Pushing ourselves to the brink.

Over time, the cheetah and the gazelle trade dominance on the plains. For a while gazelles are faster and their population blooms, then the cheetahs adapt and feast. Back and forth, they evolve faster together.

Organized crime and law enforcement have the same dynamic. Back and forth they trade dominance. As law enforcement gets bogged down in bureaucracy, the crime population surges. They develop new tactics that use new technology in ways never imagined. There is a point when society has had enough. Law enforcement abandons the letter of the law and uses the criminal’s tactics to regain a footing. This last step is known as ‘a purge.’

A purge is not always bloody and chaotic. It is only marketed by a cavalier attitude of ends justifying the means. Many religions and ancient myths involve stories of purges, and speak of rituals intended at reigning the knights who carried out the purge back into the folds of decent society.

Currently, I have been contemplating the act of faking a purge in order to transition society into something better for the organized criminals. If this were possible, I don’t think it could ever be clever enough to prevent the real thing from occurring… only delay it.