If Americans will trample one another just to save a few dollars on a television, what will they do when society breaks down and the survival of their families is at stake? Once in a while an event comes along that gives us a peek into what life could be like when the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is stripped away. For example, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey there was rampant looting and within days people were digging around in supermarket dumpsters looking for food. Sadly, “Black Friday” also gives us a look at how crazed the American people can be when given the opportunity. This year was no exception. Once again we saw large crowds of frenzied shoppers push, shove, scratch, claw, bite and trample one another just to save a few bucks on cheap foreign-made goods. And of course most retailers seem to be encouraging this type of behavior. Most of them actually want people frothing at the mouth and willing to fight one another to buy their goods. But is this kind of “me first” mentality really something that we want to foster as a society? If people are willing to riot to save money on a cell phone, what would they be willing to do to feed their families? Are the Black Friday riots a very small preview of the civil unrest that is coming when society eventually breaks down?
Once upon a time, Thanksgiving was not really a commercial holiday. It was a time to get together with family and friends, eat turkey and express thanks for the blessings that we have been given.
But in recent years Black Friday has started to become even a bigger event than Thanksgiving itself.
Millions of Americans have become convinced that it is fun to wait in long lines outside retail stores in freezing cold weather in the middle of the night to spend money that they do not have on things that they do not need.
And of course very, very few “Black Friday deals” are actually made in America. So these frenzied shoppers are actually killing American jobs and destroying the U.S. economy as well.
The absurdity of Black Friday was summed up very well recently in a statement that has already been retweeted on Twitter more than 1,000 times…
It has gotten to the point where it is now expected that there will be mini-riots all over the country early on Black Friday morning each year. The following are a few examples of the craziness that we saw this year…
-“Fights break out when stores open on Black Friday”
-“Black Friday madness at Georgia Wal-Mart”
-“Black Friday Frenzy: 2 Run Down in Washington, Man Pulls Gun in Texas”
-“Black Friday 2012: Rush at Victoria’s Secret Pink at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kan.”
-“Black Friday shoppers smash door at Urban Outfitters”
-“Black Friday Shopping Hysteria From Around The Country [PHOTOS]”
-“Disturbance leads to scare at Westroads Mall”
-“Teens In Custody After Woodland Mall Fight”
-“Boy Robbed During Black Friday Shopping At Arundel Mills”
-“Shoppers Were So Obsessed With Black Friday Deals They Left Their Infants Unattended”
Fortunately, many Americans are starting to get fed up with Black Friday. In fact, one activist named Mark Dice actually went out and heckled Black Friday shoppers this year. I found the following You Tube video to be very funny, and I think most of you will too…
In the end, it is not that big of a deal that people want to fight with one another to save 50 dollars on a cell phone.
But this kind of extreme selfishness and desperation could become a massive problem someday if society breaks down and suddenly millions of extremely selfish and desperate people are scrambling for survival.
With each passing day our economy is getting even weaker, and the next wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching. What are people going to do when the next spike in unemployment hits us and nobody can find work?
To get an idea of where things are headed, just look at Europe. In both Greece and Spain the unemployment rate is over 25 percent and civil unrest has become almost a constant problem in both of those countries.
So what kind of riots will we see in the United States when the economy gets much worse than it is now?
Already there are signs of social decay all around us, and most Americans are completely unprepared for what will happen if a major disaster or emergency does strike.
Sadly, the reality is that most Americans live on a month to month basis. Most families do not have any emergency savings to speak of, and one recent poll found that 55 percent of all Americans only have enough food in their homes to survive for three days or less.
To me, that is an absolutely insane number.
We just came through a summer of extreme drought and global food supplies have dropped to a 40 year low. Our world is becoming increasingly unstable, and the global financial system could fall apart at any time. Most of us just assume that there will always be huge amounts of very cheap food available to us, but unfortunately that simply is not a safe assumption. The following is from a recent article in the Guardian…
Evan Fraser, author of Empires of Food and a geography lecturer at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada, says: “For six of the last 11 years the world has consumed more food than it has grown. We do not have any buffer and are running down reserves. Our stocks are very low and if we have a dry winter and a poor rice harvest we could see a major food crisis across the board.”
