Pattern Recognition

A pattern begins to appear. Something about border politics. Something about not only wanting to get something, but also about wanting to get away from something: Michael Oliver wanted to flee the America of welfare rights and civil rights. A world he felt would propel North America into socialism and chaos (Hennessy 2018). Lazarus Long was not only attempting to create a place where he could find perhaps eternal life, he also wanted to get away from a mode of governing that created lazy, dependent individuals (Hulse 1998). What they shared twenty years apart was the conviction that democracy and especially the welfare state is on a fixed road to collapse. Also Ayn Rand begins to come up a lot. Another ten-twenty years ahead and the notion still thrives among the wealthy of California that the nation states are heading for a collapse.