The Feral City
- matt58clark
- 26 minutes ago
- 6 min read
By Matthew Clark
Feral- In a wild state, especially after escape from captivity, or domestication. (Oxford Languages Dictionary)
The Feral City-savage, toxic, ungovernable-may be a phenomenon that never takes place, yet indications are that it's emergence in various parts of the world that are already latent threats to the United States. The phrase itself suggests the nature of what may become one of the more difficult security challenge of the new century. (Richard J. Norton, 2003, "Feral Cities," Naval war College Review Volume 56 Number 4 Article 8)
When Richard J. Norton, retired United States Navy commander and graduate of Tulane University and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy wrote "Feral Cities" in 2003 he saw Mogadishu in Somalia as the worlds first modern "Feral City."Norton questioned whether that dystopian city, located in a failed national state (Somalia), might be the harbinger of 'things to come.' Norton's regional area of expertise included Africa and South America. He pondered on the future, speculating whether or not more cities on these continents would evolve, or rather devolve, into the same condition as Mogadishu. His motive for doing so was concern for the prospective security of the United States.
Norton envivioned a future where Feral cities exploded throughout the developing world. Mexico City, San Paulo, Johannesburg, Beirut, could sink into a circumstance worse than feudalism! These cities would become the municipal version of Dante's "Inferno."
"The putative 'Feral City' is (or would be) a metropolis with a population of more than a million people in a state the government of which has lost the ability to maintain the rule of law within the city's boundaries yet remains a functioning actor in the greater international system.
In a Feral City special services are all but non-existant and the vast majority of the city's occupants have no access to even the most basic health, or security assistance. There is no social service net. Human security is for the most part a matter of individual initiative. Yet a Feral City does not descend into complete random chaos. Some elements, be they criminals, armed resistance groups, clans, tribes, or neighbourhood associations, exert various degrees of control over portions of the city. Intercity, state, and even international commercial transactions occur, but corruption, avarice, and violence are their hallmark. A Feral City experiences massive levels of disease, and creates enough pollution to qualify as an international environmental disaster zone. Most Feral Cities would suffer from massive urban hypertrophy covering vast expenses of land. The city's structure range from once great buildings symbolic of state power to the meanest shanty towns and slums. Yet even under these conditions these cities continue to grow, and the majority of occupants do not voluntarily leave." (Richard J. Norton "Feral Cities" 2003)
Norton furthermore saw Feral Cities as breeding grounds for terrorism and other criminal activities which would consume an inordinate amount of American resources trying to suppress their/it's lawlessness. They would be difficult to deal with, particularly since most of these jurisdictions were almost certainly to be located in far off lands.
What would almost certainly surprise Richard J. Norton is that in 2026 there are cities in the U.K., Europe, and North America which are sliding into a 'feral state.' For instance Birmingham, United Kingdom, has a crime rate 156% above the national average, with gang violence and gang control of certain districts within the city. Garbage pickup is irregular. Yet there are some sections of the city possessing an economy integrated into the larger British business structure.
In Europe Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Munich, etc., have numerous "No Go Zones" where the police only venture into these areas with the permission of the local (mostly Moslem) gangs. Many of these cities have suffered through evenings of terror, where organized marrauding young male gang members conduct rape rampages, victimizing the European women who they come across.
In the U.K. and Europe a major development in the trend toward feral status is due to the fact national politicians brought the third world to their city(s). Mass migration has been inflicted on the nativist population, without sufficient resources being directed to the absorbtion of such meagerly talented individuals.
In North America the slide toward Feralism is due to different factors. Although North America has a mass migration problem, to say the least, many of her cities were sliding towards dystopia long before the borders were thrown open. De-industrialization combined with an exodus from city centres has caused major declines in municipal commercial centres and the tax base of cities. This in turn has left a void in political control which lawless groups are only too happy to fill. For example in California countless retailers have abandoned the state after having suffered through gang organized pillaging of their outlets.
A bizarre case of decline which occurred in the U.S. was the 2020 episode in San Francisco when a hotline was established for local inhabitants to report the existance of human feces on the city's streets. On the first day of the hotlines operation it was so inundated with calls that it crashed. The hotline was then cancelled! Anyone in San Francisco who wishes to report human feces must use standard city lines. These calls are dealt with, so the bureaucracy of the city claims, within 48 hours.
Throughout North America city centres have been on a downward spiral for the better part of 50 years, since the great inflation of the 70's and the adoption of "perpetual economic growth." Like a heroin junkie the modern North American city must be in a constant state of expansion or it will die for a lack of revenue. Suburbs mean injections of needed cash into the municipal coffers. They also mean the expansion of future debt as the city government pays to maintain the "new neighbourhoods." This enlarged debt can only be paid by the creation of more suburbs which will create even greater debt down the road. This real estate ponzi scheme has meant, over time, a substantial reduction in municipal services as the onerous bills have come due.
At the best of times maintaining a modern city is a white knuckle delicate balancing act. Just ask any urban planner if you doubt this statement. Electrical power, water, sanitation, health services, education, food security, and many more services must be supplied to thousands upon thousands of homes, and millions of individuals. A modern functioning city is a marvel, yet it is only one major catastrophe away from being "Feral." According to Professor of War In the Modern World David Betz the Western City is about to face another complication. Betz is a transplanted Canadian, a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces who now instructs at Kings College in London, England. Now a British citizen Betz claims that The U.K., France, much of Europe, the United States, and perhaps Canada, are going to experience armed insurgency! This type of 'civil war,' which is Betz area of expertise, will be according to him a dirt war, as occurred in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century, or in Italy during the 70's. Political ineptitude by Western Lawmakers has/will drive the population to violent insurrection. In this circumstance the fragility of the modern city will be too tempting for any good rebel to avoid. This is particularly true since rural residents have suffered much from apathy toward them by national political authorities and government bureaucrats. David Betz sees some evidence that in the U.K. and France insurgency has already started. He predicts many other nations, including America, will experience it beginning approxiametely in the next 5 years
"Betz sketches how this conflict might play out. First, continuing already existing trends, there will be a breakdown in order in increasingly "Feral Cities," which in turn will be heightened by "metasstasizing inter communal violence and consequent internal displacement," with the white British population forced out of the cities, (replace British with the nativist term for any nation in such a struggle), for whom urban areas have been effectively .... lost to foreign occupation." These displaced "indigenes" will then strike back, attacking the critical infrastructure that urban areas rely on-gas, electricity, transportation, and the supply of food. The resulting conflict will, he says, most likely take the form of Latin America, "dirty wars" of the 1970;s and the 1980's, conflicts that lacked big named military operations, being composed of endemic political violence of a relatively systemic nature." (John Merrick, All Betz Are Off, The Ideas Letter, Nov. 13, 2025)
Remeber the term "Feral City." There is a good chance you will it referenced a lot in the near future!
References:
The Ideas Letter, All Betz Are Off, John Merrick, November 13, 2025
Feral Cities, Richard J. Norton, 2003, Naval War College Review Volume 56 Number 4 Article 8
Richard J. Norton,
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