The slippery slope to anarchy.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Decline of the U.S. - Column

MUCH OF THE WORLD is in anarchy - defined as a lack of central political authority, a state of disorder, confusion, and the inability to function effectively in matters of day-to-day consequence-or on the brink of it. Witness Northern Ireland, what once was Yugoslavia, or nearly every black nation in Africa. The situation is so alarming that Biblical fundamentalists are expecting Armageddon.

How does the U.S. fare in what seems to be a global trend heading toward anarchy? With our undue emphasis on ethnicity and minorities, are we being balkanized? Is there a decreasing respect for law and order and a corresponding vigilante mentality of taking the law into our own hands? The evidence is compelling that America is close to stepping out on that slippery slope to anarchy.

In the 1960s, the free speech and Hippies movements at Berkeley marked the beginning of national unrest that expressed itself variously in the rancorous protests to follow. Later, there were the civil rights marches, Vietnam protest demonstrations, and the burning of draft cards, as well as the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Civil disobodience, clearly a deliberate anarchial breaking of the law, was the hallmark of each. The more public authority was used to put down these protests, the more volatile and popular they became. Those who broke the law in these events usually were only slapped on the wrist and released on their own recognizance. Respect for the law clearly was diminishing, and it completely was overthrown for some time during the Watts riots. Even firemen were shot at by looters, and, by their own admission, police were helpless at the height of the debacle.

Today, although some control has been regained, the police continue to be the targets of snipers, prompting Los Angeles' black police chief to plead publicly for law and order. Nationwide, the anarchy issue still is in the forefront, as demonstrated in pro-and anti-abortion face-offs. Those demonstrations are becoming more and more criminal as access to clinics are blocked and the offices burned down. The shooting of one abortion doctor has prompted many such practitioners to wear bulletproof vests.

Illegal group protest actions have given rise to individual vigilantism. The celebrated case of Bemard Goetz and the subway toughs encouraged others to become a law unto themselves. For example, there is Ellie Nesler, the Californian who shot her child's accused molester in the courtroom...