This is what happens to people in the twilight of their lives who discover that what they have worked for their entire lives was for naught. They get crazy and violent, hoping that with their dying gasp they can save what they dedicated their lives to.
These are all old, revolutionary hippies who defined themselves by their ability to successfully build a neo-Marxist, counter-culture nation in the USA.
They thought they had won, and they had good reason to believe this.
But now they feel it all slipping away. Now WE are the counter-culture, we are winning, and they have already lost.
So now they are desperate to redeem their sorry existences before darkness falls on their lives.
That's why they are so batshit crazy.