Most people, good & bad, black, white, yellow, red and brown—and those little green creeps that trashed Mars and are now skulking around in the Kyber Belt prepared to launch a comet at us when the ancient Mayan astronomers finally give them the okay—believe that victims are selected along racial lines. In traditional and largely homogenous societies this has been the case. For instance, in Medieval Europe the Jews and the Gypsies were routinely targeted for violence because they were aliens living on the fringe of a cohesive society that adhered to certain hates actually perpetuated by the Church and State. Seen in this light the Final Solution simply exposes Hitler as the last and most prolific in a millennia-long string of superstitious purveyors of mass hysterical hatred.

In our current American world we live in a society where the Church [all of them] and State [all of them, and the big federal one too] discourage any type of violence except that committed by the State. This State also sets aside particularly stiff penalties for attacking people belonging to minority racial groups. Just as the blood-thirsty medieval robber/rapist sought to avoid divine retribution by only preying upon those that were seen as enemies of Heaven, the modern predator seeks to attack prey in such a manner as to minimize his chances of being preyed upon by the State. This is best accomplished by hunting alienated members of society. This is mainly to limit the number of witnesses that might be sympathetic to the victim. Other measures are also taken, such as choosing not to use the widely available firearms at our disposal and by making certain to attack as a member of a pack, thus dividing the legal risk.

Of course, one’s state of alienation fluctuates from time-to-time and place-to-place, and may sometimes fall into the ancient pattern of racial violence. However, race is not the motive. If twenty Mexicans are gathering to attack someone, anyone, they will of course be on the lookout for a black or white target. But, if this cannot be found they will attack a Salvadoran. If a Salvadoran is not available they will attack another Mexican. You see, in modern America alienation is not the bloody feuding quilt of ethnic antagonisms and alliances that it once was, but is rather a constant fluctuating state of predation. The modern American is not a moral citizen of a city, town or subdivision, but an amoral inhabitant of a hunting matrix, where someone can always be found to occupy the alienation bubble that slides along the societal level.

If you doubt this assertion that our society is one of profound alienation, look at network and cable television. For the past ten years the most successful show has been Survivor [to me the embodiment of evil], which has nothing to do with survival. This show is nothing but a contest in alienating others. Every reality show has successfully followed this model; division, alienation, and exile. The mass of Americans spend more leisure time watching ritualized alienation than in any other pursuit. In my mind this is the apogee of barbarism. When the ancients exiled someone it was to cast them out among the unwashed barbarians. Now, we live in a society where nearly everyone fantasizes about becoming the only person to escape alienation, and in the process win a million dollars, by successfully alienating all of those around us, and hence, ultimately sit in a state of supreme unchallenged alienation and comfort.

What type of society could possibly be more perverse?

If you live in certain cultural enclaves the predation matrix may still resemble the ancient one. In such a case, if you are a black man, you best not walk into that trailer park, and if you are a Mexican you better not try to get a job at that construction site, and if you are a skinny white guy who is the only pale face at Gunpowder State Park you just might want to kick yourself in the butt for showing up with the best looking black chick on your arm…

Now, as bad as the situations outlined in the paragraph above seem, they are easily avoidable—for instance I could have dated her ugly sister instead…

The real and relatively unavoidable threat which requires you to be on constant alert like a U.S. Marine in a war zone, is finding yourself in a predation matrix, where there is always the chance that you will suddenly make it onto the menu.

Are you on the menu? If so, are you ala carte, or perhaps just desert?

To find out ask yourself the following questions and imagine how most of the people you come into daily contact with would first respond upon hearing of the crime in question. If you answer ‘yes’ to all of them you are a main dish. If you answer yes to most of them you are ala carte. If those you know would answer yes to some of them, congratulations, you are desert, and provided the entree portion size was large enough your attackers may be satiated before they notice that you come with a nice candy-red glaze…

1. If your ass-kissing coworker leaves his coat in the lunchroom next to the door by the men’s room [that is regularly used by homeless men] and then has his coat stolen, is it at least partially his fault that his coat was stolen? Shouldn’t he have left it in the office or locked it in his locker?

2. If the ugly twerp across the street gets drunk and then walks to the liquor store and pays for his gin with a twenty peeled off of a knot-roll of bills as thick as your fist, then gets jumped by the three criminals who were standing behind him, wasn’t he at least a little responsible for his robbery? I mean, shouldn’t he have just taken a $20 with him? Or should he have just stayed home after getting drunk?

3. If the smoking hot chick across the street who your wife hates for some unfathomable reason leaves her house wearing nothing but a bikini and is groped by the wino that sleeps in the gutter in front or your house because your mother-in-law feeds him pickled eggs at 9:15 AM, is it her fault for being a slut? Really, are you going to agree with your wife here too? Or might it be your bat-shit-crazy mother-in-law’s fault? If you answer yes to any version of this question you are part of the problem—now stop staring at her while you pretend to be concerned for her dignity…

4. If the old retired guy next-door decides to walk his obnoxious ever-yipping lapdog in the alley behind your house, and gets jumped by the junkies that smoke crack back there is it his fault for insisting it’s still the 1950s? Is it the cops’ fault for not policing the alley? Is it your fault for not fire-bombing the alley while the crack-heads are asleep? If you answered yes to any of these versions of the question you are part of the problem, even if you answered yes to the last one, which will get you my vote for next President of the United States.

5. When Jeremy was walking home from work, listening to his headset one Thursday night he was robbed by two larger young men. Was it his fault for not paying attention or my fault for scheduling him to get off after dark? Mind you, every one that I worked over, with, and under, at this 110-person business blamed Jeremy’s mugging either on him, the trusting soul, or on me the heartless slave-driver.

The fact is all of these situations are ones I documented in Baltimore, and everyone concerned, even the victims, answered ‘yes’ to all of the implied questions. This is proof positive that Baltimore is a predation zone; a Hobbesian world where it is considered natural and reasonable to attack anyone who is not vigilant. If we lived in a civilized world, like ancient Lydia, the answers would all be ‘No, it is the fault of the attacker and their hand should be shorn from their right arm.’

Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s more exciting to be a barbarian.

Enjoy the hunt.

James LaFond, 5/18/2012