One of the fundamental misconceptions of American history is its inevitability. We turned into a representative democracy that spread across the entire continent.

We have strong ideas about the limited nature of government and the rights of individual citizens and communities to be self-determined.

It didn't have to happen that way.

If an actual catastrophe on the scale depicted in "Jericho" broke this nation, ugly forces would be released. What would come after would likely not be a free society!

I have to add that part of the reason material of this nature is appealing to some lies with the fact that many people secretly fantasize about these kinds of scenarios (I would go so far to add the near religious reverance for the events of 9-11) because they offer up the opportunity for something "real" beyond the banal, manufactured existance we mostly inhabit in 21st Century America. The fantasy of a break from the day-to-day bullshit, so to speak.