Writer Sam Gerrans argues that America is like a truck being loaded up with Semtex, a highly stable plastic explosive that will explode only if you have the right detonator.
1) Gerrans points to the very small part of the population that is involved in agriculture; so if the food chain is disrupted, the store shelves go bare in just a few days.
2) Not unlike MHC leader Sam Zell (see Our Way of Life is Very Much Threatened), Gerrans sees fiat paper money (vs. a gold and silver backed standard) and potential loss of being the world reserve currency as a threat to the U.S.. Gerrans thinks many of our American wars in recent decades are about oil. The world and the people of the U.S., he says, are tired of it.
While that view could be disputed or modified, what is certain is that a loss of imported oil to the U.S. Economy would indeed trigger a series of ‘economic explosions’ in our nation and abroad. Not Gerrans, but others believe that such might be Vladimir Putin’s end goal in Russia filling the vacuum of the U.S. withdraw from the Middle East. What if Russia and Iran controlled the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East? What if Russia choked that oil off from the U.S. and other western nations?
3) A growing use of mind-altering drugs also creates social risk, Gerrans states. Withdrawal from drugs which have lead to lone wolf attacks on unarmed citizens are cited. What if a disruption in the drug supply chain hit the U.S.? Would we see rapidly escalating violence as a result?
4) A loss of traditional more values. The poverty of the Great Depression in the 1930s did not lead to a huge surge in crime, Gerrans says: “People were brought up with a conception of morals and right and wrong. Frugality and prudence were prized virtues. Communities were generally fairly cohesive.” Not so today, he says, when: “Relative to then, society today is undisciplined, unrealistic and selfish.”
Gerrans points to violence and death in stores on Black Friday to get a discounted item as just one sign of that moral breakdown in America.
Not Gerrans…
Gerrans doesn’t say it, but others do. While the U.S. and North America could be energy independent, we are still not there. We are dependent on OPEC’s oil today, and this is but one of many reasons why true energy independence ought to be a U.S. and North American priority.
Gerrans doesn’t say it, but others do: “Know God, Know Peace. No God? No Peace.” Others point to the fact that when God and traditional moral values are marginalized in society, that historically the ‘god of big government‘ begins to loom ever larger.
Make no mistake, I’m not arguing for all that Gerrans says or believes. But his topic and those 4 points cited above are worthy of serious discussion.
It isn’t religion, as some claim, that causes most wars. It is often the lack of faith-based behavior that fuels the Hitlers, Stalins, Pol Pots and Mao Tse Tungs of modern history. “Democide,” or Death By Government, says University of Hawaii professor emeritus R.J. Rummel, documents wars and mass murder of a population’s own people caused by the godless – those acts dwarfs the deaths caused by religious disputes.
The MH Industry’s members ought to hold themselves to high ethical standards, and must be engaged in the deeply problematic challenges of our time. Indeed, many in MH are.
We can’t fix the world solo, but that is no excuse not to fix that which we are able to be engaged in.
The optimist doesn’t curse the down pour, or look at the rain and deny it exists. The wise optimist looks at the rain, grabs the umbrella and is thankful for the harvest that a tended crop yields following the rains.
America can get through this time, but we must be willing to go below mere surface issues, PC talk and bumper sticker slogans to arrive at solutions that will benefit our society and thus we as professionals. ##
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach
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