Forests on Fire

Trey Smith

Not so very long ago, the Occupy Movement sought to draw a bright public circle around the terrible influence enjoyed by the few over the many. Mainstream opinion will say the movement collapsed due to its own inadequacies, but recent revelations have shown how the movement was attacked and undermined by law enforcement, elements of "homeland security" ostensibly meant to be part of the federal government's anti-terrorism programs, and by private security firms hired by corporations and wealthy individuals to keep "undesirables" out of sight and out of mind.

Occupy was only the beginning, but may very well have been the last manifestation of peaceful resistance against the ever-widening chasm of inequality and desolation. The noose is tightening around the necks of average people, and more become radicalized with each passing day. The wealthy would do well to take note of this, and voluntarily move to square the savage imbalance that drives billions around the world into furious despair. It does not have to be this way, and if it continues in this way, eventually the dam is going to break. When that happens, woe be unto those who believe their wealth keeps them safe and cozy. On that day, the rock will not hide them, and the dead tree will give no shelter.
~ from The End of the Beginning of the End by William Rivers Pitt ~

You can only force so much air into a balloon. When you reach the point that no more air can go in and you keep blowing anyway, the balloon will pop in your face!

This is something that keeps me awake at night. As an avowed pacifist, I worry that the day is soon coming when this nation and world will explode into a wildfire of indiscriminate violence. A day in and day out riot of despair.

The unwashed masses can only take so much. In the years to come, there will be a tipping point. I don't know what it will be or when it will happen. But I do know -- using history as my guide -- that it WILL come.

When it does, it will get out of hand quickly. It will be like a lightening strike in dry tinder. Initially, it will spark a small fire in moisture-deprived underbrush. It may smolder there awhile, but as it creeps outside of its immediate area, the winds of subjugation and exploitation will fan it. It slowly will move across the forest floor and then, seemingly out of nowhere, it will jump into the trees as a raging inferno. When this happens, there will be nowhere in the forest to hide.

Chances are that this phalanx of the downtrodden will not sweep over the countryside in my lifetime. We are at the stage of the small fire in the underbrush. There are signs, however, that the fire slowly is starting to spread. While I do not expect it to become a full wildfire soon, such things are difficult to predict. We can never known when the needed breeze will pick up and hit the small fire in such a way as to fan it into a licking flame that soon will consume everything in its path.