The difference between a barbarian and an intellectual is more than just a change of clothes.

All my life, I’ve heard the evil government is going to take my guns and my property.  That is simply irrational.  Maybe, some people have a need for paranoia?  Nonetheless, gun sales are already up 17% this year, with 300% sales increases in some stores.  With 380 million guns already in this country, I guess we needed more?  Anecdotally, I was told there is no available ammunition to buy, in any caliber, in the whole state of Texas.  (One Texas wag explained people must protect their toilet paper from their neighbors.)

Yesterday, there was a news item about an ancient city in Thailand that was popular with tourists.  However, with the pandemic, those tourists suddenly stopped visiting.  As it was customary for tourists to feed the monkeys, the food supply for the monkeys suddenly disappeared, and the monkeys are now starving.  Apparently, there were two different clans of monkeys, and they started fighting each other yesterday.  (At least, they didn’t have guns.)

Seriously, there is virtually no chance of general unrest in America.  There is a segment of Americans that assume violence is the default outcome of change.  They seem to enjoy that?  Historically, the biggest increase in gun sales was triggered by Obama’s election.  How did that work out?  Gun sellers make money fostering this absurd assumption that Americans resort to violence.

I look at the outbreak of “caremongering” during this pandemic, where neighbors go out of their way to help each other, especially seniors.  My faith in America is refreshed by those “caremongers” who care for each other, who deliver food to seniors, who give blood or just phone the housebound.  The calm generosity of Americans should not be confused with a bunch of monkeys fighting.