Sad to see the same idiotic mistakes made over and over and over ...
1. PJ O'Rourke will likely be reporting, in a few years, on the famine that overtakes Zimbabwe when the 'squatters' seize these lands and fail to raise enough food for the nation.
2. Farmers will be asking themselves why they neglected to buy quality firearms and ammunition when they could, and / or why they obeyed government orders to disarm.
3. Communists will cynically fool another population into believing that communal ownership will deliver the promised land. Instead, it will simply turn an impoverished country into a complete basket case.
4. The UN and / or the US will be providing food for another nation that drags itself into the economic black hole of communism / socialism. We will also disarm anyone left armed, assure everyone of their safety, and then wring our hands when disarmed, honest human beings are massacred by violent human animals.
Pessimistic? I don't think so ... just tired of seeing the same 'history' replayed with so little recognition of its near-inevitability.
I feel for these farmers. When you live in an apartment, packing up and moving seems a reasonable option. When you've built civilization and a business out of raw land over decades, I'm sure that combat seems the better choice. I hope wiser heads prevail, and further violence can be averted.
Damn shame.
