I, reaching gently
Feel the ground vine's creeping root
Together we work.
A man is ruined for a reason unknownHis fortunes are wasted at onceHe moves with caution to protect his ownYet his wine is poured out by a dunce;Even now there is no reason for itIt is just something powerful goingThere is nothing to gain, there is no splitBetween two parties both knowing--Not even the wisdom to cause a man fearThough some will worship insteadThe ogre, that beast which can only endearThose whose spirits are dead;They too must be crushed; but the effort is lessFor loss of honor will fix their illYes, this same hand God made goodness to blessHe ordained the ogre to kill.
The Second Symptom of Collapse
The toppling of statues, primarily works of the fourth and third United States Government in memory of their predecessors, is the second clear sign. The response to this activity, as well as the formation of an 'autonomous zone' show the extent of decay throughout the whole structure. In it, we see not people organizing to deal with a novel threat (after all, most of these statues have never been threatened--) we see them all appealing to management or waiting for management to tell them what to do. The only ones vaguely organized are those destroying order, and let us be clear: they didn't organize themselves, they were told by their management to go out and cause a ruckus.
Some are right to point out that if these peoples' management stops organizing them or tells them to stop, nearly all of them will. It is however an open question as to whether something like a presidential election will have a significant effect on the decision-making of these managers. I suspect it no longer will; we have gone beyond 'agitating for political profit' to 'the sharks have tasted blood'. In every Mutt and Jeff relationship, there exists the distinct possibility that Mutt gets out of control. In that case, Jeff will have to muster some political will to stop him. It's hard to call in the police when they quit.
The general pathetic weakness of these "protests" (and there is no such thing as a legitimate or peaceful protest, let us be clear) suggests that if there are even ten officers left in a city's police department they should be able to put them down once management stops calling for them. Yet, evidence in some places such as Atlanta points to slipped ropes, suggests that the federal government will have to intervene. Yet, the President, understanding the political nature of the situation, is unlikely to act to save these cities unless terms of surrender are offered. This seems bad and unstatesmanlike, but this is no longer a society - we are at war.
The sooner conservatives fully embrace this view, the easier it will be for them.