Riots or civil disturbances or insurgencies can be scary and the best solution is to not partake. On either side but try bring reason and healing to both.

But this does not stop ones own home or community being destroyed by rioters/violated by police – or is there a way?

What is going on right now in the USA is civil unrest and simply a sympton of the level of distrust that the governed have for authority. When you can not pick up the phone and dial emergency services with confidence then you are living in a broken society.

I was in LA during the riots in 1992 after Rodney King was brutally bludgeoned during the course of his arrest after a high speed car chase. Same as the current riots when it was captured on a phone cam – this one was captured by a dude with a camcorder.

The same happened in the aftermath of the assination of Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and Lyndon Johnson the then US president is known to have said when the riots kicked off ‘Well what do you expect? if you hold a man down with your foot on his neck for 300 years and then let him up. He’s going to knock your block off!’

And here we sit in 2020… Some 50 odd years on.

So how should a person try in live in world with civil unrest – it’s very easy and comes in 2 parts. 1st is being able to avoid violence and 2nd how to deal with it if needs be. Or as a last resort get away and survive.

A famous Roman general once advocated a means of victory being more economically viable if one could strike a fearce blow if needed and then withdraw quickly then one could wear an enemy down by not engaging them in a confrontation but just sapping their energy from the sides and then retreat to a safe distance. Hi name was Fabian. And societies do exist that employ this as means of survival.

Violence, anger and hate are pent up resovoirs of deep emotion and they need a living target to ‘earth on’ or to ‘dischrge into’ and someone who does not retaliate is in a nutshell ‘no fun’. By not offering up a receipt point for the violence you stand aside of it.

Journalists and medics count on this massively to function during times of emergency. As a first aid responder in India after the ’05 tsunami we were escorted through a civil unrest hot spot between Muslims and Hindus by a joint Muslim and Hindhu escort as we were off to give succour to their fellow man further south down the road (by 1000 miles) and their strife was not ours. We made friends from both sides and while in our company both sides were cordial to one another.

During the 1992 riots I was in LA, in Hollywood. One of the main affected areas. I spent some time growing up in the Scientology commune there and what I witnessed from being involved was nothing short of a miracle.

LA was burning. There wasn’t a block in Hollywood that did not have a burning property, looted shop or destroyed business – except ours.

We shared a block with a XXX cinema, a gun shop and there was a liquor store in there too as well as the typical clothes/hardware blah… point being the Scientologists had a presence on that block and that they were not exactly pro porn, guns or booze did not matter. They were watching out for their own turf.

A 1000 strong contingent of us – dressed in naval dress uniform lined the block. Shoulder to shoulder and faced the rioters and police alike.

They’re response to our ‘bored with your stupidty’ look was met with indifference by police and rioters alike. They wanted to fight and we did not. We were told to respond to any contact with indifference, to be polite and effect an attitude of boredom and disinterest.

It worked. The rioters and the police needed a target for their blame and anger and someone who would be intimidated by their threat/actual violence, they needed a counter force to dominate. And the ability to ‘gain’ ground – or push back on ‘the authority’ for civies or ‘the problem’ for police. The Korean commune almost achieved the same as there was a lot of old Koren military moung them who banded together and set up an informal militia that manged to protect some businesses.

Cosequently Scientologies was the only block with a liquer store in Holloywood that was not looted thanks to a bored and polite but indifferent response from a 1000 strong united commune. Of Scientologies Sea Org members.

Don’t for one minute think the Scientologists did not have an armed response force of their own marines in place (albeit hidden and out of sight) but capable of deployment to anywhere in the block within seconds. With assualt rifles and perhps even heavier munitions. We also had snipers with high powered rifles atop the Hollywood Gaurantry Building. With night scopes, zooms and spotters.

But for Scientology that was a typical ‘ill’ of being associated with today’s mad society and was dealt with as they viewed it – a distraction to their own purpose. Because they also know if it all goes to fuck with the bombs being dropped on us by our government then it’s time to hit the high seas. Scientologies inner cadre is called the SEA Org for a reason. It’s where I got my sea legs. Here is pics of the Scientologies Sea Orgs ships over the years…

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Violence is not a sustainable way to live, so do not invite it in and be ready to send it on it’s way if it comes knocking and be part of a commune that can be Fabian.

And never ever forget after the darkness comes light and when the sun shines it’s time to make hay. So it’s between the storms when you reach out to bring about positive change and move between the rain drops in the turmoil and be a helper/healer and not a side of the problem.

There is room between both opponents for the healer and a voice of sense and reason to prevail.