I have a good friend who's about as pragmatic as you could imagine. Others call him cold, aloof, stand-offish and downright Vulcan when it comes to arguments and debates. I've known Brian for 13 years, and in all that time the only thing in Washington that ever got a strong reaction from him was the invasion of Iraq--and that was nothing compared to what he said to me last night.
I think the recent debt ceiling skirmish has broken him, because last night he said something so shocking--shocking even for the most impassioned--that for a moment I thought I had misheard him.
Having revealed his state of mind to me in such blunt terms, I started wondering how many, if any, other people out there feel the same way.
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We live in different states now, but Brian and I still talk by phone about every other week. This time we were comisserating with each other about the recent debt deal. We're both angered by it, angered by the way special (monied) interests and the super-wealthy seem not to care at all about the middle class, about everyday Americans who are really suffering because of the shit the super-rich themselves caused.
Brian is justified in being especially sensitive to this issue right now. Having been forced out of his home last year, he and his family have been struggling. Just recently, the rent on his two-bedroom apartment went up by a hundred dollars. His car just died too; he's been driving a friend's car to work. His employer froze his pay last year, then raised the amount coming out of his paycheck for health insurance. Last week, he said, he had to borrow money from his in-laws to buy school supplies for his two boys. All this guy wants is for those who CAN help to do so; for them to stop making it harder and harder for working Americans just to keep up; for the "haves" to stop asking the growing number of "have-nots" to accept more and more of our nation's financial burden.
Suddenly he said to me, "I'm starting to think we need to finish what Charlie started."
"Charlie who?" I asked.
He answered, "Manson."
Manson wanted to start a race war, which he called Helter Skelter. So he convinced his followers to break into rich people's houses and slaughter them, then blame the murders on blacks. He thought the whites would then retaliate, and Helter Skelter would begin.
I was too shocked by this to say anything for a moment. Finally I asked, "What do you mean by that, exactly?"
"I think Helter Skelter's already started," he said. "Only it's not a race war. It's a class war. And THEY started it, so I figure we should finish it."
My friend has been pushed so far, been made to feel so desperate, that bloody violence has become a viable option for him. He's not a violent guy; he's not even very aggressive. But this is where his mind is going, in response to our government's recent actions.
Now I wonder how many other people are having thoughts like this. Is violent upheaval growing more likely as more and more people and families are pushed to the streets? Is this where our country is headed?