The most propitious time for a revolution to break out is after things have gone by and large smoothly, including economically, then take a sharp downturn. If this happens here, characterized by severe stagflation possibly worsened by a grave terrorist incident, could we then have a violent revolution?
Well just look at those fools who parked cars on the Golden Gate and threw their keys into the Bay, tying up traffic for hours, while the police (already much hampered in SF) were hesitant to do much about it. Ditto for crazed “protests” on campuses across the country, and in behalf of whom? Hamas sadists of the worst sort!
These protests do peter out, sometimes having caused real property damage, injuries, and so forth. But even more serious riots (think those of summer, 2020) don’t automatically become revolutions, either.
Till people no longer have full bellies in America, which by and large they do right now? (Illegals included…)
You mean Americans may not keep eating more or less to their hearts’ (or stomachs’) content? Yes, I do, given that a massive terror attack making 9/11 look picayune by comparison might indeed occur, tragically so. Could such an event dislocate an already fragile economy, including supply and distribution of food?
No question. Then look out, because beatings, stabbings and worse will become commonplace when many are hungry. Additionally, current divisions and even hatreds won’t mitigate the problem. Nor sufficiently, will beleaguered law enforcement that’s been circumspect since post-George Floyd mayhem convulsed the nation.
Our political elites? Already many don’t trust them, and if the worst occurs, we will then see aimed their way the kinds of insults hurled at King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in 1789. Did Marie then shout out “Let them eat cake?” If she did, she used the word “brioche” in French, but let’s not needlessly split hairs. If food’s lacking, if bellies are growling, how much deference will be shown these political honchos, yes, including types like the Bern, who make believe they’re of the people (while living truly large!)?
Meanwhile, what of the more and more disrespected mainstream media, or significant swaths? It’ll be interesting to see big outfits there execute rapid pirouettes and walk-backs from former positions that once seemed inalterable.
When revolutions occur, how rapidly these turnarounds manifest themselves! Look how fast many Social Democrats donned Nazi arm bands once Hitler became German chancellor (then dictator) in 1933. It didn’t take long and won’t in any future revolution, either. When Jacobins, Bolshies, and yes, Nazis gain power, people talk their lingo, dance their dances, and quickly!
What obviously happens in any real revolution is that things proceed to more and more radical positions or diktats. Moderation and democracy itself perish when such conflagrations move along like wildfire. Disappearing freeway lanes of sorts (as another analogy)? You know it. Better keep edging over…
Given all that, the Beatles were right in a fine song, even if tongue in cheek, to wonder whether you and I really want a revolution at all. The prices paid WILL be great, and omnipresent, horrid violence a given.
And meanwhile, we’re in some ways goofing these days on top of a skittish volcano. You get little sense of that from Mr. Biden and his laughing VP, but anyone with a sense of history knows how dangerous this shaky “Old Regime” has become.
So many warning signs, including national bankruptcy, bring back the etiology of earlier revolutions, such as the French or Russian, sketched and compared in Crane Brinton’s classic “The Anatomy of Revolution.” His points were well taken back then (late ‘30s), and still are.
Of course I hope I’m wrong, but it feels increasingly that we ARE in a pre-revolutionary period, and even on the edge of one. Yet again, it needs to be stressed that these occurrences are never pleasant, except sometimes in their initial, illusory stages. They sweep away far too much and in place, inevitably bring dictators (think Robespierre, then Napoleon in France and in Russia, Lenin and the monstrous Stalin).
Solutions? Well the Beatles in that popular song declared that they were open to those, and so am I; but I doubt any will be forthcoming to stem this increasing, tsunami-like tide.