Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, Dance Party 11/16/11
It's all about the dancing now.
It's all about the dancing now.
From a few days ago:
The historian Crane Brinton in his book “Anatomy of a Revolution” laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis. Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.
You have to hand it to them; they're following the playbook perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThat's what's kind of surprising-disturbing. You'd think they would have learned by now...
ReplyDeleteBut then, like the Bourbons, they learn nothing and they forget nothing.
I keep thinking they might actually figure this out and oh, I don't know, bargain.
But it's too late for that now.