The Shampoo Effect
Unrest never ends. It's wash, rinse, repeat.
In back-to-back years (1968 & 1969) Americans experienced the South Carolina State College shooting where 28, mostly black students, were injured and 3 killed by state police units firing into a anti-segregation demonstration.
At first the press supported the police, but later pressed the narrative that the police were under-trained and resentful, so they carelessly shot innocent students. In August 1968, a massive 3 day demonstration at the Chicago Democratic National Convention, became violent when police tactical squads battled students in hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile inside the convention center, Presidential candidates gave impassioned speeches about racial injustice and the horror of war.
The national press unfairly characterized the student street protestors as victims of overzealous cops looking for a fight. The truth was only revealed years later that Marxist influencers and other foreign provocateurs in the crowd, disguised as students, were looking for a violent police response. Once the fight started, the police used excessive force to regain control. But the mostly left wing student organizers got what they wanted: making it look like the Chicago Police were authoritarian maniacs.
Most of it was seen on national newscasts repeatedly for the next month. It should be obvious: the real objectives are not to win a fight, but to change public perceptions.
Later, we watched an unreal 3 day exercise in self aggrandizement at a farm in upstate New York, where over a million people showed up to watch a concert, but ended up in near chaos as folks overdosed on drugs and suffered from exposure to extreme weather.
That series of “mostly peaceful” and “spontaneous” events turned out to be a metaphor for the state of our nation. And to this day, not much has changed.
What appeared to be a spontaneous rebellion on the Capitol Steps in January 2021 was no different than the student clash with authorities in Chicago in 1968.
Neither event would have had any significant impact had they not been intensified by trained provocateurs, then made into a cultural tsunami by a greedy and growing media machine.
In recent news there have been attempts to assassinate Donald Trump. At least a dozen civil confrontations with police resulting in death and injuries to both sides. Mentally ill people running a car through gatherings, or shooting up churches. Entertainers and politicians publicly advocating violence against “white conservatives” and “pro-lifers”.
I call it The Shampoo Effect. Shampoo has never been so expensive, but we keep using it out of habit. We wash, rinse, repeat. Down the drain goes the suds (and our money), but we have to do it all over again tomorrow.