By now, you’ve probably overdosed on pundit prescriptions for relief from the riot.

And is there anyone among us who has not yet posted his or hers heartfelt comments out loud, online, on plywood, on Post-its, on police cars?

If democracy is all about freedom of expression, then our democracy is safe, as all 2.5 million residents of Greater Vancouver, it seems, have freely expressed themselves.

So what can I possibly add? Well, how about this: It will never be the same. We just got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

We had it all: The world’s most livable city. Lululemon Land. But then, from within our midst, rose a kind of preening terrorist who did his best to spoil it for everyone else in order to wallow in his badass rep for 15 minutes of social-media-inspired notoriety. It worked beyond his wildest dreams. I say “his” because I didn’t see any women kicking in store windows or standing on top of burning cars braying with intoxicated, testosterone-fuelled bravado.

Although I did see quite a few laughing and taking smartphone photos of their heroes as they acted out their barbarian fantasies with no concern for the consequences or the damage done.

I’ve heard them called many things: But know them for what they are – terrorists. They pose triumphantly amidst the destruction, and it’s only because of luck and the much-maligned Vancouver police that there wasn’t more of it.

These people are just as rootless, pointless and lost as the dangerous fools who answer the call to jihad and other notions of mass destruction. It doesn’t matter that they were born and fostered in paradise. They can find the flimsy excuses to stoke their anger and justify their crimes anywhere, regardless of the banquet of opportunities laid on their table.

I’ll leave the psychology to others. I need a little time to accept that they lifted the lid on the Apocalypse and gave us here in Vancouver a little peek.

So that’s what it looks like.

It’s now impossible to deny that it can happen here, too, where, even if it looks pretty, the layer of civilization is just about an inch deep. Nowhere is safe. Just ask the people in Bosnia.

So I don’t have any quick prescriptions. Take these words and you’ll feel better in the morning? No, you won’t and you know it – it will never be the same. Every time you walk by the Bay or any of those other shiny symbols of peace and prosperity, how will you be able to think about them as anything other than targets?

What else can I say? How about this: It was nice while it lasted?