Thursday, November 17, 2011

Has Occupy Wall Street opened up a new beginngin for the US?

 https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/15-8

"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."

I didn't know much about Christopher Hedges before OWS, but I like him.  He sees that OWS is the start of the regular folks gearing up to change the collapsing system we now have.  It has failed us. It is broken. It is not offering any way out of the mess it itself brought us.  So here we go!

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