Posted on 06/06/2013 11:37:05 AM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi
According to Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind survey, 29% of US citizens polled say they believe that “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.” Of the five potential responses to this question—“agree, disagree, neither, unsure, no answer”—only 47% of those polled (31% of Republicans) overtly disagree with the statement.
Looking at current cultural indicators, it seems more surprising that so few people harbor revolutionary sentiments.
Our ruling caste rivals the ancient Roman emperors for personal decadence and corruption. An official from the FBI says corruption is America’s leading problem. Americans have little faith in important national institutions: Congress, the healthcare system, the financial system, the schools, the criminal-justice system, big business, and the media. Other than the military, and to a lesser extent the police, all major national institutions are widely loathed.
The government and various unaccountable NGOs are actively subverting the borders while citizens wallow in 14% U6 unemployment rates. Our economic elites tell us that immigrants are necessary for economic growth, but for 90% of the population, economic growth has remained stagnant or gone backwards since 1970. The egregious lies and omissions of our mass-media politburo are so bad, Larry King has gone to work for Pravda. The IRS harasses conservative political groups with impunity. The government spies on its citizens. The government drives tanks and flies military helicopters around our major cities in response to the towering threat of two Crock-Pot-wielding foreigners who were settled here and subsidized by the government in the first place.
Almost 0.75% of the US population is in prison at any given moment—the highest rate in the world. A consequence of this is that 9% of American men will go to prison in their lifetimes. One in four Americans has some kind of criminal record. American men have a 52% chance of being arrested in their lifetimes.
On the family front, overzealous CPS workers and police in California recently took a five-month-old infant away from his parents for seeking a second opinion over a life-threatening surgery. California CPS workers didn’t mind when a lesbian couple began giving their 8-year-old boy a sex change. Thanks to our financial elites, manufacturing output has fallen into a bottomless abyss, except for ammunition makers, who can’t make enough to feed both the government and nervous citizens.
The situation appears grim, but the question presents itself: Which Americans are going to lead an armed revolt against the present regime? There are none. While people may be unhappy at the state of things, there is no political vanguard with ideas or organizational skills. Demographics are also not friendly to the potential revolution. Revolutions are largely fought by young men. While there are occasional signs of independent-minded youth, the exceptional among them are either rotting in jail, working on their startup ideas, or going expat. The average among them are drugged, cowed, atomized from their communities, and presently useless to themselves and others.
Veteran Marine and libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh is the most prominent American right-wing figure currently making actual revolutionary noises. After spending a few nights in jail, he changed his mind about his peaceful march on Washington with loaded rifles and is now calling for an “open source” demonstration in all 50 state capitals. In other words, he is a loon who has no idea how to organize a movement against looming tyranny any more than the incompetent grubbinses at Occupy Wall Street did.
Modern governments are good at pacifying their citizens. The present system uses plenty of old-fashioned Soviet-style repression, jailing large fractions of the populace pour encourager les autres, depriving thought criminals of their livelihood, and overtly controlling the sparse mass media that remains. They also use the old British imperial techniques of pacifying restive populations with pornography, social atomization, importing workers to pit against the native populace, psychoactive drugs, and cheap entertainment. While the people are obviously not content, they are pacified, and for the system to continue on its present trajectory, that is enough. The Ottoman Empire wasn’t terribly popular, either, and it lasted 400 years.
In the US, most people wouldn’t put themselves through the most trivial inconvenience for any reason. Which militia group would feed, house, or protect their fellow citizens in an actual crisis? Will Paultards give a disgraced comrade a job to support himself and his family, or will they leave him to starve on the “free market?” How many conservative apparatchiks or blog apes have a dozen or a hundred allies he can depend on in a fistfight, let alone a revolution against the most powerful government in human history?
Keyboard and barroom revolutionaries are plentiful. The actual requirement for any sort of revolution in the country is a Hezbollah or Golden Dawn type movement: a group that provides government services without being the government. The closest thing we have to a political vanguard in the US at present is the group bringing the blessings of gender-neutral restrooms to the republic. Even if you believe in that sort of thing, it is hardly a threat to the powers that be.
A revolution against the government is the sheerest fantasy, no matter how well-armed the citizenry is. Since the most trusted institution in America at present is the military, if nuts such as Kokesh, OWS, or the glory-hole patrol began causing real problems, the most likely outcome will be martial law such as we recently saw in Boston.
If there is to be a revolt against the present system, it will come from trained experts. The only experts we have are in veterans’ groups. The American Legion, for example, used to be a serious political force that people feared, and with good reason. The Department of Homeland Security agrees: Veterans are being watched as potential domestic insurgents. I think the American Legion is as likely to bring about meaningful change as they are to pilot a Winnebago to Jupiter, but if I were a would-be revolutionary rather than a would-be expatriate, that is where I would target my efforts.
Meanwhile, political discontents should put away their revolutionary fantasies and join a local civic group. Befriending local Rotary Club members is more likely to be useful during a civil war than a stockpile of grain and ammo.
During a revolution, everyone will be conservative if they want to live.
The 47% appears again. Can we replace "some of the people, all of the time" with "47% of the people, all of the time"?
“All members of the Left have to die or trends will repeat. “
And I volunteer...no...beg...to operate the guillotine.
Now that's a hoot!
Yeah, that Kokesh part was ridiculous and jeopardizes the credibility of the article on the whole.
Revolutions rarely end well, ours being the sole exception, so far.
1688 was rather glorious
They will be hidden from the blade and there lies the problem of not avoiding a repeat.
I wonder what the percentages would have been if the responders believed they guaranteed that their response could not be used against them.
People need to be very careful what they post on the internet. Frankly, I think a lot more careful than a lot of us are being...
For the low information voters reading this, that was the first American revolution...against Great Britain.
5.56mm
It’s more a second civil war, we already had a revolution. A civil war over indentured debt slavery of our kids.
http://www.futurnamics.com/civilwar.php
Saw a promo for a tv program about the fact that 10% of Presidents have been assassinated.
Technically, the American Civil War wasn't a civil war in the true sense. A civil war is two competiting factions fighting for control of an entire existing nation. For example, The Red Army vs. The White Army during the Russian Civil War or the Communists vs. the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. The Condederates during the American Civil War didn't want to control all of the United States. Instead, they just wanted to be able to secede to form their own nation.
Problem is, 1/3 of us will be having a revolution against corrupt, tyrannical Washington politicians, and another 1/3 will be staging their revolution against capitalists, CEO’s and bankers.
A list needs to be started now.
The young in this country and europe have nothing to gain by propping up the current order. They will be the ones to revolt, but only after a while, when it becomes obvious they have nothing to gain keeping the current order.
But a mistake that brought a German occupation of the English throne.
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