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.
The English throne had been occupied by the French since 1066. Although, really, the Normans were Norsemen and therefore a bit closer to the Teutons than the old Franks. English being a Germanic language (not a Romance language) one might argue that George I was not an inappropriate choice.
Here’s a slightly different perspective.....an “attitude study” was made by historians of the opinions of the American populace just prior to the American Revolution. IIRC, at that time ~1/3 were actively for revolution, ~1/3 were diehard crown loyalists, and the rest didn’t care one way or the other. A figure of 29% who “expect a revolution” is awful close to 33%. Perhaps our “masters” should think about that for a minute (or longer).
Exactly right. The Public indoctrination has polluted the minds of the young.
Quite a few young people I know have rabid hatred for anything Conservative. They will be the sheep to do the left's bidding.
There will be no planned "initiation" of any type of rebellion. It would be put down with incredible violence -- by the Statists in D.C.
I believe Liberty will have a "chance" to flower once again in our Republic.
It will come about by the opportunity afforded by some pivotal event ( I believe economic collapse based)
That event will allow the Several States to act quickly to nullify and dispose of the unconstitutional aspects of our current Federal government. Of course, it's a long shot because at the State level we would need leaders with a Warrior Mindset (as opposed to a bureaucratic/legislative mindset)
The Warrior aspect is not necessarily of the battlefield, but of the mindset to move fearlessly to fire and remove the bulk of the Federal parasite class.
We can never legislate ourselves back towards Limited government.
Civil wars usually don’t end well, either. History has more Stalins and Robespierres than George Washingtons.
One man’s opinion. Nothing more.
“1688 was rather glorious”
Unless you were either Scottish or Catholic.
29%?????
That’s about the % that started and won the 1st revolution. Our only difficulty is in finding men of the caliber of Geo Washington and the other Founders....
Obama and the criminal Dems are pushing that % up with each and every scandal being revealed each day.
Down the Donks!
And Normandy has been big today, being today was the aniversary of the Normandy invasion.
Just one person’s opinion.
Reads like another frustrated lunatic libertarian who can’t understand why guillotines aren’t rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Revolutions aren’t something that comes out of Cracker Jack box. It took the founders 25 years - from 1750 to 1775 - to organize and find leadership before taking on King George.
His reading of the current situation and the people on both sides are borderline goofy, IMO. He took a shot at the barn wall and missed.
That’s because definitionally speaking, ours was not a “revolution” it was a “war of secession.” A “revolution” is a war to overthrow a government. The Founders had no desire to dethrone the king, they just wanted to no longer be part of his kingdom.
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