Revolution

I’ve seen a few episodes of the NBC series Revolution, although I didn’t watch the pilot episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if the show is canceled. It’s not very good.

For one thing, the screenwriters inflict us with the politically correct cliché of soft, passive, state-at-home guys alongside steely gals who volunteer for hand-to-hand combat.

From what I can tell, the drama is set in a future where an EMP attack permanently disabled the power grid, thereby rendering electronic technology useless at one stroke. This, in turn, led to a collapse of law and order. Filling the void are “militias.”

That’s what I’d like to focus on. The depiction of the militias plays into the malicious liberal stereotype of American militia groups as collective vigilantes or roving death squads. It’s as if the script was written by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Now militias no doubt have some of nutcases. However, it’s my impression that many members of the “militia movement” are genuine patriots who honor Constitutional government.

Moreover, assuming that federal, state, and local government totally disbanded in the wake of an EMP attack (and it’s completely unrealistic to imagine that an EMP attack having that effect), an obvious result is that policemen and professional soldiers would either join preexisting militias or form their own. Policemen and ex-military (e.g. officers) would exercise leadership in the reconstituted militia movement. And I think it’s safe to say many professional soldiers have greater respect for the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the principles of limited government, than do many politicians. There’d be a concerted effort to restore the vision of the Founding Fathers.

No doubt there’d be turf wars and atrocities–especially by marauding street gangs. But the militias wouldn’t be equivalent to Latin American death squads.