History is full of “civil wars”. Not all of them are violent, but they can be brutal in other ways such as wealth redistribution.
The civil wars that I’ve read the most about are the American Civil War (1860s), French Revolution (1700s) and the Spanish Civil War (1930s). All of these included a lot of bloodshed and generally evoke an image of armed conflict.
If you have been hearing a lot of predictions of a possible “civil war” in the near future here in the USA, perhaps this article will be of some comfort.
Currently, I’m convinced we have been and are in the midst of a civil war. We can probably classify this as “left” vs “right” or “tyranny” vs “liberty” or perhaps “socialism” vs “capitalism”. While there has been some rioting, overall this civil war is being fought with technology, censorship, financial manipulation and legal persecution.
What is “fleeing”? Effectively fleeing for most people will be moving to another state or location that is more aligned with their views.
What is “hiding”? Hiding is basically keeping your mouth shut, keeping a low profile and attempting to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. This might be avoiding visiting locations like capitol buildings where protests are common. It might be deleting your social media accounts.
This isn’t just the authorities vs the people, however there seems to be a lot of usage of the authorities, by the wealthy, to oppress the more typical citizen. Much of this is “wealth redistribution”.
Fleeing may not accomplish much, but it may give you more peace of mind, a greater sense of safety and a sense of community.
Fighting might be as simple as ignoring the propaganda being pushed on us and opting to shop from one source rather than another. When we think of fighting, we may think of offensive or aggressive actions, but fighting can also consist of defense. You may defend yourself by accumulating gold instead of having a lot of “money” sitting in a bank account.
More aggressive, active fighting might consist of becoming involved in politics (possibly running for office or even volunteering to be an election judge). Or perhaps you prefer to counter the propaganda by publishing evidence and memes (or Substack articles!).
Proxy fighting might be as simple as donating money to whomever is fighting for what you believe in. However I’d exercise some caution as there are a lot of people taking advantage of the situation and making money off people’s fears.
More people are taking up prepping to reduce the rise in cost of food (or potential unavailability) and stockpiling items to protect against temporary shortages. Prepping runs from very simple measures to some extremists that prepare for extremely unlikely events (like nuclear war).
What I see this war as being centered around is:
Wealth / Money – who gets how much! There is a strain when the gap between the ultra wealthy and the common person becomes large.
Freedom – we’ve seen the constitution of the USA basically thrown away and the freedom of people eroded and trashed. The opposite side are those who desire safety and believe giving the government more control will provide safety. Also consider that being driven into poverty is a major loss of freedom!
Power – the political system of the USA has been taken over by corrupt powerful influences. Does voting even matter any more?
Of greatest concern to me is censorship. This isn’t just the suppression of information, but also the loss of trust because so much information (on both sides) is false or misleading, and also overwhelming the public with propaganda to the point where it is believed.
I think there are a lot of people who think nothing serious is going on. And then there are the rest of us.
If you want to survive without a boot on your neck? Best be ready to fight.