Just let me move first.
Posted on 12/07/2018 1:42:20 AM PST by vannrox
Many people, the opinions of whom I greatly respect, have written on the state of politics and society in the US in such a way as to suggest the possibility of the US moving into a period of similar to what was seen in the former republic of Yugoslavia from the mid 1980’s through to the late 1990’s, referred to by many as Balkanization. I’m certainly in agreement with these bloggers and writers, Matt Bracken being just one example.
The political, sociological, ethnic and racial trajectory in the US is eerily similar to that of the former Yugoslavia in many ways. In the coming years, this could even expand into the sphere of religion, though for now there doesn’t seem to be such widespread religious friction as much as there is racial/ethnic and political.
The similarities begin where Yugoslavia’s end did: With the economy. It’s always the economy. Yugoslavia was totally socialist in their economic model. For you on the left, yes, it was indeed “real” socialism, complete with the never-ending litany of financial Band-Aid’s designed mainly to keep the rigged carnival game going for as long as possible for whomever was sitting at the top getting rich. The US economy may not appear to be socialist in the same way, for whatever reason many Americans maintain the idea of some bastardization of capitalism corrupted by, well, socialists.
Both Yugoslavia and the US endlessly investigated and studied how best to fix the economic woes, and some decent ideas, even some great ideas, were formulated… And then were largely ignored, either due to a lack of will to implement them or a lack of ability. Probably it was lack of political will, since in both country’s cases, the ideas that would have worked best included laundry lists of major money cuts and reductions of federal power. The politicians in power are generally never going to go for a plan like that. They’d rather drive the train straight off the cliff themselves before letting someone else drive it to safety.
The idea so far is that the economic system in the US is simply not sustainable. The Band-Aid of borrowing more money from the US public, China, Japan, etc. and periodically raising the debt ceiling to allow it is not going to work forever, and it doesn’t require one to have any advanced understanding of economics to grasp this. You don’t need to be an expert economist to realize that $20 trillion in debt and hundreds of trillions more in unfunded liabilities is virtually insurmountable at this point. The fact that the US dollar is the currency of the world is not going to shield us from the inevitable forever. The economic problems that Yugoslavia faced in the early 1980’s, and that the US now faces, are like a lit match being held over a barrel of gasoline.
And that leads me to discuss that gasoline.
Yugoslavia had an extremely diverse country racially, ethnically and religiously. The geographic location and the early economic prosperity (or the illusion of it) attracted a lot of people from all sorts of backgrounds. After a while, the government began to show heavy favor toward certain ethnicities at the expense of others. Rigorous controls were put on employment and educational systems, favoring one ethnic group over the other with claims that there was history of abuse that needed to be atoned for. Criminal behavior by members of certain ethnic or racial groups were largely ignored by the media and law enforcement apparatus, while even the most benign actions of other groups were seized upon and used for narrative building.
Does any of this sound familiar? In the US we have a long list of “protected” groups who are favored with advantages in employment, educational and entitlement systems. Race alone is often used by the media and government, often one and the same, to build a narrative of victimization.
In Yugoslavia circa 1980’s, and in the US today, you’d see a very socially diverse people from numerous ethnic, racial, economic and religious backgrounds. When these diverse groups mingle and mix, everyone has to accept that different cultures will have friction arise when the “negative” aspects of a particular culture become unacceptable to another. In times such as those, it’s necessary for the opposing cultures to have the freedom and ability to separate for a peaceful outcome. Problems arise, always, when incompatible cultures are forced to mix in society with no avenue for voluntary separation, and these problems are heavily exacerbated when government and media get involved to force one culture to accept and integrate what they feel are the “negative” aspects of the opposing culture. An obvious and perhaps overly-simplistic example is when white, Christian American citizens are forced to accept and live alongside immigrants who wish to practice Sharia law and alter their own lives and habits in order to accommodate some of these sensitivities. A very basic example, yes, but I think it makes the point.
We are meant to swallow the lie that says “diversity is our strength” without consideration for merit, performance, ability, intelligence or actual results.
This is not meant to be an indictment on any specific culture or ethnicity, but more of a history lesson, a social observation and a dire prediction.
The history lesson is the continued failure of all socialist based economic models, whether we want to consider them “real” socialism or not. The sort of hard socialism seen in 1980’s Yugoslavia and the crony-capitalist soft socialist version seen in the US today are both examples of that failure system. As I stated earlier, it does not take any level of economic expertise to understand that our current system is insolvent and that we have passed the point of no return on a future crash of our financial system. Now that less than half of the people in the US are net-taxpayers and over half of the people in the US are receiving some sort of government assistance simply to survive, we have become a welfare state, with only decreasing numbers of producers with increasing numbers of consumers. Mathematically, it is not sustainable. Historically, it is disastrous.
The social observation is that such a mass of diverse peoples must have a voluntary pressure outlet in order to maintain peace. We must accept reality that not all cultures are able to be forced together with peaceful results. Forced proximity, with advantages, disadvantages and blame doled out to certain peoples, with a lack of opportunity to separate peacefully will always result in strife and eventual violence.
The dire prediction is one that is easy to see coming: An eventual economic failure is the lit match, while the total lack of national cultural identity is the gasoline. The media and governmental apparatchiks stand by to stoke the fires.
We are Yugoslavia circa 1980’s.
My advice? Stay out of Sarajevo.
It’s already here.
yep, so what some folks don’t like others always been that way, it is a right to isolate oneself from all the BS..to hell with embracing cra$ you don’t agree with..goes no where but down
Ping
Not coming. Already here.
