I kind of disagree. I would say that violence of all types is increasing in the last 50 years at least. Its popping up as verbal violence in late night talk shows, with movie stars, with news organizations, and politicians- and in physical violence on college campuses, neighborhoods, etc.

Socialism is by its nature violent. Independent people tend to treat others with respect, not violence. Trump rallies were uplifting and exciting and definitely not violent. Hillary supporters are definitely violent by nature.

I think we would have to wait for the current socialist government to collapse as in AS. They are too powerful and would just simply overrun it.

Absolutely. It will be quite difficult due to the NSA and all the tools and powers it has. The gulch would have to be totally hidden, or it would be attacked by the establishment and destroyed.

I have felt under attack for a number of years now by our government passing constant regulations, assessing fines, taking my money, and threatening to lock me up for violation they deem to be "necessary". Even DUI has been made some terrible crime even when no one is hurt.

This article reminds me of that old curmudgeon, Philip Wylie. In one of his books he describes a dream in which on a bright sunny day, the clouds gather up and form a swear word. It makes the news and the phenomenon continues day aftef fay until there's only one swear word that hasn't been used. That day, the clouds no longer form words, and a sigh of relief is heard world-wide. That night the stars of the galaxy start to move and they form a huge letter F. I can't make up my mind as to whether my great age is better so I don't have to experience the dissolution of humanity, or to stay alive in order to see what happens next.

Civilization runs in cycles. As the natural forces that make life hard are restrained, controlled, or moderated, and pressures are eased, a more peaceful society comes into being. Radical change becomes hard without violence, and those who seek a transformation of a static society increase artificial pressures to replace the natural forces and reinvigorate the drive for violent action.

We have a relatively peaceful society with significant individual freedom and a low level of want. The rise of the social justice warrior is an artifice by political figures to create unrealistic pressures to tear apart a functioning society so that it can be "remade" to give them more power.

I agree with all the ideas except for the allusion that violence is getting worse. The average person is much much less likely to die or be injured by violence as a person when the US was founded. And they were much less likely to be affected by violence than people a few hundred years before them. Even my lifetime violent crime, violent protests, and war are way down.

You say we can expect random acts of violence and violent insurrections in the future. That's true, but it's been with us since humans appeared, and it's actually decreasing. A greater percentage of people on earth can explain the basics that it's wrong to us force on people. Violent protests and insane violent acts are not a portent of incipient forces. They're not a sign of a special situation requiring a special response (e.g. banning something). They've always been with us, but they're decreasing.

True, how ever cruel, just like a minority of men once had to do to survive...look inside.

Remember the story the next time you hear that song by "A Great Big World". They are not singing about Jayne's story, of course, but just the same, let me know if that reality hits hard.

You can't comfort them, they have to find it from within.

Hmmm, reminds me of a time, Julian Jaynes posits: " when the voices stopped speaking".
About 2500/3000 years ago, the illusionary voices of their gods, their rulers or ancestors, that governed mankind's behavior stopped speaking.
Can you imagine that confusion.
Preceding that occurrence was a realization that what one mans voice said was different from what another said. So now...all is silent except for the spoken voices of man...what do we do now? (sound familiar?)

Only those with the voice of "Self" will survive, (those conscious). That is the difference between then and now but somehow...I wonder if this too, is a cycle in human evolution.

There is a song I heard that demonstrates the pleas for the voices to: "say something, cause I'm giving up on you."
I can just imagine, a man and a women climbing to the highest point available to them, looking up and crying out those words with tear induced voices...begging..."say something...cause I'm giving up on you.

I wondered why, that song and the story I just rendered, hits me hard; until that is, I read your article. Maybe because we are about to enter that time once more.

For those of us with the voice of "Self"...how do we comfort those without, Robert? There are far too many.

Creation of the real Gulch is more important than ever before.