The Women's News Network Today I was listening to my wife collating local news...

The Women’s News Network

Today I was listening to my wife collating local news with other women about a possible predator and suspicious activity in the neighborhood via the Women’s News Network.

The threat level of a certain case rose to the “get Noah to question the guy” levels. This is not the first time.

The WNN is the unofficial village/neighborhood intelligence agency. Ladies, get out and talk with your neighbors and share information; you are good at it. But leave it to your husbands to take action.

We get “Karens” when women feel forced to play both roles, intel gathering and “security.”. Women, being higher in neuroticism and more suspicious than men, excel at the first category but for the same reason tend to handle the second poorly, often escalating situations that a man would deescalate.

One of the reasons we have so much distrust, crime, and insecurity in the West is that we have tried to replace the local, organic, information and security networks that kept our great-great-grandparents safe with the state and police.

But the police are a blunt instrument and the state is both incompetent and corrupt. In a very narrow set of circumstances, they are the right people to deal with a situation. But in most cases, all that is needed is local, civilian vigilance and social pressure backed up with the clearly implied threat of something more.

In the end, we are responsible for keeping our commons clean, safe, and beautiful.