The only thing that prevents outright war is prosperity. Almost all of us have enough to be satisfied in some way. Lacking that, we would be at Civil War.
We remain to comfortable to fight for our rights because we have enough stuff.
Obama’s plan to divide the USA into areas which do not follow federal law and those who do has been somewhat successful.
So the revolution of the liberal fascist Obama-ites is ongoing. Its the sanctuary cities/ sanctuary states against the rest of us.One law for racial / ethnic minorities, and another law for “white people.” The term “white people” includes Jews and Asians, or any minority group which has successfully integrated with the majority.
The problem is that only the Freedom caucus and the President recognize the problem. The rest of Congress will not talk about the “ white elephant” in the room. Its not going away as the country is slowly but surely, ludicrously Maxine Waters-ized.
If this continues war cannot be avoided.
I don’t see how some sort of split is avoidable. We have such disparate races, cultures, and political leanings. We have become a polyglot that shares geography. Multiculturalism is one of the biggest lies that has ever been foisted on the American people.
“Editorial staff” must be blind. Balkanization has been with us for over 40 years and is the cause of the political and economic problems. The lefties and their free traitor friends, for the most part, are not long descended from other countries.
DUH!
I could see a serious secession movement in California if Trump wins in 2020, esp if Repubs recapture the House.
Just let me move first.
bmp
It is worse than that; look at the preferential treatment accorded certain groups, and the economic fallout from that, and it is “balkanization” in the truest sense: It leads to the same outcome. To rob white & Asian men of economic opportunity is criminal; there is no legal justification for preferential treatment of black, Hispanic, and female students for college access, government jobs, small business loans, etc., yet it is openly practiced. It has reduced the American birthrate significantly, with devastating effect; the country is unrecognizable and dysfunctional.
Excellent commentary. Now I want to learn more about Balkanization.
The rat party and their republican cohorts have erected a socialist system within a capitalist system, the haves support the, do not want to work, the lazy, the dependent for a slew of reasons, single mothers, ethnic so called disparity (redistribution), new government programs on top of the many all ready in effect (if its free its for me). Eventually the scale will tip and this is where you will see the tax payers on the hook revolt
Since the population is so mixed it would require something like the split of India and Pakistan - a mass migration to their preferred areas and that will never happen.
Instead through demographics and vote cheating the liberals will slowly take over, get a lock on all branches of government and impose their will on America.
Another 50 years and the kids will be wondering how the country got to be the way it is. They would know - if real history would be allowed to be taught.
It’s what liberals pray to Lucifer for.
“It’s already here.”
Agree. Folks are doing it with their feet by relocating to areas of the country more aligned with their beliefs and values. At the moment, it’s probably more economic driven. But, eventually, politics and moral and social values will become the prime mover.
I think it can definitely happen and if the Left keeps on pushing, I think its inevitable. Throw in clowns like Swalwell wanting to confiscate everyone’s guns and alluding the power of the federal government and nukes to do it, if need be. Now, that may be over the top and ridiculous, but it also goes to show that he and his ilk have no concern for the Bill of Rights, the rights of Americans or the Rule of Law, as long as they are in charge.
At the end of the day, lets just suppose that he does start to get some confiscation. It’s already happening. But now, it’s people that are getting ‘Red Flagged’ from family members, etc and it’s a here and there thing. What happens when it starts to happen to every day American’s? Are the people going to rise up and prevent it? Are the cops, realizing what is going on and find out that they have to go to their brothers house to get his weapons? What happens when they have to go to their best friends house? Are they all going to continue to show up for work and deny people their God given rights? What happens when they try to use the National Guard? They did it once before, during Katrina?
If the country does break up, I think it’ll be along the lines of the Russian economist that predicted such...
http://www.the-american-catholic.com/2008/12/29/russian-professor-predicts-breakup-of-us-in-2010/
Although I completely disagree with his map. It’ll break up into 3 parts. Each coast. And then the middle. And the middle will encompass most of what is the USA, today. Eastern Oregon and Washington will want in, as will most of interior California. Nevada will be iffy, because their liberal base is in the cities and they’ll be cut off. Parts of Arizona and New Mexico will also want in the Middle, as well. Again, because their liberal bases are concentrated in the cities.
Moving to the Eastern side, you’ll find South Carolina, most-if not all of North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Western Virginia, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania and Western NY will also want in the Middle.
The Left way overplays their hands when it comes to their control over things. Look at almost every state that is under Dem control. The control comes from the cities. If those maps they put out every election, showing the voting trends, overall, most states are as RED as they can be. Hell, Georgia almost elected a Socialist, that stated she was going to raise taxes and take guns. All her votes came from Columbus, Atlanta area, Augusta, Savannah.
On top of all that, pretty much all of the food production and energy production is in the Middle and Southeast. Coincidentally, that is also where most of the military bases are and where a significant portion of the people that make up the military are from. People like Mazzie Hirono and the rest of the Left believe their own BS and deep down, believe that they are smarter than everyone else. What she doesn’t understand is that there are 10s of millions that don’t drink her KoolAid and if/when it comes down to it, will be far more aggressive and skilled in protecting what is theirs.
Throw in some Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, like the one in Republic, Washington, that will not enforce these any of these insane laws. If it does go down, I’m thinking that Matt Bracken has it, at least a little right...
I have always maintained that as long as Joe six-pack is able to watch his sports in his man cave and recliner a CW-II would not be possible.
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