They only understand violence and fear as abstract notions because they almost exclusively commit or spread them from afar. (Aside from the ones who prey on their partners, children, and others who can’t defend themselves.) In the absence of governments willing to intervene, a better understanding of what it’s like to experience these things as real, as something that can arrive from within arm’s reach, is required.

Some people are pointing out how serious the ordinary person should be taken once gas hits $5 per gallon. What about when grocery stores are empty? Or when swaths of the country become uninhabitable because of wildfires and flooding and other climate-related disasters?