“Even if things do not boil over this year, by next summer we’ll have used up this buffer and consumers in the poorer parts of the world will once again be exposed to the effects of anything that hurts production.”
When I watch my fellow Americans trample one another to get a deal on a television or a video game, it makes me wonder what they would be willing to do if they went to the store someday and all the food was gone.
Desperate people do desperate things, and someday if there was a major economic breakdown in the United States I think the level of desperation in this country would be extremely frightening.
So what do you think? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…
Does Barack Obama Expect The Upcoming Election To Spark Rampant Civil Unrest?
Right now, the polls tell us that this is likely to be a very, very tight election. If you doubt this, just check out the daily Gallup tracking poll.
As I write this, Obama and Romney are tied at 46 percent.
In 2008, a wave of positive emotion helped Obama secure a solid victory on election night where there was no doubt about the outcome.
But this time there is not going to be the same wave of positive emotion behind Obama, and that means that the election is likely to be much, much closer.
One thing that set off alarm bells for me is when various news stories starting discussing the “legion of lawyers” that Barack Obama was recruiting for this election. The following is from a recent article in the Huffington Post….
Did you catch that?
Obama’s “unprecedented” legion of lawyers is definitely getting prepared for something.
In a tightly contested race, would Obama use every legal angle that he possibly could to take the election away from Mitt Romney?
Would Mitt Romney potentially do the same to Obama?
How would the rest of America respond to another huge legal struggle over the presidency?
Let us hope that we never find out the answers to any of those questions.
But fighting in court is not the only avenue that Barack Obama could potentially use to keep his spot in the White House.
There is also the possibility that Barack Obama could use his executive powers to influence the outcome of the election.
This year, Obama has issued a whole series of very strange executive orders.
Many have been wondering what the true purpose of these executive orders really is.
For example, EO 13603 enables Barack Obama to take total control over all food, all energy, all health resources and all transportation resources with the stroke of a pen.
The following is from an article about this executive order by Jim Garrison in the Huffington Post….
Later in that same article, he detailed some of the extraordinary powers that the executive branch would be given if Barack Obama decided that “national security” required it….
According to this executive order, a “national emergency” is not even required to activate these powers. If Barack Obama decides that there is a threat to “national security” (or to his job security) he could activate these powers at any time.
Another executive order, EO 13618, would potentially give Obama power over all communication resources in the United States.
So does that mean that Obama could potentially pull the plug on the Internet during a crisis?
That is a very good question.
Overall, Obama has issued 130 executive orders during his time as president. The amount of power that he now claims to possess is absolutely mind blowing.
So will he ever actually attempt to use the powers that he has granted himself under these executive orders?
Let’s hope not.
In addition, it appears that the Department of Homeland Security is gearing up for something.
An article posted on RT the other day entitled “DHS gears up for civil unrest prior to presidential elections” detailed some of the purchases that the Department of Homeland Security is looking to make….
You can find the DHS solicitation right here.
Also, as I have written about previously, earlier this month FEMA posted a solicitation for a large number of pre-packaged meals. According to the solicitation, the maximum number of meals that would be provided to FEMA under the contract would be 17.5 million meals. The following is from the FEMA solicitation document….
So do those solicitations mean anything special or are they just part of normal government operations?
That is a good question.
But what we do know is that U.S. military personnel are going to be deployed at the Democratic and Republican national conventions in support of U.S. Secret Service personnel. The following is from a recent Stars and Stripes article….
Could the same forces be deployed to quell civil unrest sparked by a controversial election result in November?
Let us hope that this upcoming election season is not as bitter and divisive as many are projecting and let us hope that there is a clear winner in November.
The conditions are definitely right for America to be absolutely torn apart if the “perfect controversy” comes rolling along.
At this moment, Americans are incredibly frustrated. Our economy has been in the dumps for quite a few years, and now it look like another recession is starting. The patience of the American people is running out.
Over much of the western United States things are so hot and dry right now that just a single spark is often enough to set off a forest fire that can burn for weeks. Well, the same thing can be said for the political climate in the United States right now.
The American people are so hot and so angry that it would not take much to set off a raging political fire.
Let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because a single spark could set this country ablaze.