> William J. Bernstein, a neurologist and the author of The Delusions of Crowds, a book about the consequences of mass hysteria in history, expects the waves of political violence to eventually stop — but ...

A very good article, though obviously there are a lot of uncertainties.

Though - what does it say about the fields of Psychology and Sociology these days, that Politico picked a neurologist to be their expert?

"And unfortunately, a big part of that is institutional. I mean, what does it say when you commit violent crimes en masse and then the president of the United States pardons you? It basically tells people, “Yeah, you’ve got a free pass the next time.”"

The social contract is that there is some system of law and order which approximates justice and peace. When the party of law and order instead uses it selectively to further their agenda, what are the people to do?

Twin studies problem: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/looking-in-the-cultu...

The End of Violence: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/454978/the-end-of-violence-b...

This is a nash equilibrium situation. When only one side largely commits the violence, they gain big political advantages. Eventually, the other side joins in. the result is a bad situation but the amount of violence is what leads to a compromise, the fear of returning to that violence is the new social contract. Eventually, people who remember that cycle die out, and new people repeat

Are there good assessments of Italy's "Years of Lead" (1) and lessons to learn from them?

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy)

Mobs attacking the seat of government tends to be considered a Bad Thing. So yeah, calling it a criminal act is appropriate. But, as in Shogun, “unless you win”. Then it’s not criminal it’s revolutionary.