Editor’s note: As part of The Price of Liberty’s continuing discussion of the past “civil war” (War between the States) and the possibility of a civil war in the Fifty States, a brief piece of fiction (short story) is posted to TPOL here. Remember that rebellions, civil wars or wars between brothers are very often much much nastier than external wars.

Americans are constantly fighting other Americans. At home, in businesses, on the street, and elsewhere. The fights may include “guests” in the Fifty States, such as border jumpers, folks with green cards, and even tourists. We are NOT a peaceful people.

There are also problems with larger groups of people, of Americans, fighting. Sometimes it is organized crime: whether street gangs or drug cartels or the various Mafia (Italian, Russian, etc.) that fight internally, each other, and law enforcement. Sometimes it is partisans of one or another sports team, from high school up to the pros.

Then we have riots and protests which turn into riots. Whether it is a union action (or reaction to a union), a protest against a killing, an Antifa event, a race riot, or something similar. It can be between various groups (such as the Charlottesville mess recently) or between political or other groups and law enforcement. Peaceful protests can and do turn violent.

Americans, overall, are a violent people. Although we may claim to desire peace, the record is often contrary to that. People fight, and some people kill or seriously injure other people in those fights. It is literally a daily event.

But we all recognize that is a big difference from what is usually called a civil war – or even a rebellion or revolt. That is, a violent revolt. Not a “tax revolt” or a situation involving civil disobedience. But actually pull the gun and ammo out of the safe or cabinet and go downtown or to the edge of your community to fight back against the parasites and thugs.

And not this sort of screaming and noise-making, either. Interesting as it is to watch two elements of enemies of liberty going after each other.

How much fun? Consider this and imagine of BOTH sides were HEAVILY armed and one side or another figured that they had nothing to lose by taking down some of a hated enemy.

It happened in Kansas in 1859. And in Missouri from about 1859 to 1865. It happened in Missouri and Illinois a few years before that – look up Carthage, Illinois. Or the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina back in 1739. (That’s right – way before DC!) Or Nat Turner’s war in Virginia in 1835. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Or the Ludlow Massacre of 1914 – just 107 years ago, in Colorado. And then the Battle of Athens (Tennessee) in 1946. And we won’t even talk (much) about the Ghost Shirt War of 1890 or Posey’s War of March 1923 in the deserts of Southeast Utah.

The right spark, the right attitudes (well, the wrong attitudes) and the wrong conditions, and there COULD be insurrection. And NOT the mild protest and invasion of 6 January 2021.

It does not require some massive conspiracy by some political or religious leader. There is no need for a Wovoka (look him up!) to go around preaching about his visions. Or for a Spartacus or even a Nat Turner. And certainly not a Lenin or Mao or Giap.

And it will likely NOT be a state-by-state affair the way the popular imagination (and the “education” system) tries to make out the 1861-1854 affair was. (And really was NOT: look up the Germans of Fredricksburg, Texas, or the mountain folk of Cade’s Cove and other places in Tennesse. Then look up the so-called Copperheads of Illinois and other midwestern States. And the fratricide of Kansas and Missouri and even modern Oklahoma (and Texas) long after the surrender at Appomattox.

A war of midnight raids and killing cattle and robbing banks and trains and ambushing your neighbors. (Sounds like a lot of inner cities in 2020 and 2021, doesn’t it?)

And with modern weapons, even a single state civil war or rebellion or uprising – or even a single urban area, could become a sea of blood. Or worse. It isn’t modern weapons like automatic or semi-automatic rifles, carbines and pistols. Or even Gatlings on A-10s or 122-mm main guns on an armored vehicle. Or heavily armed drones. Think of how easy it is to find or get or make modern versions of older weapons, like Molotov cocktails or just plain napalm. Or various and sundry poisons and even bio-weapons. It does not take a Fort Detrick or Aberdeen Proving Ground to produce a limited but deadly supply of some nasty biological or chemical weapons.

What it takes is attitude: an attitude of “what have I got to lose” along with the idea that your enemies are really not human – either because of something about them (not just skin color or religion) or because they have (in your opinion) behaved so inhumanely and inhumanly that they are to be treated like a rabid dog.

And that attitude seems more and more common now in October 2021.

Stay tuned.