March of the Visogoths

Sigh.

I wonder if this is how the remnants of the Roman Empire felt as they saw the Visogoths gathering on the horizon.

I fear we're in for a tough time of it for many years to come.  As many of the civilizations start to crumble (Europe, Russia - assuming that you consider that a civilization, at this point, perhaps the USA), what will be the end result for our children and grandchildren?

What skills will they need?  Where will they get their education?  What rulers will hold sway over their lives?

How can we prepare them to not only survive, but to keep the flame of literacy and culture alive until the dawn of the next Renaissance?

It does look bad:

Abroad, the implications are clear. Russia's economy is now considered an "extreme risk" by the UK risk-assessment group Maplecroft. Criteria include terrorist threats, the rule of law, and the regulatory and business environment.

Street violence was virtually unknown in Russia prior to the 1990s but occasional riots have erupted as Russians feel their way in the evolving political atmosphere. Conciliatory words but harsh reprisals have been the official responses, leading to fears that another period of oppression is imminent in the long history of Russian freezes and thaws.

Bernshtein addresses this eventuality with speculation that order could be restored by "extraordinary measures." Bernshtein half-apologizes for his "neurotic expectations" but says the "polarization of society is too great" to ignore any longer. Today in Russia, he wrote, some people live a life of luxury, like foreigners, and the only reality is "each man for himself."

Further:

History will show December 2010 exploded with gang warfare in the streets of Moscow and with similar outbreaks in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and even the southern city of Krasnodar. All observers agreed that the battles involving thousands of young men, ages 15-30, were ethnic-based. And that is only part of the story.

The police estimated six thousand youths in total clashed within a stone's throw of the Kremlin on Manezh Square. From the beginning the motives of the various groups involved were confused. Football club partisans mixed with ethnic Slavs battled North Caucasus immigrants and other groups smashing each other with all manner of weapons from scrap pipe and lumber to costly imported aluminum American baseball bats. Thirty rioters were hospitalized, though there is general agreement that hundreds were injured. One man was confirmed killed by stabbing. Ultimately the police reportedly arrested more than 1,300 people.

 It's not just football toughs.  It's a widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.

If I were Jewish, and living in either Europe or Russia, I'd be selling everything I had or ever hoped to have to leave - NOW!  Jews are always the football in these games.

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