I tried to leave a comment, but I couldn't. Seems that there is something going on with Wordpress that you can't leave comments unless you have a Wordpress blog. Or unless you give Wordpress the ability to access your Goggle+, Facebrecch or Twitter data. I have a Wordpress blog, but it's more of a placeholder for when Google's Blogger is cranky (or I get pissed off).
So, if you're read BadTux's entry, this is my comment to it:
What they're hoping for is a sort of revolutionary positive feedback loop, with a cycle of violence and repression that eventually leads to enough people being pissed off at the government to join them. They're thinking of either the Revolutionary War or the Civil War as role models.
Problem there, of course, was that in both wars of rebellion, it was the rich leading the way. It was many of the rich merchants who were losing money because of British tax and trade policies. It was the rich who owned plantations that were worth squat without slaves.
This time around, the 1% is on the side of government. Because they've pretty much bought it from top to bottom.
1 comment:
The problem with their reasoning is that the majority of people *want* violence and repression against the kind of person who would shoot at a cop or blow up a courthouse. Expecting this to turn off the majority is a complete misunderstanding of fundamental human nature. It's sort of like that anti-democracy thing the Libertarians are fond of saying, "democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner." Except it's not -- democracy is 900 sheep and 10 wolves deciding what's for dinner, because there's far more sheep than wolves (it's the fundamental predator-prey ratio, duh). The wolves may not like their diet of grass, but so what? They're not going to convince the sheep that a diet of sheep is preferable to a diet of grass no matter how much they extol the virtues of mutton!
Interesting that you bring up the American Civil War. The reality is that the only people in the South who wanted that war were the wealthy planters. They're the ones who created the secession conventions and had the state legislators they controlled rubber-stamp the conventions and refused to put secession to a popular vote. They're the ones who appointed Jefferson Davis as President (he never won a popular election of the majority of Southerners to be President of the Confederacy). The majority of Southerners never had any desire to secede from the Union, they just wanted to live their lives in peace. But the majority in the South didn't get to make that decision...
Of course, our rich and powerful are anti-government when they want to be -- usually when it comes to taxes and regulations that might hurt their profits. But you're right, they're getting far too much dough from the government teat today to want to mess with that honey pot...
- Badtux the Observant Penguin
Post a Comment