Interpersonal violence tends to escalate quickly, where the combatants seem to go from wary suspicion to verbal confrontation and then trading blows. Anyone who has been in a bar fight understands this accelerated process. Two guys are playing pool, words are exchanged and suddenly a beer bottle is smashed over someone’s head. Sports fights follow a similar pattern. Two players get a bit heated and then all of a sudden, you have a bench clearing brawl. This even happens in the professional ranks.

Of course, people don’t actually go from zero to eleven in the blink of an eye. It just appears that way to the outsider. In reality, there is an underlying hostility between the parties that simmers until one or both come to the conclusion that violence is the best option or the only option. In a bar fight, the guy taking the first blow often assumes the other guy is about to do the same thing. In a sports melee, normal male honor requires each side to match the escalation of the other side until a fight breaks out.

This pattern can certainly play out in other areas of life. In fact, rulers have always understand that general discontent among the rabble is like dry underbrush. It only takes a spark and you have a forest fire. In the case of civil unrest, a simmering discontent in the community, or among a sub-group, can quickly turn into a riot. The Rodney King riots in 1992 are a good example. The black underclass had developed a deep hatred of the cops, so when the cops were acquitted, that was the spark that set off the ghetto riot.

More recently and on a smaller scale, the shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue is an example of a member of a sub-culture who went from zero to mass shooter in one afternoon. He did not pick the target at random or even because they were Jewish, but rather because they were part of a subversive group throwing open the gates to the country to foreign invaders. In other words, like the guy slugging someone at a bar, the shooter thought he was acting rationally and violence was the only rational option.

The point being, whether it is the seemingly incoherent and ad hoc violence of a bar fight or sports melee, or a person or group committing social violence, the actors arise from predictable conditions and act quite rationally. There is a degree of predictability to their actions, if you’re willing to notice. It’s why bouncers in bars keep an eye on the males competing with one another for females. It’s why sports referees look for guys getting agitated and send them off the field to cool down and get their head back in the game.

In modern America, there does not seem to be anyone in charge willing to play the role of bouncer or referee. Instead, the people in charge are like the guy with the stick in old-time bare knuckle fights. They are trying to get the combatants to go at one another, rather than keep them under control. The deployment, tolerance and protection of Antifa, for example, is a deliberate provocation. The people in charge not only hope these idiots hurt someone, they hope white men will defend themselves so they can be railroaded by the courts.

At a smaller scale, the vicious and petty war on white men seems like it is designed to create an American Anders Breivik. Every day, the news brings stories of a white guy getting fired from his job because he told the wrong joke, liked the wrong social media meme or simply was not enthusiastic enough for Progressive fads. This story about a sportsball fan fired because he was upset at the black coach of his favorite sportsball team is a good example. The celebratory tone of the story should be noted.

Now, what’s driving these hunts for the impertinent white guy is the deadly virtue spiral among the ruling class. The dingbats in the media who spend their days hunting down bad thinkers and getting them fired, are acting from a desire for attention. The people at the company who play along with it are acting out of fear. Is this a replay of the Reign of Terror, where radicals spiraled out of control in an orgy of violence. or, is it the Great Terror, where Stalin locked in his control by killing off anyone that could threaten him?

The historically appropriate analogy is debatable, but what is not debatable is modern America is not 18th century France of 20th century Russia. In a multi-racial society, where the old majority is being swamped by former minorities and those former minorities are told they must hate the old majority. The atmosphere is nothing but kindling. A prudent ruling class would be acting as firemen, hunting down anything that looks like a spark, over- reacting if necessarily, in order to prevent a blaze they may not be able to control.

That’s possibly a clue about what our ruling class truly fears. Much of the political talk on the Left after the 2016 election was about how they may have jumped the gun and created a bit of backlash. The BLM murder sprees the summer before the election certainly opened a lot of eyes about the reality of what comes next. The relentless hunting down of internet racists could simply be an effort at calming their constituents. A black guy, enraged by racists memes, going on a shooting spree would be bad for the cause.

Alternatively, the hunting down of internet racists could simply be another sign that the ruling class is oblivious to what’s happening. Hanlon’s Razor says to assume stupidity in these cases. The people who rule over us are strangely unfamiliar with violence. They know it only through their televisions. It’s why they have embraced the Antifa mobs. To people unfamiliar with violence, those black clad idiots look like what managerial class types imagine revolutionaries look like. They don’t know what they don’t know.

Either way, social discontent can easily turn to social unrest and then violence. The people in charge are loading the forest with dry underbrush and kindling, while flicking matches at one another. Maybe they don’t see the danger. Maybe they fear the wrong things. Perhaps they want to see it all burn. Regardless of the motivation, the conditions for political and social violence are just about perfect. One of the matches the idiots in the media are flicking into the underbrush will eventually set the world on fire.