It's Built In

I've been reminded of something that happened a couple years ago.

A man named Jeffery Spaide decided he'd had enough of his asshole neighbors and killed them both in the street.

Having had a couple asshole neighbors, I can understand the urge.

Western Civilization, and by extension, it's members have a "fuck this shit!" mode built right in.

Mr Spaide had reached the limit of what was going to deal with and said, "fuck this!" by straight up murdering the source of the irritation.

Western Civ as a whole as a similar outlook.

The failure of prohibition is an example.  Too many people to arrest and imprison simply ignored the law and kept buying booze.

We're seeing a bit of this with the war on (some) drugs.  The news focuses hard on the bottom end cases, but so did the movement that got prohibition passed.

Betcha, betcha:  There are a lot of people doing hard drugs you'd never suspect because they're managing their habit successfully.

But we're rapidly approaching a critical mass where it won't matter what the government and the people who call their tune say; the people are going to go their own way.

I'm hearing from non-political folks my wife knows who are asking, "why is the government deciding this?"

Indeed.  Why?

They're noticing that they've no voice.

They're noticing that the police are ineffective because no matter who they arrest, or how often, it doesn't even slow down the criminal.

They're noticing that the elections have a lot of obvious from the ground level problems and are wondering why nothing is being done.

They're noticing an ever smaller group of people is making sweeping decisions about their lives.

They have discovered they are not OK with it.

They are also managing to communicate with others.

The preference cascade is poised.

I have hope.