Amid all the news coverage about violence and revolt in the Middle East, here in America we have also witnessed a wave of protest sweep across Wisconsin, of all places. The state’s new governor, Scott Walker, triggered the outrage by trying to rein in the out-of-control spending in order to address the state’s $3.6 billion shortfall over the next two years.

Governor Walker wants to pass legislation that would significantly reduce the collective bargaining power of unions and force state employees to pay a small percentage of their pensions and their health care premiums. This, of course, has incensed the unions as well as government employees who don’t want to lose any of their benefits.

The Washington Times reported yesterday, “The measure has sparked a high-profile political showdown at the Wisconsin state Capitol, where thousands of union supporters and tea party activists have been bused in to protest against or in favor of it. Schools have been closed as teachers called in sick en masse, and even President Obama has weighed in, describing the proposal as an ‘assault’ on workers’ rights.”

Doctors even volunteered to write fake sick notes as tens of thousands of public employees continued to skip work and schools across the state remained closed for the third consecutive day last week. While teacher strikes are in violation of Wisconsin state law, on Friday a judge denied the Madison School District’s request to force teachers back to work, refusing to classify the work stoppage as an illegal strike.

Republicans have enough votes to pass the bill, but cannot take legislative action without at least one Democrat present. All 14 state senators have left the state, threatening to stay away for weeks to prevent the bill from passing.

Some say the president’s support for the strike has gone too far, as the Democratic National Party and Organizing for America—the president’s own political arm—have helped organize the protests. In 2008, unions spent more than $400 million to help elect the president and other members of his party.

With so much at stake, everyone is doing what seems right in his own eyes. And the result? More division and strife—more competition and selfishness. Given the many serious and sobering problems facing this world, it all seems so petty and childish.

Yet, at the same time, God does say these widespread protests will only get worse—and even lead to rioting in the streets and, ultimately, anarchy. So in that way, Wisconsin is like a tiny foretaste of what’s coming to an American city near you.

If Americans are already swarming the streets to insist on full government-sponsored pension and health care benefits, what will happen when the U.S. economy collapses, or when the cost of food and fuel becomes so expensive that many cannot afford it, or when racial strife and resentment against government entities intensifies?

“The union worker, as well as the capitalist, the executive and all of us, stands today on the very brink of human extinction!” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote many years ago in “What Is Wrong With Organized Labor?” (Plain Truth, April 1985). In that article, he credited America’s organized labor laws for producing the highest standard of living this world has ever seen.

“But conversely, unrealized by most, organized labor has contributed its share to the chaotic state of the world,” Mr. Armstrong added. Labor unions want to get all they can get out of American industry. Capital and management, on the other hand, want to get more out of organized labor.

Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The world forgets—or did it ever know?—that peace, happiness, contentment, joy, are spiritual qualities! There is a basic spiritual law in relentless motion that governs all life! It governs not only these spiritual conditions of well-being, but universal economic prosperity as well! That basic law is, simply, outflowing love!”

Mr. Armstrong explained God’s way of life, very simply, as the way of give. He called its transgression the way of get.

For 6,000 years, ever since God cut off mankind from the tree of life for rebelling against the way of give, human nature has been trying to beat God’s inexorable law. But it is man who is beaten. It is man’s nature that refuses to learn the lesson of the forbidden fruit.

The way of get, Mr. Armstrong concluded, seems to have gotten us all.