Has The Revolution Finally Arrived?
“They only call it “class warfare” when we fight back.”
— Anonymous
"When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich".
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The phrase “eat the rich” is said to have become popular during The French Revolution.
We just re-watched a 2014 episode of Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ series where he travels to Russia. Not much seems to have changed in the past decade. Bourdain also makes reference to Putin as a “shorter” Donald Trump. Good prediction. It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump watched this episode and took notes. There’s a lot of material out there that is educational, and well intentioned, that also seems like an unsettlingly good playbook for wannabe dictators.
The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brain Thompson is shocking. Although, Trump said he could shoot someone and get away with it.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" (Donald Trump, 2016)
Trump has weaseled his way into convincing [some] people that if they were to rise up and “eat the rich” he would somehow be on the side of The People… and not the elites.
In the Bourdain goes to Russia episode mentioned above, they got into some of Russian history which sounds a whole lot like today’s situation in the U.S. 1917 sounds a whole lot like 2014 which sounds even more like 2024. Wealth has been consolidated at the very top for a long time. A powder keg. But we’ve gone through, dare I say, an “impressive” number of hard times and economic downturns without people deciding enough is enough and it’s time for a revolution.
On “The West Wing” tv show, there’s a memorable discussion between two speech writers about using Mao’s language of a “permanent revolution”. The great line calls attention to the fact that if you say it people “might, you know, expect one.”
What Does It Take To Start a Revolution?
It’s not Occupy Wall Street.
I found the Occupy movement very… eyeroll-y… it was so disorganized and activists could not agree on messaging.
I looked back and was surprised to see that Occupy started in September 2011. My fallible memory thought it started soon after the financial collapse in 2007/2008. (I always consider the Bear Sterns collapse the beginning…maybe a personal bias because that’s when it became clear to me that something was terribly wrong.)
Black Lives Matter (BLM) was a much better movement. The messaging was clear and the reasons were evident.
The Fight for $15 also had clarity, plus $15 was a reasonable amount… though it wasn’t going to work in certain places (like West Virginia where I was living at the time) because that would mean doubling the pay of vast numbers of workers who were receiving federal minimum wage. If you look up real wages… you’ll discover that $15 is actually still puts a person below the poverty line in many places.
Whatever you may think about the movement in hindsight, #MeToo was effective. It was also necessary. Men needed a wake-up call. The movement put the fear in men. And that was the point.
When Will The Revolution Finally Arrive?
We just saw how the “lightning” initiative taken by Syrian rebels to overthrow a 50+ year reign by the Assad regime. So, that’s one way.
This isn’t the sort of Revolution I would be seeking.
I don’t think we need to be putting heads on spikes or anything like that either. Seriously. Can we be more civil in the 2020s than in the 1910s?
I’m not a totally nonviolent person… and yet I’m not loving the glee (carefully chosen word) that I’m seeing in response to a person being murdered.
Did Brian Johnson deserve to die? No, I don’t think so. This is not the kind of justice that Americans claim to stand for. As a people, we are increasingly against the death penalty. Notably, I personally am not 100% against the death penalty and that puts me in a minority position. A major issue with the death penalty is that we (the United States) has a truly terrible track record of executing the wrong person, or otherwise innocent people. The system is broken. And because the system is broken we should likely lose our “right” to take lives. A lot of people will say the government should not be in the business of executing people anyhow. They have a good argument. Government sanctioned executions are also extremely expensive. So, too, is keeping people on Death Row. Life in prison without parole is expensive but it’s still less expensive than the alternatives. We also lack a humane way to kill people. In all seriousness, given current options, the quickest and least painful approach would probably be a firing squad.
I don’t enjoy thinking about executions, to be clear. It’s not comfortable terrain. And it shouldn’t be. But I’m talking about it because everyone is a little too amped about Brian Thompson being gunned down. I’m not saying he didn’t have figurative blood on his hands… but, again, this isn’t how we’ve agreed things should be handled in this country. Our ethical and moral codes have blurred. Some of this is Donald Trump’s fault.
We have so many systemic issues in our country. There are no easy fixes. People who say otherwise are not being pragmatic. In the same breath, there are things we could change rapidly if we wanted to. There are lots of bills and reports and studies that have been put in the metaphorical “drawer” because of gridlock and divisiveness in government.
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What are your thoughts?
Do you want to see a real revolution in the U.S.? What would it look like? How would it happen?
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The major reason to oppose the death penalty (and there are many) is that it is used to enforce a racial hierarchy, providing a way to drive wedges into the black family, as was also done in slavery, and to keep black men particularly from becoming a major part of the power structure. Just because they aren't being lynched outright doesn't mean the same thing isn't happening behind bars.
The Trumpian revolution is actually a regression to Jim Crow politics in the U.S., this time with the help of a burgeoning private prison structure, which will also be used to punish political prisoners and turn immigrants and their children into slaves, though as it was, as migrants, many were already close to being slaves.
I don't know. I don't know what to think yet. Is that wrong of me? I feel like I'm in an experiment. A new country has been formed. One I didn't have a say in. And I'm just sort of watching to see how it gets set up and how things work before I know what to do...is that weird?