Kyle Rittenhouse And Why America Is No Longer The Land Of The Free

The case of Kyle Rittenhouse serves as a prime example of two incompatible truths. It simultaneously demonstrates why America must do something about gun ownership whilst also showing why it never will. I mean, what an abject shit show. All of it. You have the goons from BLM and Antifa on the rampage after another Police shooting, and then add to the mix an idealistic and naive "Young hero" who thinks he can ride into Dodge and save the day. Putting aside the fact that each person Rittenhouse shot had a significant criminal history, sex offences in one instance, and you have everything awful about the USA wrapped up in one incident. Surely Americans simply have to accept that when you have hundreds of millions of firearms in the hands of a nervous and jittery populace there will always be outcomes like this? Its what happens when polarisation and fear override reason and restraint. Be under no illusion, nothing will change in the wake of this. There isn't the will, nor the means, nor the strength required to do so. On any given day people of all stripes are getting caught up in gun related violence, and they live in a society that has gone too far down the rabbit hole to have any reasonable way of getting back. America is no longer the land of the free but rather the land of the the fearful. I wonder whether at the subconscious level it knows China will dethrone it as the most significant world power. I would argue this has already come to pass. While the West sleep walks towards avoidable catastrophe after avoidable catastrophe the Chinese government retains an iron grip on its own people, shaping an effective counterpoint to our increasing societal derangement. That's not me praising China, by the way. I just simply acknowledge that they are playing the game in such a way that will render them top of the tree. Looking further afield than the States, I suspect that the developed world is also at a real tipping point; facing real challenges around how we address the way in which technology is changing us. When more people want to become Youtube influencers than they do doctors and engineers then you know you're in a race to the bottom. But this blog today is about how one nation in particular is orchestrating its own demise. It lurches so heavily Left and Right, like a ship under the onslaught of vast ocean waves. The only narrative one of combat, the mood music one of division. That's not a sensible equilibrium; its how kingdoms fall. I simply cannot see a way out of this malady in the absence of leadership that can genuinely unify. Trump never wanted to do that whilst Biden lacks the cognitive functioning skills to do so. I strongly suspect he is President in the symbolic sense only, and that there are other forces pulling his strings. From the outside looking in it is grimly fascinating to watch a once great nation devour itself, but then perhaps that is just the way of things. Nothing is permanent except impermanance, meaning that the only true certainty is the manner of the actual demise. Its true on the personal level, and perhaps also on the national one. Its one thing to "Live in interesting times" as the Chinese proverb goes. Yet it makes for an uneasy watch.