First, let me say....I've been around the globe, and stepped through some 2nd world countries, and briefly stopped at a 3rd-world country or two (Honduras, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
So I have a decent idea of 1st, 2nd and 3rd world status.
Back in 2000, if you'd suggested the US was walking toward 3rd-world status....I would have laughed.
In 2010, on the suggestion....I might have agreed that several parts of the US....were 2nd world status and were becoming no-go cities (like Memphis or some parts of Atlanta, or a quarter of Chicago).
2024? Yeah, I can probably get into a car...spend a year traveling around the US, and find thousands of examples where it seems third-worldish in nature.
I noticed this AM....Florida is drafting up a law to say you can't camp-out on public property (streets, parks, etc). They've reached a point where they are fed up on the third-world image.
Another thing I noticed this AM....NY governor talking about a draft law...if you've been convicted of a assault (felony)....you'd be forbidden from using the city subway system. How this would work? Unknown. But obviously, enough voters are now in some state of fear....that leadership has to react.
The key ways you know you are in a 3rd-world country? Well....you have a economic system collapsing....where people sleep in parks. You have people failing to pay on their car loans....with repossession occurring. You have storefronts closing.
You also have political instability....where a significant amount of the public no longer believes local, state, or federal governments function correctly.
You will also notice health services stretched out and not being able to perform at the advertised level.
High mortality rates? Well....if you gaze around at drug-related deaths....these are escalating throughout the United States.
The perception that public safety no longer exists? Add onto that....the lack of trust in the police or the public prosecution system, or the judges.
The feeling that you might be in some cult-like society? I heard this mentioned the other day....how someone felt the crowd they hang around....were saying a lot of nonsense and BS.
The trouble is....if you did feel it was a third-world country....where would go and feel 'safe'?
We operate a small organic teaching farm near the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon, fUSA.
ReplyDeleteWe share the acreage with a couple-three dozen other workkampers in various versions of home-built HouseTrucks and RecreateVehicles.
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The acreage is surrounded by goofballs in warehouse-pallet hovels covered in blue plastic tarps.
Although we could be easily over-run by the sheer masses of dope-fiends, so far, everybody is reasonably civil.
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During the remainder of this collapse, the prudent would probably take 'discussions' to the trespassers/thieves and professional liars, rather than wait and hope they go away.
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So... where would I go to feel 'safe'?
I think I might get community-oriented.
I think I might find the nastiest squat, I think I might get to 'caring for the environment'.
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To be clear, as long as they get their dope, those individuals are comfortable sleeping in ankle-deep frozen swamp.
Their humanity is pretty much gone.