posted ago by LeoLittlebook ago by LeoLittlebook +6 / -1

The last US Civil War created the conditions for the next one. When the Several States lost their independence, the 1st Amendment's "Separation of Church and State" banned Christianity from state governments. Switzerland's cantons still have established state churches.

There is a vast difference between gradually becoming a deeply secular federation like Switzerland, and actually banning state religion while it is still popular, as in the USA. The latter condition creates a power vacuum which is filled by a state-backed Communist revolution.

(This is like the Prohibition Effect: Banning alcohol increased crime and state power. A left-wing singularity results in a Cultural Revolution. A right-wing singularity often results in imperial overreach, e.g. Hitler attempting to conquer Eurasia. Equality and purity spiraling are both existential threats. One tends to follow the other, as with Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin. Communism and Fascism are primordial, not invented by Marx and Mussolini. The same polarity exists in other species, e.g. communist bonobos vs fascist chimps, or patriarchal lions vs matriarchal hyenas. This is why sexual revolution is a common feature of Communist revolution.)

Banning Christianity from America's state governments sparked a war between state secularists reproducing via immigration and mandatory education, and the native religious majority reproducing via families. Blue vs Red, Democrats vs Republicans.

When people are angry and eager to provoke a civil war, it means they've forgotten the pain caused by the last one. Last time, both sides believed they would win easily, and this overconfidence escalated provocations. The USA's defeat by the Taliban bodes well for Team Red, but it was by no means quick. Team Blue believes its previous strategy of using urban wealth and immigrant troops will prevail again. They have forgotten that if the South had pressed its early advantage with Sherman's ruthlessness, the North would've been forced to concede. There will be no such restraint this time.

It takes two to wage symmetrical war. If one side feels weak, it will make concessions to gain allies. That is how the Republican and Democrat parties stay roughly balanced in their political competition. The USA should really adopt a multi-party voting system like European parliaments to defuse this recurring tendency to fight civil wars, but it's too late.

It is often possible to avoid war by walking away, if one is sufficiently forewarned. The emotional trauma that soldiers experience suggests that killing people is spiritually unhealthy. I have taken my own advice and expatriated; the absence of partisan strife is peaceful.

It is in the nature of beasts to war; the question is whether man is any different.

TIL about the two-week long lion-hyena war over disputed territory in Ethiopia during 1999, where lions killed 35 hyenas and hyenas managed to kill six lions, with the lions eventually taking over the territory. | r/todayilearned