Consent of the Governed

I think, sometimes, we truly forget what the numbers are with regards to the "authorities" and those they govern. While the idea of "taking on the government" is a daunting one, we must at all times remember the scale of the game theory we are working through.

I was reading this article today on Fox News. Essentially, Washington D.C. is expecting two million (or more) people to descend on the city for the messiah's inauguration. They are fielding 40,000 some-odd "authorities" to keep the peace. Police, National Guard, active U.S. military (is that even legal?)m as well as the typical Federal folks. There will, of course, be plainclothes officers out in the crowd. The article notes, by the way, that 40,000 is more people than we currently have deployed in Afghanistan.

So, assuming for a moment that there are really 40,000 out there, and that two million citizens show up for the coronation...I mean inauguration, we're actually talking about one authority figure trying to control, at the very least, 50 people. Naturally, this assumes that the authorities aren't operating in pairs or in small units. Even with a firearm, and assuming the crowd is unarmed, you just can't control 50 people at once if they don't want to be controlled.

Now, I'm not saying anything is going to happen. I genuinely hope nothing happens. But in the context of the 3%, and changing the scale of the area of operations to the entire United States, just how hard would it be to govern those that do not want to be governed?

Sure, you could swarm a particular area, but that would just allow other patriots in other areas to operate more brazenly.

Just a little food for thought for your weekend.