In order for a society to function properly and for its inhabitants to feel safe, there must exist a culture of order.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, America experienced a string of politically-motivated anarchistic attacks. Perhaps most notably, President William McKinley’s assassination by a disturbed anarchist in Buffalo, New York in 1901. Even this event – the cold blooded murder of a popular, twice-elected president – is but a minuscule tidbit of Snapple-fact trivia to the average American.
Even less remembered, still, was the Wall Street Bombing of 1920. On Thursday, September 16, thirty unsuspecting New Yorkers were killed in broad daylight by an explosive planted in a horse-drawn cart. Hundreds more were badly wounded and more died subsequently. What ensued was pandemonium and confusion in the streets of the city.
While there is, to this day, ambiguity surrounding the motives and perpetrators of the bombing, it is widely believed to have been carried out some rogue anarchists.
Mad men have always existed, but they pose the biggest threat when public order and societal norms are diminished. We must remember these cases and learn from them. God rest the innocent souls that died that day. We remember you.