Strawberries in Winter

"And like many of the people I have interviewed about political violence over the years-including top military officials, members of Congress, local and federal law enforcement, political scientists, terrorism experts, peace negotiators, and others-she told me that cycles of horrific political violence can perpetuate themselves for a generation or more after they have taken hold. Once a certain threshold is crossed, political violence tends to get worse before it gets better, in many cases cataclysmically so."

"Wouldn't most Americans, if faced with the prospect of killing their neighbors and destroying the country from within, probably still choose peace? She told me that she wished people would stop and think: "Do you really want us to be in a bloody civil war for 10 or 15 years? You're going to see your grandkids get killed. Do you really want that?""

Political violence can become self-perpetuating and endure for a generation or more once a threshold is crossed. Such cycles frequently escalate before improving and can produce cataclysmic outcomes. Most Americans would likely choose peace rather than kill neighbors or destroy the country from within, because prolonged civil war would inflict severe, long-term personal and familial costs, including deaths of grandchildren. Widespread attachment to mundane comforts and prosperity creates strong incentives against revolutionary violence. The inconvenience of losing normal economic goods and stability reduces appetite for upheaval, while societies in civil war endure sustained, severe hardship.

Read at The Atlantic