Just heard something interesting about the French Revolution

[RainDog]

22. "We are the 99%" is an excellent meme

That really does reflect the source of problems here.

I don't know about the U.S. and any sort of revolution. We are such a large nation, so dispersed, diverse in our views. But all revolutions happen because of a few, not the many - even the American one.

They always come down to abuse of power or privilege.

Personally, I don't want a political revolution - the process itself harms so many innocents. I would hope that our leaders could draw upon history to see that, for instance, FDR's New Deal prevented so much of the turmoil that Europe experienced - and, in the end, they ended up with the same sort of regulated capitalist/mixed social safety net economy.

I would hope that enough wealthy people in this society would act in their long term best interests to stop the sort of violent upheaval that comes from leaving others with no hope.

We have such different issues facing us now.

The technology revolution has had as much of a impact on the working class as the industrial revolution did - while we have also lived through decades of tax cutting that has really undermined a strong middle class - and when that happens, democracy is threatened - not by "revolutionaries," but by the elite.