While the United States looks like it is in the precarious Stage 5 of the cycle, it also has the longest-lasting and most widely admired internal order (its constitutional system). As explained in Chapter 5, this makes it less likely that it will be abandoned, but more traumatic if it is. The most reliable signs of an escalation to civil war are 1) the rules being disregarded, 2) both sides emotionally attacking each other, and 3) blood being spilled. While Stage 6 is the most dysfunctional and harmful stage, increasing amounts of dysfunction happen in the stages leading up to it. These sorts
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