Lets imagine something, for a moment.

Think of a small country. Now, this country has relied on it’s police force to maintain order within it. They’re trained and equipped for sorting out traffic problems and financial crime. Then, one day, some brigands from a nearby wasteland decide to come by, and find this country to be easy pickings. They come in, pester the women, ruin the infrastructure, damage internal relationships and generally cause a mess.

Now, the police can’t deal with this. They aren’t trained for it, they aren’t paid enough for it. So the government make a difficult choice: they pay for a border force and internal security people to deter and, if necessary, defeat the brigands if they come again.

And come again they do, but with the new people in place, they are sent running in short order. And the new people become better with each encounter, and identify more of the brigand’s allies with each encounter. Eventually, after some months, the brigands see the new people at the border, and decide to stay away. And there is peace in the country, save what trouble the normal population can come up with, and that’s well within the powers of the internal police to control.

And all is good. But, as tends to happen, the population gets complacent. Governments change. And people start wondering why they’re paying for these people on the border and on patrol. I mean, the country is at peace, there should be no need for security forces at all. Of course, there was unpleasantness in the past, but everyone is beyond that now. We don’t need those brutish, mercernary, violent types to look after the place.

See, the people in charge have made a classic mistake. They’ve looked at the situation and have said “the peaceful behaviour of our country is inherent; nobody here would be violent, so no violent people will come here”, when the actual case is “there are people on the walls prepared to be violent, to ensure that, within the walls, there is no violence”.

And so, the border and security forces are cut back, until there are not enough to effectively guard the country. Those that are left, feeling some loyalty, will try their best, but if you have less security than is needed, then Bad Shit will happen, and the remaining security people will feel less than enthused about risking their necks for those that berated them so.

If you didn’t get the subtle references, the place where I do door is cutting back on door staff. To the extent that there are now more doors than door staff. A recipe for success, that one. Luckily, I’ll get some of the shifts, and I hope to get some others at nearby establishments.