Friday, October 14, 2011

The Three Characteristics Necessary for Revolution are Now Present in the United States

Bill Bonner, in an overview of the Occupy Wall Street crowd, writes:

The US is probably getting ready for a revolution. Back in the Cold War days, the CIA was asked to do a portrait of a country that might have a revolution. It decided that such a country would have three characteristics:

A big gap between rich and poor.

A middle class that was disappearing…or one that never existed in the first place.

A lot of people with a grudge.

The US fits each of these criteria. And then some others the spooks hadn’t thought about. The U6 broad measure of unemployment is going up…with 16.5% of the population without work.
Bonner has a point, we are in a pre-revolution stage. The idea is seeping into the minds of more and more, and the crowd at OWS is growing, but too many are still collecting paychecks and can afford to pay their cable bill.

When price-inflation breaks above 10% and the boobsie have to cut back, that's when the frustration will really explode and the masses, or a good chunk of them, may well join the revolution, seeded by today's protesters who are mostly, now, as Bonner observes, a "loose assembly of the jobless, the homeless and the shiftless". Then, the revolution will be in full bloom.

But, and this is the key, no one knows what a revolution will bring. Tyrants often emerge from revolution and domestic upheaval. Think Mao, Hitler and Stalin. The American Revolution, which ushered in decades of freedom, is a rare occurrence.

The chances of a post-revolutionary America being grounded in liberty and a respect for property rights, is likely very slim. The liberty message really needs to get out there, fast.

9 comments:

  1. We don't need all of America to embrace liberty and Austrian Economics - we just need a breakaway state to embrace them. Who says that the United States has to stay intact as a political body?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wait until all those over-medicated Americans can not afford their anti-depressants and start going through withdrawal. Then you are going to see a lot more crazed spree killers out there.

    Then add in the traumatized war veterans and it gets even uglier.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a disaster. Odds are that the government is already planning for this. Martial law is coming & it will be here forever. Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think it's more accurate to label this Second American Revolution as the counter-revolution. The country has changed drastically since it was founded, especially over the last century, and we are now getting to the breaking point and we want our original country back.

    Definitely a great article and very true sentiments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Ken

    Dude, I sympathize, but push your reasoning skills a bit harder. The US cannot tame a rag tag bunch of Muslim hillbillies in Afghanistan who are ill educated, poorly armed and have marginal motivation other than Yankee home go. Contrast with slightly better educated, definitely better armed and highly motivated, pissed suburbanites who can't pay the cable bill (don't forget that some strata of military won't be hep on pulling the trigger on US folk) and the Leviathan collapses. It'll be ugly, but pockets of freedom will out. At least that's what this starry eyed doofus thinks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Who says that the United States has to stay intact as a political body?"

    Lincoln, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Obama.....

    These people own you...If you try to escape, they have no problem with murdering you. Lincoln didn't free the slaves...He enslaved everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Ron Paul campaign and people behind it should use the protest to preach austrian economics by setting up some sort of event. By now I am sure that there have to be thousands of ron paul supporters who are well versed in austrian economics and can go to the OWS protest and educate these people. The most important concept to preach is basic monetary theory, just the simple quantity theory of money will do. It is easy to understand, easy to explain and puts all eyes on the fed. Create a good flyer that explains inflation and how freedom is the crucual ingredient needed to make competition work and how competition spreads superior knowledge through society and bam... you have the key viral ideas spreading. Put one of those many millions ron paul has on this instead of goofy ads about veterans. the RP campaign should be 100% focused on preaching austrian economics. Ron can give a great speech about economics, a lecture... The possibilities are endless. The intellectual revolution can happen in a matter of days. The RP campaign should make an effort to reach Kanye West and all the famous people there who simply havent had the fortune of stumbling upon the austrian school.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's like weimar but with "Two Broke Girls" instead of cabaret.

    ReplyDelete