With mass killings spreading around the world as they are it seems like there’s a kind of international civil war going on. Except that till now it’s being waged by people mainly on the fringes radicalized by hate propaganda, or in some parts of the world by mobs who are either gullible or eager to attack neighbours of another caste or religion. But there are all kinds of ways that this can and probably will get worse:
– the internet and technology make it easier than ever to buy or create weapons that kill a lot of people.
– Overpopulation makes for easier targets.
– Finding people with similar beliefs and organizing was never easier.
– the disparity between rich and poor is growing; the failures of capitalism and neo-liberalism are causing explosive social pressures
– climate change, population density, resource scarcity and all kinds of other problems are also likely to raise the threat of violence.
I don’t think that governments can contain these pressures through anti-terrorism measures, surveillance, gun control, etc. any more than they can control ordinary social problems through policing. Trying to cap popular anger through authoritarian control never works in the long run.
Since the problems that we face are probably unsolvable, the best that governments can do is probably to admit that and make a convincing case that we are in it together and will work together; the greater the feeling of community, the more this will be effective.