Public sentiment can be a wild animal. It can also be like something caged and chained and then let loose.
It's been interesting to read both McMillan's saga of WWI and Passmore's Fascism. And to compare all that to what makes America different.
A scene from a history of Florida also comes to mind. A scene in which there's been settlement-wrecking disaster and even the horses die. People were so desperate to live they fought over bloated, fetid horse"meat" floating in a flooded river. We like to think our civility will hold no matter what, but even in less drastic change "triggers" can lead actions more than "doing the right thing".
There is the danger that Europe faced in the early 1900's. People getting overtly territorial; claiming unseen authority to manipulate whatever they can. There is risk that in realigning from out of control a sort of robotic police state mentality catches fire in the everyday. Between people's desperation to survive and the popular push to be cleaned up and crime-free there's a lot of attitude space. It is where we need to rely on the rule of law (itself seemingly compromised and contorted). It is why so many, many people seem suddenly personality-less and all business. It is why politicians get run out of town but not hung. Right now, it is what we have to navigate the changes being made to big policy and in the overall economic engine.
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