Clearly civil war could once again break out in the United States. It would be arrogant to assume we have mastered history and now know how to resolve disputes between large segments of our society.
Though civil war is not likely to erupt any time soon, there are warning signs. All one need do is look in the history books.
At this moment in time, it appears that the most likely cause for civil unrest, leading ultimately to war would be the increasing gap in wage earnings, and the inability of the lower class to keep up with the ever increasing demands of a capitalistic culture that prides itself on consumption.
As things stand currently, there are many segments of society that feel as if they are being not only marginalized, but judged as unfit for the better life. When you combine this with the changing racial demographics, it becomes clear that the immigrants of today could very easily be the revolutionaries of tomorrow. Not only are current policies towards immigrants slanted towards repression and discrimination, they are specifically designed to maintain the status-quo. And fighting the status quo has been one of the reasons for many of the civil wars in other lands over the past several thousand years.
In addition, there seems little reason to suspect that the corporate/government alliance will diminish any time soon. With lawmaking overly influenced by corporate PACs and Wall Street paying the bulk for election campaigns, the people who now feel their votes are wasted are increasingly being shown they are right; with laws on the books to protect corporate interests, and lawmakers now working full time on re-election campaigns, there is little doubt that the wage gap will only continue to grow, and the feelings of losing control by those who work for a living will only increase, until one day it reaches that boiling point, and then, with little but civil disobedience to use as a change agent, more and more will take to the streets in an effort to regain that which they feel they have lost, and to which they feel they are entitled, because corporate America convinced them of it through its less than subliminal use of commercial advertising.
For those who remain convinced that civil war would be prevented by our bloated and aging military industrial complex, one only has to look at the wages that are being offered to those who do most of the fighting. As just one example, it is not uncommon now for NCOs and their families to apply for and receive Food Stamps. When the war comes between those who have and those who don’t, it seems pretty easy to guess which side the majority of our forces will fall on.
Yes, clearly civil war could happen again in this country, and it probably will.
