Full blown martial law? I don't think we'll ever set it.

Implementing martial law is a bit like trying to take over the world. Why do you want to do it? Chances are it's much easier to get what you want with a more nuanced approach....you don't need to "rule the world" - just control the important bits and not even officially.

Same thing with martial law. The forces and groups that hypothetically would seek to implement it could and already do get what they want without it.

I expect we'll see something short of martial law but with many of the same effects:

-Increased or at least sustained imprisonment rates
-Increased militarization of the police
-Greater centralization of wealth and power
-Decreased social mobility and a general decline of the middle class
-Steeper income inequalities
-Further degradation of civil rights
-Worsening civic malaise and general political disinterest

Soldiers won't be needed at every street corner. Those conditions and an obese screen-addicted populace will make martial law completely unnecessary.

There will be no popular uprisings anytime soon. We made it through the 1890s-1920s without the German emigrants and anarchists tearing up the country, the 1930s without the Communists and unemployed rising up and the 1960s without a second secession...I think we'll get through whatever people think this is (it's nothing special) just fine.

This post was edited on 4/15/14 at 11:57 am