One of the pillars of Western society, for perhaps the last seven hundred years, has been the rule of law. Economists of all persuasions agree that it has been a crucial element in the development and dominance of the West.
That the rule of law has been disparately applied throughout history is obvious. It has always been, however, a bulwark on which citizens depended. Careers, investments, education, even where to live have been decisions citizens made with a heavy reliance on the rule of law.
Recent events in the United States are alarming to those that have made these kinds of decisions. It should not have been unexpected.
Crowds of protesters-turned-rioters have caused millions of dollars of destruction in cities all over the country. Most of it while police stood by and watched.
Small business owners that had an expectation that local authorities would protect life and property have watched – sometimes in disbelief — as mayors have praised the “protesters.”
Some local authorities have warned their citizens not to take the law into their own hands. In other words, don’t try to protect your own property, just vacate for now and clean up the mess later.
America gets the government it deserves. Over the past forty years, the governments of large cities (and several states) have become bureaucracies that stand for nothing except their own sustenance. This is to be expected because organizations exist for themselves and governments are no different.
In times of crisis, the authorities find it easy to disregard any calls of duty and digress to the path of least resistance. Not surprisingly, this path most often favors the offenders at the expense of the offended.
Over the last half century, America has progressed in technology while it has regressed as a society. While people enjoy their creature comforts their propensity is too often to neglect education, morality, propriety, cordiality and much more. As America becomes more and more partitioned, life in society becomes unstable. Instability is bad for society in general and good for the fringe.
In science, unstable compounds take the path resistance. Sometimes the result is an explosion. When governments take the path of least resistance, a societal explosion can result.
America is inching toward a place where she desperately does not want to go.