Civilization Is Built on Security

If the government won't provide that, then the people will, even in the Blue Cities. 2nd Amendment steps in after cops step back in wake of defund movement in Chicago | Fox News

An 80-year-old man living near Chicago's O’Hare airport was left "battered" late last month when two intruders knocked on his door and entered his home.

The elderly man was a legal gun owner and managed to fire off a shot, hitting one intruder and sending the other running for cover.

The incident is one of dozens that have played out in the Windy City in recent years. Legally armed citizens are taking matters into their own hands, thwarting attacks and other crimes.

I could quote so much of this article, but I will only add this one other bit. A bit about people realizing that the government has decided to not enforce the law, because keeping violent offenders in jail is unfair.

"It's the reason why you've seen the increase in gun sales," said John Lott, president and founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center. "Because people realize that the police and law enforcement broadly isn't being allowed — the criminal justice system isn't being allowed — to go and do its job.

And while I encourage you to click thru for the rest, I will note that they included references to older stories on the same subject. The one I am most interested in is this story from July 2020: Arrests in Chicago plummet to historic lows as crime rises and police admittedly pull back: 'No way'

Chicago police have arrested the fewest number of suspects in at least 20 years amid a crime wave that has continued raging in the city since 2020.

This is not a new issue, and it won't go away in month or two. Mostly, politicians on the Left have conspired to gut police protections in the Cities, and in a few places, like New York and Illinois they are pushing their soft-on-crime policies on entire states.

Politicians and the media like to pretend that the man-in-the-street is an idiot, but they are not idiots. And it is becoming very clear that they will defend what is theirs.

As for the basis of civilization being security, that is not my idea, nor is it a new idea. As far as I know, Hobbes started it with his State of War, which exists after the breakdown of law and order. Apparently he first wrote about in in De Cive (1642), but I have only read The Leviathan (1651). After the system of Justice has failed. There is nothing to keep the bad guys in check, or punish them after the fact. Civilization is only built by people who believe that they can enjoy the fruits of their labor. If you believe that everything you have can be taken from you, you will not invest much in the future. Without that certainty of security, there are "no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."