A couple of people have advised me that if I'm really committed to revolution, I ought to organize my own Che Guevara brigade. Or something.
It's not like that. It's not that I'm committed. It's more like, I've studied history (a lot) and I know it's inevitable.
So the first question is, "What will it be like." To answer that, you need to look at the successful revolutions that have occurred since the end of WWII: The Indian independence movement; the black liberation movement in the U.S.; the so-called "Velvet Revolution" that brought down the old Soviet Union, the Soviet Empire, and all the large and small countries of the Eastern Bloc ("Iron Curtain" countries).
The first thing you'll notice is that they were all non-violent. If they had been violent, they would not have succeeded. Revolutionary violence against physically superior force is suicidal.
Secondly, they were all mass movements involving hundreds of thousands of people who contributed large, medium, and small revolutionary acts, mostly acts of non-cooperation or nonviolent defiance (civil disobedience). For the revolution to succeed, thousands of ordinary people have to be willing to take an ass kicking and some time in jail, or worse.
So forget the cliche involving small cadres of dedicated, violent, heavily-armed revolutionaries with their camouflage gear and boring rhetoric. Those people are mostly just criminals looking for some cred anyway.
Next question: When? Answer: Soon.
The economic meltdown this country is experienced in 2007-08 was worse than they're telling us, and worse than you think. Even now, 8 years on, the meltdown of the late zeroes is still unwinding. If you want to know just how bad it is, read Jim Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation blog any Monday morning.
It's not like that. It's not that I'm committed. It's more like, I've studied history (a lot) and I know it's inevitable.
So the first question is, "What will it be like." To answer that, you need to look at the successful revolutions that have occurred since the end of WWII: The Indian independence movement; the black liberation movement in the U.S.; the so-called "Velvet Revolution" that brought down the old Soviet Union, the Soviet Empire, and all the large and small countries of the Eastern Bloc ("Iron Curtain" countries).
The first thing you'll notice is that they were all non-violent. If they had been violent, they would not have succeeded. Revolutionary violence against physically superior force is suicidal.
Secondly, they were all mass movements involving hundreds of thousands of people who contributed large, medium, and small revolutionary acts, mostly acts of non-cooperation or nonviolent defiance (civil disobedience). For the revolution to succeed, thousands of ordinary people have to be willing to take an ass kicking and some time in jail, or worse.
So forget the cliche involving small cadres of dedicated, violent, heavily-armed revolutionaries with their camouflage gear and boring rhetoric. Those people are mostly just criminals looking for some cred anyway.
Next question: When? Answer: Soon.
The economic meltdown this country is experienced in 2007-08 was worse than they're telling us, and worse than you think. Even now, 8 years on, the meltdown of the late zeroes is still unwinding. If you want to know just how bad it is, read Jim Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation blog any Monday morning.
For those of you whose nervous systems are a bit too delicate to handle Kunstler -- and there are a few like that here -- I'll give you a thumbnail: Americans are going to go apeshit the moment they're unable to get in their cars and drive.
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