historically the “arc of justice” has not always traveled in the same direction. Nowhere is this more evident this year than in all of the violent riots we’re seeing. The line between a crowd raising its voice and raising its fists is a thin one and it’s very easily crossed.
This isn’t simply happening in response to the war in Gaza. As Mark points out, it’s been going on for a while now. He reminds us of the BLM riots in the summer of 2020, but I would argue it was gathering a head of steam well before that. Think back to the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore in 2015 and the resultant arson and destruction of parts of the city. That situation also spiraled out of control in little more than the blink of an eye, though it thankfully didn’t go national on the same scale that the Black Lives Matter riots did. It’s arguable that the situation today is now even worse.
So is this sort of descent into barbarism simply inevitable? As Mark said, there does appear to be some level of savagery swirling below the surface in many people and it only takes an unfortunate set of circumstances for it to bubble to the top, particularly when large groups of like-minded people gather together. A protesting crowd can shift gears into a riotous mob at the drop of a hat, and we’re watching this take place on an almost daily basis.
The reality is that we are a chaotic species at heart, despite going through civilized periods where we dress ourselves in finery and tamp down those worst impulses. Those impulses never fully go away and that’s particularly true in times of war. There’s a reason that I regularly remind readers of my father’s old adage, telling us that “bad things happen in war.” It’s true, and some of the bad things are done by the people you might see as “the good guys” by default. A report just emerged this week saying that during the two-year civil war in Ethiopia, as many as 100,000 women have been raped. My dad and his army friends from WW2 brought home some horror stories from Europe and it wasn’t just the Germans behaving badly.
So if that’s truly the nature of man and Mark is correct in his assessment, what does that portend for the future? If rioting becomes the “new normal” in America, our law enforcement forces will quickly be overwhelmed, as they have been on the local level in many locations already. Once looting becomes “a way of life,” others will join in, asking why they should bother to pay for goods when others do not. That path leads toward the shutdown of normal commercial activity. When it is unsafe to walk the streets because of fears of violence and the police can’t control it, others will increasingly take to arming themselves in response. Are we in some sort of societal “doom loop” at this point that will only spread, or is there still time to walk back from the ledge? These seem to be important questions that demand answers, and the clock may be ticking in terms of finding path back toward the civil society we long took for granted.
